Keeping Warm and Cute: Blueberry Pie with Spelt Crust

I had the biggest urge to bake a pie. Seriously, it was intense.  But last time I tried making a pie (which I somehow forgot to blog about, my apologies), it did not come out very pie-like.  It looked more like a cobbler, but was still delicious.

Arrowhead Mills Spelt Flour

The crust recipe comes courtesy of the About.com page about Scandinavian baking, which was so simple, I figured, why not give it a shot?

Lauren whisking the flour with the butter

I did not feel like making two pie crusts, so I halved the recipe.  My friend, Lauren, brought a stick of butter, of which we used 2/3 of cup of to make the dough, which looked like this:

My little ball of dough: pie is magic

While the ball of dough was refrigerating, we decided to make the filling, which consisted of frozen strawberries, frozen blackberries, frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, agave nectar, and arrowroot.  In hindsight, I should have used MORE arrowroot for more gelatinization.

I used the Blackberry Cobbler filling recipe from Babycakes NYC

After half an hour, it was time to roll out the dough!  I am legitimately amazed that show much dough arose from just a cup of spelt flour, but food can be made of magic like that (not really, it's more the proteins in the spelt that cause that, but hey, magic sounds better).

Rolling out the dough!

We spooned the pie filling in the pie and poked three holes so that vapor and whatnot have somewhere to go and my pie didn't explode int he oven.  We had a ton of leftover dough, so Lauren and I decided to be creative.

Two friends worshiping Death?  I dunno what we were going for.

So after thirty to forty minute, our pie was ready!  And leaky.  Due to the lack of gelatinization.  But that just made the whole Death-worship thing that much more legit.

THIS PIE HAS COME FOR YOUR SOULS

You know how the filling was funny?  I think we forgot to have the pie set a bit, so serving it was a huge mess.  But, whatever, it was delicious and satisfied my pie desires.

Mmmm, pie.

The fashion was definitely inspired by the colors of the pie filling and the fact that it was deathly cold outside. So how do you keep warm?

Sweater (Free People), Skirt (H&M), yoga pants (Lululemon), collared shirt (Cooperative), and hat (knit by Indigo Hare)

Layers.  Like ogres and onions.  Since that day I had a presentation to give, I wanted to dress well.  But it was also in the single digits Fahrenheit, so I had to be smart about how I looked.  The fact that I had to bike a mile round trip between classes did not help either.  I put the sweater over the collared shirt, which kept my core nice and warm.  The yoga pants are so much thicker than regular leggings and have more structure, rendering them appropriate even if I did not have a skirt on.  And of course, I wore my warmest jacket with a circle-scarf wrapped three times around my neck to keep my face warm.

On Thursday, we continue the saga of I Can't Follow Recipes with an awesome recipe for vegan enchiladas and a super-edgy coordinated outfit to go!

Keep it yummy,
Jo

I Can't Follow Recipes: Turkey, Quinoa, and Green Snap Pea Salad

Before I left to come back to campus, my parents decided to roast a turkey. The turkey was delicious but there were more leftovers than two people (my parents) could eat before it goes bad, so they gave me some.  It made eating the actual day I got back a whole lot easier, but then for dinner, I wanted to be creative, but did not have the energy to follow the exact recipe.  So I heavily modified the Chicken Quinoa Salad from Jane Hornby's Fresh and Easy book.

Quinoa, vegetable broth, frozen snap peas, an onion, turkey (in aluminum foil), agave nectar, lime juice, thyme, garlic paste, salt.

I  love cooking quinoa in vegetable broth.  I, for some reason, prefer the taste of vegetable broth, mostly because it isn't as salty to me.  But first, we had to cook some onions and garlic for the most aromatic of flavors.

Onions caramelizing (by onions, I mean, half an onion)

Cooking quinoa in vegetable broth.

My dressing before mixing: olive oil, lime juice, agave nectar.   YUM.

I'm starting to learn that I am becoming a big fan of self-made, oil-based dressing for salads and the such.  It's lighter, full of omega-3's, and does not take away from the dish itself.  Most of the reason why I have an aversion to Chicken Caesar salad now is how gross the dressing tastes to me.

Threw in some snap peas.

A dish, to me, always has to include some kind of vegetable.  I don't know how I made it through my childhood eating not too many vegetables.  Snap peas live up to their name by giving a nice change in texture to the grainy quinoa and soft onions.

"I've watched enough Food Network to know what good plating is" - Matt

I mixed the dressing and then added it to my dish.  I then elegantly layered the turkey on top of it, which soon turned into a mash-up of all components that got ferried into mouth with a fork.  It was so delicious though, I can't even begin.  Not reheating the turkey added a great textural difference, though I'm sure it tastes awesome with some freshly roasted meat.

Onto the fashion.  It was around 0 degrees F at the time this meal was being made.  And the entire week following.  I'm so happy I got a bunch of sweaters for Christmas and located my fingerless gloves that turn into mittens that keep my thumbs warm.  I went with this sweater to mimic the brightness of the snap peas and the brass tones in the necklace match the quinoa.  I wore thigh-high socks under my pants and combat boots make pretty awesome snow shoes.

Sweater (thrifted), pants (BDG), boots (Doc Marten's), gloves (urban outfitters), and necklace (bought at BronyCon) 

I like working with leftovers.  It makes the most of your food and prevents over-eating, which is a win-win.

Keep it yummy,
Jo