food

The Ugliest Pie in the World

August 23, 2017 by Lisa 1 Comment

What is quite possibly the ugliest, toughest pie in the world was just pulled out of my oven. I have these grandiose dreams that I can walk into my kitchen like Mary Berry, Martha Stewart, or anyone on Food TV, and bake a beautiful pie. It’s quite obvious that I am delusional and those people have master French pastry chefs whose middle name is “flaky crust” working behind the scenes.

Between now and November 22, I am practicing to become an expert in all things pie for #FoodChat. Pie evokes so many feelings and is my favorite dessert. As I wrote previously, I have never made a true from scratch pie. I’ve always used a store-bought pie crust and I can’t very well chat about pie unless I KNOW all things pie.

Why is fat so important in pie crust?

When you work the fat into the flour, you’re coating the flour’s gluten in fat. Fat coated gluten is tasty and tender, not like chewing on rawhide. Some of the fat is left in larger pieces, which separates the layers of flour and water and when baked, the layers stay separate. Ahh…. flakiness.

via GIPHY

Flaky and tender is not what I achieved. What I made was WRONG.

What I wanted was for my crust to be as tender and flaky and perfect as this hamster wrapped in a blanket eating his carrot.

via GIPHY

What I made was a cat fighting an alligator. Believe me, that’s tough.

via GIPHY

I mixed my crust last night and it appeared to have the right amount of butter dispersement. Today I learned that those appearances are deceptive. After a night tightly wrapped in the fridge, it appeared to be somewhat dry and was falling apart. Needless to say, it didn’t roll out well in its chilled state. That should have been my first clue.

Blind-baking also didn’t help. My crust slid down the sides of my pie dish and I obviously didn’t blind bake long enough. The outside of the bottom was tough as nails, while the part touching my custard was soggy. What’s worse than a tough, chewy crust? A soggy bottom.

via GIPHY

So after dealing with shoe leather crust and a soggy bottom that was hard and tough on the outside, what is a gal to do?

Back to the drawing board

I’m going to read some more, reach out to my pie expert friends and try another crust later this week. I’d much rather just give my money to Mr. Pillsbury and his friends than suffer the glaring disappointment of bad crust. But it won’t be great crust. And I want to make a pie crust so tender and flaky that everyone eats my pies just for the crust. Which is why I eat pie — for the crust.

Before I forget, I bet you wondering how the filling turned out. I tested a pumpkin custard and it was delicious. At least I can scrape the filling off of the crust and serve it over gingersnaps for dessert.

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For the Love of Pie — A Baking Confession

August 17, 2017 by Lisa 2 Comments

There’s nothing like warm pie straight from the oven. My husband I and I seek out spots to grab coffee and share a slice — we usually find these places in old, off-the-beaten-path diners that have been around for generations.

My favorite everyday pie is my Grandmother’s blackberry, made with her tender, flaky crust and berries she picked fresh that day, or pulled from her freezer during the winter months. Her pumpkin pies are something truly special. You’ll never taste a better pie, made with fresh pumpkin and her own special blend of spices. In fact, the first time I was presented with a canned pumpkin pie, I was horrified. I was away from home for Thanksgiving and called her to ask if she’d make me my own pie for when I came home. There are many things that qualify as pie, mixes from a can do not.

That’s where my love stops.

For the Love of Pie — A Confession

Here’s my confession, I stink when it comes to baking pies. I do. There are no two ways around it. If you want a beautiful cake, I’m your gal. Cookies? Grab a glass of milk and chow down. Pies, though. Pies are my achilles heel. If I’m baking a pie, the crust is store bought and it’s watery.

The good folks over at FoodChat recently reached out to me and asked if I’d host one of their very popular chats and discuss a topic I love. I love pie, so we’re going to chat about it the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

What?

