Of Strawberries and Pie

So, this is an issue. Clearly people are confused about what the real correct answer is, especially since the option that is leading isn't really an option.

I've tried counting how many years it has been since I made the switch from birthday cake to birthday pie, but then I ran out of fingers and stopped counting. It has always been, and will always be, the Birthday Strawberry Pie, as it is without a doubt, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the pie world. Using fresh Oregon berries surely doesn't hurt either.

Cakes can be made year round, rain or shine, zombie apocalypse or alien invasion. Pies,or rather fresh, seasonal pies, are all the more special because they only peak during certain times throughout the year. To me, this is a no-brainer if your birthday or other special occasion happens to fall during one of the many delicious produce season.

Mary makes just one pie a year, my Birthday Strawberry Pie, since you shouldn't have to make your own birthday pie on your birthday.

Mary, like most novice pie-makers, is always worried about the crust, however she was very pleased with this year's results.

I'd be foolish if I didn't get at least one more strawberry pie made this "summer", so I managed to get one last flat of berries from Sauvie Island.

It is a good thing I got the full flat, because I must have eaten three pints of berries before I even got to the pie-makin'.

So make the switch to pie. It will be fantastic. Just watch out you don't waste your time with the "D"-students of the pie world: banana-cream, Boston-cream or any other "cream" based pies.


--Isaac

This. Is. BBQ! (and pie!)

This is the correct way to do a BBQ:

Brats and halibut on a Traeger. If you throw wet cardboard covered in BBQ sauce on a Traeger for two hours, it would turn out delicious.

Conversely, this is exactly the wrong way to do BBQ:

Nothing to grill, and a torrential downpour in the background. Such is Oregon. The most lame part of that situation with me and the tongs and the rain is that it broke a good five day streak of gillin'. I simply ran out of food to grill. Corn Chex and thin sliced deli turkey meat don't take kindly to the grill.

Luckily, dessert can be made rain or shine.  The obligatory 4th of July BBQ gathering demands a summer berry pie. Growing up, that always meant a raspberry pie, likely because raspberries usually decide they are ready to be picked around that time, but just as likely, we needed to switch it up a bit after eating nothing but strawberry-based items for the previous month.

I made two desserts to bring to my friends annual Independence Day BBQ. The first was a raspberry and peach pie:

I have made raspberry-peach pies in the past, but instead of leaving the peach whole, I pureed it to fold into the berries. It was good, but I'll probably leave them whole in the future.

The second dessert was a variation of the best non-pie, chocolate-based dessert ever: The Emma Torte.  The Emma Torte is a chocolate mousse frozen deliciousness named after my cousin Emma. Legend has it that my mom was making the torte once, and when my cousin asked what she was making, my mom replied "Emma Torte" and so we've all referred to it as such ever since. Because we are silly or something.

The torte usually ends up being light brown due to the chocolate requirements, but with the holiday, I wanted to make it a bit more patriotic, so I substituted in white chocolate so I could make a white layer, a red layer (with raspberry puree) and a blue layer (with blueberry puree):

The bottom layer is a chocolate crust similar to a crust on a cheesecake. Festive, and delicious.

I bet a pie would take kindly to a Traeger real nice...

--Isaac.

His and Hers Birthday Cakes

June birthdays really have some good things going for them. June marks the beginning of summer vacation, the start of berry season, and is home to the summer solstice, which means that June birthdays last longer than any other month if you are just counting daylight hours.

I'm still working to get my marzipan covered cakes looking prettier. To get this practice in, I offered to make some friends "his and hers" birthday cakes as they both have June birthdays.

The first was a Kahlua chocolate cake with a Irish cream filing...

Booze and baking go well together.

The second was a carrot cake with a raspberry filling...

Full disclosure: I didn't choose the flavor combination of that second cake, it was actually requested. Separately the two flavors tasted great though.

When I got back from my store run to get all my cake ingredients, I realized that I forgot a semi-important ingredient: carrots. Fortunately, I had a mostly full, one pound bag of those tiny inch and a half long baby carrots. After thirty minutes of grating, and a couple attempts to take the tip of my finger off, I actually had enough shredded carrot to make the cake. It worked out in the end, I just don't know how I managed to forget to get carrots when I was making a carrot cake.

Now it is back to YouTube to get more marzipan decorating tips.

--Isaac.