Thanksgiving Super-Blog Part 5

Okay, we're nearing the end of the Thanksgiving Super-Blog. The deserts were a little more wide-ranging and awesome than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised, not because I was expecting anything bad, I just hadn't thought much about it until I realized I needed to open up the wall-mount table because of all the pie tins that were piling up.

Besides all the Weezy deliciousness, Rebekah brought three pies: a chocolate cream, a lemon meringue, and a custard. In keeping with this year's Thanksgiving blog stylee, I had the chef write up her own entry.

I like her recipes, they're very, very Rebekah. Efficient, funny, and with just enough go-with-the-flow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the fantastic Rebekah:

Ah, pies!
I pretty much just go with the ol' Joy of Cooking recipes for everything except the cream or meringue topping, for which I go with my mom's method of guess-work and frequent taste-testing. The Joy of Cooking thinks you only need three egg whites to make meringue topping for an entire pie. I disagree.

Anyway, here goes:

Chocolate Cream Pie
You're supposed to use a double-boiler for this--the first time I used this recipe I did not, in fact, know what the hell a double-boiler was. My brother Neil advised me that a mixing bowl floating on top of a big saucepan with boiling water works just fine. He was right.
So, in the mixing bowl floating atop the boiling water, combine 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Add, stir, and cook over (not in) the boiling water: 2 cups of milk and 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
Remove the mixture from the heat.
Separate 3 eggs, beat the yolks and set aside the whites
Pour half of the hot mixture into the egg yolks
Stir until smooth
Add the mixture with the eggs to the half of the hot mixture you left behind in the "double-boiler"
Cook until thick
Remove from heat and add: 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of vanilla
Cool slightly before putting it into the crust

For the cream topping:
put a bunch of heavy whipping cream in a mixing bowl
while beating the cream, add a bunch of sugar, about half a cup at a time and a little bit of vanilla about a teaspoon at a time until it tastes good
stop beating before it turns to butter
spread it on top of the pie and shave some of that unsweetened chocolate over the top to make it pretty


Lemon Meringue Pie
Sift 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 6 tablespoons of cornstarch, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a 2- or 3-quart saucepan
Gradually blend in 1/2 cup of cold water and 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice (usually about 3 medium-sized lemons if you're using a citrus juicer)
Separate 3 eggs, beat the yolks, set the whites aside
Add to the saucepan: the beaten egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of butter
Stirring constantly, add 1 1/2 cups of boiling water
Bring the mixture to a full boil (still stirring gently)
As the mixture begins to thicken, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 1 minute
Remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon of grated lemon peel

For the meringue:
beat up your three leftover egg whites (plus, in my case, the three leftover egg whites from the chocolate pie) and add a bunch of sugar and a little bit of vanilla. When it tastes good and the meringue stands up when you fluff it with the beater, it's ready to be put on top of the pie. When you put it on top of the pie you gotta make sure the meringue is touching the crust all the way around or it will contract in the oven and you will have a little island of meringue in the middle of the pie. Use a plastic spatula to make the meringue all pretty and stick that sucker in the oven for a few minutes.

Custard Pie
pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
partially bake your pie shell --about 7-10 mins at 450
while the pie shell is partially baking, make your custard filling:
beat 3 eggs (the recipe says you could also use 6 egg yolks instead of 3 whole eggs, but I usually go with three whole eggs because what the hell am I gonna do with 6 extra egg whites?)
Add: 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of milk (I sometimes do more like 1 3/4 cups of milk and a quarter cup of heavy cream, though), and one teaspoon of vanilla
when it's partially baked, reduce the oven heat to 325, slide the rack halfway out and pour your custard into the crust
sprinkle some nutmeg on the top to make it pretty
bake the pie at 325 for about 30 minutes or until it's firm (in my oven it usually takes closer to 40 which means that last minutes usually brings at least 2 freak-out moments where I think I've totally screwed the whole thing up and also I tend to wish I had a little less partially baked the crust beforehand as it tends to get a little on the crispy side there at the end)

Oh I forgot to mention, lemon meringue pie is a staple of my childhood holiday dinners. My mom is awesome with some lemon meringue. And for some reason-if anyone ever knew what reason it has long since been forgotten-but for some reason my middle brother Nick has always called lemon meringue pie "spiderman pie." which is what we still call it at home. I kinda think they'd sell a bunch more of it if they called it spiderman pie officially. Marketing.

I'm not much on cream or meringue pies, but the goddamn custard was soooo goooood, it was creamy and perfect. I managed to swipe pieces of the chocolate and lemon pies before they were gone, both were very good. As with most homemade dishes, the flavors were way more pronounced than anything in a Shoney's.

And look at that thing! It's Beautiful! My problem with all three of the types of pies Rebekah made is usually texture, but her pies had a good, solid feel, something physical to wrap the tongue around. I found a little pocket of my leg to put some in.

That's it, that's all the Thanksgiving recipes that are making the list. And here I am with my plate and my goofy blond hair.

The hair is gone now, so are the leftovers. But most of these recipes are going to be making repeat appearances. Before too long I may have a custard pie with cranberry sauce and candied bacon as toppings. Porka-freaking-licious!!!!!!!