That’s right. Between now and November 22, I’m going to learn everything I can about the art of pie. EVERYTHING. The only way I’ll ever learn to bake a truly glorious pie is to practice. I can’t bake all day, every day for a week, like on the Great British Bake-off, but I can practice weekly. I’ve also called in expert Danica Kombol. When Ed Levine from Serious Eats declares your pie perfect, you better believe I’m going to have her in my corner.

I’ll be sharing my mishaps, successes, and I’m sure there will be quite a few frustrated tears, but come Thanksgiving, I’ll be turning out beautifully made, tasty-treats, all in the name of pie.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for #FoodChat on November 22 at 11am EST. I’ll be chatting all things with pie with a host of experts.

Copyright: Image courtesy of ©brookelark.

An Open Letter to Anthony Bourdain

June 1, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I spent most of Sunday binge watching Anthony Bourdain’s show “The Layover” on Netflix. He is one of my favorite travel/food journalists and I consider him something of a muse — meaning I like how he thinks, writes, eats, drinks and travels. About six hours into my Bourdain smorgasboard I was feeling a little nauseous from watching him consume vast quantities of food in Taiwan. Like any good social media person, I headed over to Twitter to ask him the question on everyone’s mind:

@Bourdain Binge watching The Layover on Netflix. How in the hell have you not spontaneously combusted on TV from the sheer amt you pack in?

— Lisa Frame (@Daily_Pinch) May 31, 2015

Why has your stomach not exploded on TV, Mr. Bourdain. You eat and eat and eat with a seemingly insatiable lust and then you eat some more. It doesn’t matter how hot the weather is you are in a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt with rolled up sleeves, consuming more calories than my 14 year old son.

View image | gettyimages.com

Are your legs hollow? Are you only taking a few bites and then stuffing your crew to the point of bursting? Why haven’t you spontaneously combusted? Are Marge Simpson’s pregnancy pants the secret to your success? Or are you doing some sort of mystic voodoo crap that enables you to consume that much food without gaining an ounce?

We, The People of Bourdainistan, are at your mercy oh ye of mighty metabolism and endless appetite. Please let us in on your secrets and tell us what really happens behind the scenes.

How many antacids are you popping? Is Pepto your chalky pink best friend? Do you have little blue haired ladies mixing up a bicarbonate of soda elixir for your tummy? Gum? Ginger? Peppermint tea?

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?

It’s maddening I tell you. I would love to be more aggressive as I write this, but I’m afraid I’ll offend you mightily and will forever be banned from breaking bread with you so long as we both walk this planet.

I seriously considered debating your bathroom habits tonight, but my husband looked at me and said “WOAH! That’s aggressive!” So no toilet humor or discussions. Of course, my husband is not from the South and doesn’t understand that we’re taught from an early to age to ask about or blame movements.

In all seriousness, we, your people and rabid watchers, Oh Mighty Main Man of Bourdainistan, have a need to know and only you can give us the answers we so desire.

Goetze Candy — Sweet Caramel Goodness

May 21, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Goetze Candy is a family owned candy company located in downtown Baltmore. Founded in 1895, they were originally a chewing gum manufacturer, before making the move to their staple candy, the Caramel Cream®, during the 1940’s. My personal ballpark favorite, Cow Tales®, was added in 1984. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see a care package from them show up on my door step a few weeks ago. That’s right, sweet creamy caramel on my doorstep. They were delicious.

Goetze’s Caramel Creams® are delicious sweets made out of chewy caramel wrapped around a rich, cream center. Caramel Creams® were first created in 1917 by R. Melvin Goetze Sr. in his family’s kitchen. Originally, they were called “chuees” and did not have the cream center. A year later, he began making the Caramel Creams® we know and love today.

Cow Tales ® are Caramel Creams® made in an elongated form. Which is why I love taking them in my purse to baseball games with the family. Some folks eat peanuts and nachos, I prefer candy. It’s something my sister started with her young son while he played baseball and I adopted it from her.

