The Middle Pages

The Crimson: quite simply the BEST PIE IN THE WORLD

I've see this recipe, slightly changed, in a couple of places on-line, but without the amazing crust that I first encountered it cradled in when I first tasted it some fifteen years ago at my mother's house one Christmas. It came from some magazine or other and I have lost my original copy of it. A few years later, I made it for Christmas at my friend Geraldine's house and she was smitten too. Then she offered it as a holiday pie in the market where she cooked and took pie orders. It's become a staple at her own holiday table. The pie is almost impossible to make in Italy due to the fresh cranberry requirement, not to mention the need for sour cream, frozen blueberries, cake flour and Crisco. The Christmas my son attempted to bring the required fruit Alitalia lost his bag and a week passed before we received it. By the time his clothes arrived they were all dyed a livid magenta that resisted repeated washings.

Here you are - tart fruit, glorious color, buttery aroma, flaky not-too-sweet pastry. In short, everything you could want from a carb-overload dessert in the holiday season. Oh - and don't forget the excellent quality vanilla ice-cream for that ala mode touch!

Sour Cream Pie Crust

1/4 cup plus two tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter
1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening

-combine sour cream, water, sugar and salt in a small bowl
-combine both flours in a large bowl
-cut in butter and shortening with fingers or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal
-add sour cream mixture and stir just until dough forms, adding ice water as needed just until dough forms (avoid overworking the dough or it will be tough!). This can be frozen for up to a month
-turn dough out onto a floured surface, divide in half, form each half into a ball, flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic film.
-refrigerate for an hour before rolling out crusts.

Filling

1/2 small orange, with peel, seeded, cut into small pieces
4 cups frozen blueberries (approximately one pound)
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

-grind orange coarsely in food processor and transfer to heavy saucepan
-add blueberries, cranberries, sugar and cornstarch and cook over medium-high heat until thick, stirring constantly.
-cool completely

Assemble and bake

-preheat oven to 400 degrees
-roll bottom crust out to cover a 9 inch diameter pie plate and top crust to 12 inches diameter
-fill pie, cover with top crust, seal along edge by pinching
-decorate top with shapes cut from the crust dough and attach with milk
-brush top with milk and sprinkle with a bit of granulated sugar
-pierce top in several places to allow steam to escape
-bake about 50 minutes on a rimmed cookie sheet until the crust is brown
-cool at least one hour before devouring, preferably with a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream, greek yogurt, or CUSTARD if you can get it!

You'll also find this as a Foodista recipe

My 50th birthday party - 50 Years/50 Desserts, August 2008

I never have parties - that much attention on me makes me nervous and tongue-tied. But, since I've now reached the half-century mark (holy sh*t!!), I decided to go for it, probably for the last time. I'm currently in Seattle working (for "The Borg" as my friend Cass refers to my temporary employer).  Since February I've been off carbs, mainly the evil, white, refined ones. No easy thing in Italy I can tell you. Thank god for eggs, cheese and olive oil and fresh fresh vegetables. And combinations of the aforementioned. So - no pasta, no rice, no pizza, no sugar, no potatoes, no fruit either...I've managed it pretty well. Well, I figured my 50th birthday would be a good target to shoot for in this endeavor and I decided to throw a party on the theme: 50 Years, 50 Desserts. I invited lots of people and asked them all to bring a small dessert - enough to allow a few people to taste it. I was aiming for 50. At Archie McPhee I found some darling teeny tiny plastic spoons and forks. I bought wonderfully colorful paper plates and party napkins, and the party store provided colorful candles, paper table cloths and plastic cups. To drink there was prosecco. And that was it. A quick visit to Whole Foods to round up another 20 or so tastes in case the numbers were low - caramel corn, itty bitty cheesecakes, small pineapple upside down cake, rugalach, Russian tea cakes, a strawberry rhubarb pie, some vanilla ice cream.

The party was fun and I did not have time to taste everything so I did not overindulge quite to the point of sickness of hives on my neck, so I'd call it a success. Downside: I did not have time to talk to everyone and it was over too fast. My father came from Arizona and I had not seen him since 1995 or so. He said "I was hoping your sister wold be here". But that's another story. Now, I'm over that hill and over the hill in general, and back off white carbs mostly until the holidays when I plan to make and eat a lot of crimson pie. It is surely the BEST PIE on earth. Ask my friend Geraldine if you don't believe me. When I go back to Italy at the end of the month to pay a lot of bills I'll try to locate that recipe and share it with you. You can't make it in Italy because it needs fresh cranberries and frozen blueberries.

Here are some pictures of the party.

 

Lights in the sky and children mix badly

Fourth of July party on Saturday. Thanks Ian. Great house-top terrace with a good view of the fireworks and a manageable walk to a friend's house afterward (thanks Andi!). So no three hours pitted against other weary drivers on tiny streets either, but a slight and undeniable champagne hangover lingered Sunday. Everyone always tries to get clear images of fireworks. Sure, those would be nice, but I like the smudgy ones that give a sense of the motion of the light. Abstracted, rendered as black and white, and inverted these will be fun to print with later.

It was a party seething with young-marrieds with young children. The whole group seemed so beaten down by the responsibility and sheer overwhelming work of it. I remember that feeling vividly, and am so so happy to have an empty nest. I adore my son. He's slowly turning back into a person I want to know and talk to after the teenage years of snarkiness and hormones. He's not yet fully formed, in my opinion, and has much to learn and unlearn, but he's getting there, and is tall and handsome.  (Here he is below in a sort of Vermeer-ish image taken at the Theo Chocolate Factory in Fremont while we awaited our tour, complete with hair-nets. I advise everyone who lives within 100 miles and for whom dark chocolate is a religion, to book their tour and GO!) Every parent thinks their child is the most beautiful, smartest, funniest being that has ever lived. That's just nature and the survival. But not all children are beautiful, especially not other people's children. It was obvious that the whole motherhood thing was going to be a challenge. I was so relieved to get my body back after hating pregnancy, and now I'm relieved to have my life back, even though it's far from perfect, and sort of relieved to have the opportunity to make some sense of it, if there is any sense hidden among the random memories, regrets and confabulations. A party of other people's children's and the nicest part is leaving without any.