The Pie Maker

Hello hello,

Well it has been a long time since I had something exciting enough to post about on the Crazy Coffee Mama blog. So here we go with my new favourite thing:

The Breville Personal Pie Maker


This baby is great! She seals the pie top and bottom together in a cute little crimped pattern. She cooks the pie in 8 to 12 minutes and can make quiche, frittatas, savory pies and sweet pies. I LOVE this small appliance....

Here are some of the things that I have made with her already:

*** Note all pies have been plated on a side plate and my photographic skills are improving...

Ham and White Cheddar Quiche



This was the first thing that I made. For ease of preparation, I used pre-rolled  Pillsbury Pie Dough. One uses the handy dandy little cutter and presto magic dinner is ready. The quiche recipe is a snap to make: sauteed onion, diced cooked ham, grated white cheddar, eggs and a splash of milk! Mix it all together, pour 1/3 of a cup into the pie shell, close lid and bake for 10 minutes. Voila, there is dinner.

Spinach and Feta Pie

This spinach pie is delightful. I once again used pre-rolled dough to speed things up. The filling is: one package of frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained, diced red onion, 125g of feta crumbled, garlic and just enough homogenised egg mixture to bind the works together. Place 1/3 of a cup packed filling into the pastry shell and bake for 8-10 minutes.

The Spinach pie was especially good reheated at work for lunch. While I do not imagine my kids jumping for joy at the thought of this pie, the glory is that I can make four different pies at once if I want. That way everyone can enjoy their meal without too much work for me!

Of course, what would a pie maker be with out making the all important Apple Pie. Here's thinking of by big sister and how much fun it will be to make her one next time she is in Canada. This one was made with pie filling from a can, next time I plan to use homemade apples.

Thinking of Laura Apple Pie with mini apple decoration

So for my next trick, I thought I would make a Saturday lunch of quiche after working the over night shift and being a little bit punchy with sleep deprivation. Well, it worked out well, I made two kinds of quiche: Ham and White Cheddar again along with Broccoli and Cheddar. Since I buy a vegetable platter for making lunches, I had a little bit left over by saturday. Ideally, the left over broccoli was just the right amount to fill a pie!

For this round of quiche making, I dropped the solid fillings into the pie shells and then topped them up with some "Egg Beaters" seasoned with salt, pepper and a splash of milk. This method allowed me to easily make 2 of each kind. I could see having a selection of ingredients out for people to pick from and making any combination that struck your fancy. It is like a omelet station at the buffet but quiche instead.

Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

Again, this was a great reheated lunch two days later!

Tonight, I thought I would try making a meat pie for dinner after reading a recipe for Pork Pies! I used onion, celery, carrots, minced pork and some gravy to make a quick filling. All in all the filling most likely took 20 minutes to wash, chop, cook and cool from boiling hot. While the filling cooled down, I cut the pastry tops and bottoms and pre-heated the pie maker. In the end, it took 40 minutes to make dinner. The best part was that while the pies spent 8 minutes in the cooker, I was able to get the majority of the clean up done.

Pork Pie with a fall leaf

Pork Pie filling

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I look forward to making Pumpkin Pie for my son, fresh apple for my daughter, blueberry for my husband and who knows what for myself. Just think, four custom pies for dessert!

Please be sure to share your favourite pie, frittata, quiche or other recipes with me! 

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving 2007!

Well for Thanksgiving (Canadian) this year we had a very quiet low key meal with only the four of us after a relaxing trip to Edmonton for 2 days.

Our Menu: Buh-Bye-Blah Corn, Loaded Mashed Potatoes, Maple Carrots, Cran-Almond Salad, Real Mac and Ham:

~ Dried Cranberries and Toasted Almonds on a bed of spring mix with Mandarin Orange dressing on the side
~ Loaded Mashed Potatoes with Bacon Bits, Chives and Sour Cream
~ Buh-Bye-Blah Corn with Red Bell Peppers & Green onions

~Pineapple Glazed Smoked Honey Ham

I had not really intended to make Real Macaroni and Cheese, however when BeaverJ found out I was making Ham not turkey he mentioned that he hoped that I was also making the specail macaroni & cheese to go with it. Well, who can argue with that from a six year old?

What did you have for Thanksgiving and who did you celebreate it with? What makes Thanksgivign special at your house? Clearly at our house it is not complete without Macaroni or Mashed Potatoes!

Hugs & Kisses and many Thanksgiving wishes for you all,

MommyJ

What I have been knitting lately!

Knit One, Knit Two, Make some more....

Lately I have been knitting like a mad woman! In particular I have figured out how to knit mittens for BeaverJ and hope to scale back the pattern to make mittens for BabyJ sometime soon. Unfortunately it seems that every time I complete a project BeaverJ professes that it is the greatest one yet and begs to have it for himself. Who could deny such enthusiasm?