I decided it was time to learn more about Goetzeand their candy. As a young woman growing up in a textile community, there were many discussions based around buying products in the USA. That has stuck with me as an adult. It keeps jobs in our communities and cuts down on greenhouse emissions, etc., due to shipping costs. Goetze still holds to those ideals and wanting to make the best product possible, employing people in their community and even promotion other companies who manufacture their product solely in the U.S. It was a throwback to my childhood and brought up a wealth of memories I had tucked away.

Ingredients

Goetze wants consumers to know what is in their candy and they have an ingredients page for you to go and read about what they are using. Some are proprietary, which means they can’t exactly list the entire ingredient — mainly flavors. They also list what food colors they use, which are derived from natural sources. But if I told you what they are usually made of, you’d hate me.

I think that listing them clearly and keep the ingredients in the open is great for people with food allergies. Making this information easily accessible is key to preventing possibly life threatening reactions from happening and is an added safety measure.

Goetze is a nut-free facility

Caramel Creams® and Cow Tales® are made in a dedicated, nut-free facility. You can enjoy Goetze’s caramel treats with the assurance that their caramels are made and packaged in a facility that has never processed nut-containing products.

Balanced Lifestyle

The one thing I love about Goetze’s Candy is that even though they are candy manufacturers, they are firm believers in making balanced food choices as part of a healthy diet and even share resources on their website for fans of their candy. There are fitness and nutrition tips, along with a food diary for checking your energy levels throughout the day.

Recipes

In my bucket of treats, they had included recipe cards. I’m a sucker for a good recipe. When it’s a recipe where I can use shortcuts involving caramel is win in my book. I tried the Apple Pizza (yes, I shared my candy — begrudgingly) made with Caramel Creams® and it was so good. I mean, cream cheese, cookie crust, caramel, peanut butter and tart apples are truly a match made in heaven. (I’m not big on the whole “dessert pizza” trend, but this is more like a tasty bar.)

Had I known that Goetze encourages you to save your candy wrappers to send in for free stuff, there would be a box in my office filled with the wrappers from the candy I devoured. I’m not even sure devoured is a strong enough word. Imagine me sitting at my desk, with a bucket willed with Cow Tales® and Caramel Creams®. You think “I’ll just have one” and ten later… (Hey, at least I’m honest.)

Follow Goetze Candy:

Twitter — @CowTales

Facebook — Like them

Disclosure: I want sent a gift from Goetze Candy, however I did not receive any compensation for this post. All of my opinions are my own and I promise I shared my candy, even though I didn’t want to.

Exploring the world of food and more…

March 24, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Growing up, quite a few members of my family were farmers. Full-time. My Grandparents worked full-time, and on their one acre piece of land in “town” produced an amazing amount of food, partly driven by how they grew up, their desire to put up their own food, and their own frugal ways. If you had grown up during the Great Depression, you would do the same thing.

As such, where my food comes from and how it’s produced has always been a concern of mine. I grew up seeing food produced and, now that I am a homeowner, am looking forward to not having a super-manicured lawn, but a lush garden. My yard is currently filled with the finest red clay soil North Carolina produces and it’s going to take a long time to get it to the fertile soil that is ready for planting stage.

I started thinking more and more about the world of food, feeding the world, and doing it sustainably after I toured pork farms in Eastern North Carolina last year. With every farmer I talk to, every meal I cook, I am considering the hard work and dedicated people who are tasked with this enormous endeavor.

We have a large burden to carry in this world, and a great responsibility to our fellow man. So many will disagree with that statement, but it seems we no longer “do unto others” in a quest to not look much further than the mobile devices being held in front of our faces.

This topic is so difficult. I think the best people covering the world of food are over at National Geographic. “By 2050 we will need to feed 2 billion more people without overwhelming the planet.” They tackled this growing issue head on as part of an eight month series. It is long form, investigative journalism at its best. A fascinating series that, as I gear up for another foray into modern animal husbandry in another month, is causing me to think deeper about global issues and how to advocate and do what is right. The world depends on us.

The Ugliest Pie in the World