Pie Days at Melville

My roommate R has already made three pies this week: one strawberry, one experimental strawberry-plum, and one full-blown strawberry-plum. She served the first at a ward function, and she and I have eaten the other two.

R is at the store now, as we speak, buying more strawberries and plums to make into a pie for a regional YSA pie competition being held tomorrow.

Her fantastic crusts and strawberry-plum-with-a-kick pie notwithstanding, I'm going to be making two pies today, in preparation for the pie-making I will do tomorrow for entrance into the pie competition. (I was personally asked to enter a pie, though it was an invitation I neither deserved nor turned down.)

And so--Melville pies #4, #5, and #6 begin.

The recipes are included here for (1) sharing and, more directly, (2) consolidation. Much easier to look at one webpage than two. I will tell you how it goes.

Pie #5: Frozen Raspberry Monica
This is the astonishingly good pie my friend Monica made for my 15th birthday in 1995. We think. Awesome.

1 graham cracker crust
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

3 egg yolks, beaten

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Dash salt

1 1/2 c crushed raspberries (fresh or frozen)

3/4 cup whipping cream

fresh raspberries & whipped cream, for garnish

1. Prepare crust. Set aside. In a small saucepan combine gelatin and sugar. Stir in water, egg yolks, lemon juice, and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until boiling; remove from heat. Transfer gelatin mixture to a large bowl; stir in crushed raspberries. Cover and chill for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until mixture is partially set (consistency of unbeaten egg whites), stirring occasionally.

2. In a chilled large mixing bowl, beat the whipping cream with an electric mixer until stiffpeaks form. Fold whipped cream into raspberry mixture. If necessary, cover and chill about 20 minutes or until mixture mounds when spooned. Spoon filling into cooled crust. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or until filling is firm.

If desired, garnish with piped whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

Pie #6: Homemade Cherry Pie
From allrecipes.com. I've never had homemade cherry pie before, let alone made it, so we'll see how it goes. But I have all these cherries I haven't gotten around to eating. And I think it might taste awesome.

INGREDIENTS:

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie 4 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca 1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar 4 cups pitted cherries 1/4 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Place bottom crust in piepan. Set top crust aside, covered.
2.	In a large mixing bowl combine tapioca, salt, sugar, cherries and extracts. Let stand 15 minutes. Turn out into bottom crust and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, flute edges and cut vents in top. Place pie on a foil lined cookie sheet --- in case of drips!
3.	Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown.