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

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

'Twas the day after Christmas, and on the internet...just kidding, I went shopping today after having a very enjoyable Christmas Eve and Christmas.  I was so hungry, that I legitimately forgot to take pictures.  In addition, it'd be strange to do with my surrogate grandfather and uncle there.  So I took some selfies and a picture of my gifts.

Shirt: Azul, Skirt: Silence & Noise

Look at me, I did my makeup.  You can't tell though because bangs. Collar: American Eagle

Top Row: Sweater, Free People; Sweatshirt, Abercrombie & Fitch; bath & body stuff; pants, Free People (navy); sweat pants, Abercrombie & Fitch (red)
Middle Row: ASUS laptop; pumps
Bottom Row: slippers, Macy's; sweater, Anthropologie; polka dot shirt, BDG; blazer, H&M

I love all the gifts I received, but my favorite has to be the computer.  It is so beautifully efficient and I am actually a big fan of Windows 8.  I am typing on it right now!  Part of the package I wanted to give myself was an updated iPod, with songs I never listen to deleted and new music downloaded.  It is just the way I want it and I could not be happier.

For food, I eat the same dishes for Christmas every year.  In Polish tradition, fish is eaten for dinner on Christmas Eve, Wigilia, when most of the immediate family gather.  We had four different types of herring, a broiled lake fish, barszcz, pierogi, vegetarian bigos, eel, and smoked salmon.  In some houses, they make as many as 12 different fish dishes, but we don't have the space or means to.  I got to enjoy some South African white wine with my eel, bigos, and fish; the meal was delicious and gluten-free.  The whole pescatarian Christmas feast stems from Catholic religious tradition, where eating meat is undesirable on the eve's of major holidays.  In my family, we always offer coffee and tea with the desserts platter.  For me, there was my mother's flourless cheesecake and we also bought chocolate mousse cake from Eataly, this Italian masterpiece of a grocery store.

Then Christmas day, my aunt came over for some roast ham, potatoes, South African red wine, meat bigos, and leftover smoked salmon.  It was a pretty relaxed day.  I hope you guys had relaxing Christmases/holidays as well!

Keep it yummy,
Jo