Pie-tastic Tuesday

I baked sooo much this weekend that I could not contain it in a single blog entry. I now present you with Round Two: Pie Time!!!

I love eating pies and I love making pie fillings. I'm not as big on putting together the pie crust or rolling it out. However, with Food Network's supposedly fool-proof sweet pie crust recipe, a seemingly simple cheese crust recipe at hand, and a ready-made Oreo crust, I felt up to the challenge. I'm not sure if I followed all of the directions for pie crust #1 entirely correctly, but it came out surprisingly well AND with plenty of crust to spare (a first for Miss Rhino). The cheese crust for Paula Deen's tomato pies produced less dough, but tasted good and covered two pie tin bottoms (good enough).


I chose to pair the FN crust with the magazine's adjoining peach pie filling given their summer abundance (still want to try the green tomato and blueberry fillings though). Once I popped that bad boy in the oven, I began layering up my tomato pies with tomatoes (OBVIOUSLY!), fresh basil, and green onions. Then, I seasoned them up with salt and pepper and finally slathered a mixture of cheddar, mozzarella, provolone, and mayo over the top of each and gave them a turn in the sauna. So, by Monday at dinner, I had three pies down and only one left to make. EARL MURDERS ME BECAUSE I'M HAVING AN AFFAIR PIE!!!

That's when things got messy. I could have held off making the last pie till Tuesday, but it seemed sooo easy, so around 11 I gave in. As I watched Mystery Diagnosis (one of the best shows on tv EVER!) or actually during its commercials between eye blinks, I set to work. Following an ad hoc combination of recipes, I mashed together blackberries and blueberries, added sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, tapioca, and a smidgen of lemon juice and then overstuffed the mixture into its chocolate crust. I should emphasize OVERSTUFFED. My Frankenstein baking created an oozing, bleeding pie which required multiple spatulas to pry off its underlying cookie sheet. MWAHAHAHA!!

In the end, all the pie went over quite well with my TND crew. They even asked for leftovers of Earl Murders Me Because I'm Having An Affair Pie. Although, I think that was mainly because its center looked like bloody murder and because of its kick ass name. At any rate, I'm taking the compliments and already planning for next Tuesday. Sensational Salad TND!! Very excited!! ( :