I am a very cold camper as you may have read on the http://www.4jsadventures.blogspot.com/ web page which is what started the current bout of knitting frenzy! When BabyJ saw me using my winter hat for camping she demanded to use her own hand knit purple fluffy top knot hat for sleeping. BeaverJ felt quite left out from the hat party in the tent despite having several of his own hand knit hats at home.

The solution was quite simple; I would knit him a hat of the colours of his choosing. He picked three shades of green that he absolutely loved. It takes about 1/2 a ball to make one child size hat so there was quite a bit of yarn left over from the hat project.

Shades of Green for BeaverJ

I knit this set for BeaverJ. It started out as a hat for camping and morphed into a hat mittens and a vest. The vest and mittens were a practice run for knitting for the less fortunate.


This set is knit with Bernat Harmony http://www.bernat.com/product.php?LGC=harmony&SPP=999 The colours used are Velvet Green, Tapestry Green and Silk Green.

I mostly made up the pattern for the vest as I went along based on a sweater I had made for BeaverJ almost 2 years ago. The mittens are a mini versions of my basic mittens patterns. These were the first pair of mitts that I had made for a child. I hope soon to make a pair for BabyJ. The hat is my most basic crank it out today pattern with the excellent Pompom of all three colours thanks to the Susan Bate Pompom maker. http://www.coatsandclark.com/Products/Accessories/Crafts/Susan+Bates+Pom+Pon+Makers.htm

Big Hat Little Hat what begins with Hat?

Now quite obviously I need to ensure that BabyJ's head is warm, and that MommyW's was also kept warm on our end of August camping trip. I was not very pleased with how long the first hat on the left turned out to be once it was on BabyJ's head therefore I "had to" knit up the longer hat on the right. Despite the fact that these two hats look to be different diameters is only because I do not have two identical sized balls to use insode of the hats for taking photos.

Unfortunately I do not have a photo yet of the finished hat I knit for MommyW while camping.

Too short and Just Right for summer time sleeping in the great outdoors!

Knitting up MommyW's hat while sitting by the river on our August camping trip.

I can't see you, I can't see you in your Cami gear!

This project is the Cami Cap and Mitts. This yarn is fantastic to work with as you have no idea how the variegated colours are going to turn out. I have used this is three different colour schemes and all three look quite different. The yarn used is Bernat Camouflage http://www.bernat.com/product.php?LGC=camouflage&SPP=999 in Outback, Blue Frost and Desert Sand! Again the two with coordinating mittens are my basic BeaverJ patterns and the last one in Desert Sand is my basic J-Hat.

Unsurprisingly these two projects have been claimed by BeaverJ as his favourite. The green set is definitely his but I think I might rescue the blue set for a gift. Perhaps to BeaverW?

I love how the variegated pattern worked out completely differently on these two mittens!

Adult Hat

I was very surprised at how this hat came together in several rows of stripes.

Testing Out the Possibilities

This hat was a first for me. It went quickly as it was knit for the most part on the drive to Nanton, back home and then finished on the way to Two Jack Lake for some long weekend camping. I have come to feel that since I can make mittens, how hard can ear flap hats be?

It turns out that it is not too hard at all. I highly recommend trying one! Now this hat was knit in an odd colour of yellow which I was originally going to use for a Beehive" hat but in a fit of knitting passion it became this...

Now interestingly BeaverJ has one of the roundest heads I have ever seen which is particularly noticeable when his hair is freshly cut or he is wearing a roll brim basic hat! Thankfully this hat spices it up by making him look like one of Santa's Elves! DaddyJ particularly likes it when BeaverJ is running with it on and the flaps fly out at 90degrees from his head like airplane wings.

I have been thinking if I could knit a red plume on top it could end up looking like a Roman's helmet! Knit in grey and blue it could be an English Knight...... Oh the possibilities

The yarn is Mustard Yellow in Vanna's Choice by Lionbrand http://cache.lionbrand.com/yarns/vannasChoice.html The pattern that I used to make it (with a few changes like the top knot) can be found at http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/na_knitting/article/0,,DIY_14141_4860628,00.html

Now we finally have a hat that I believe will actually make it onto one of our hometowns less fortunate. I have been experimenting with various methods of decreasing from the basic K2Tog (knit two together), K2TogBL (knit two together through the back loops), SSK (Slip Slip Knit), and PSSO (Pass Slip Stitch Over). It has been a great opportunity to see how differently you can make a basic hat turn out while practicing some skills.

Work in Progress

This hat is the first step in creating a Shades of Blue set with a complete sweater where I hope to master the technique of knitting two sleeves at once. I was convinced that I had already knit blue mittens to match it, but if I have I can not find them now. The blue sweater has been half knit, pulled out and is once again waiting patiently for me to return to it.

Best Wishes for Happy Knitting,

MommyJ