Real Food

The Story:

We went to the country.  But not to eat peaches.  Instead, we looked until our eyes were crossed, and ate until our teeth rotted.  It was wonderful!  Last night, though, we were back at home with lots of goodies.



The Recipe:

For dinner last night we ate some of the leftovers of our trip.  We had fresh Amish bakery honey oatmeal bread with real, fresh creamery butter; fresh I-know-where-it-was-raised steak cooked with onions, plenty of freshly-ground pepper, and some other spices; a leaf lettuce salad topped with the sauteed onions, cubed mozzarella fresh from the Kalona Cheese House, and a bit of Italian dressing.  For dessert we ate homemade only-out-of-the-oven-long-enough-to-be-cool Bob-Andy pie. 


Pat-in-Pan Pie Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons milk

Mix dry ingredients in 9-inch pie pan.  Add wet ingredients and mix with fork until doughy.  Press dough evenly along bottom of pan and up sides.  Using the heel of your hand is helpful to make the bottom smooth and holding a glass pie pan up to the light helps identify thick or thin spots.  Can be prebaked at 375° F for 10-15 minutes.  If adding filling before baking, poke several times with a fork (I don't know why but this keeps things from exploding). 


Bob-Andy Pie
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk

In large bowl, mix first six ingredients.  In a separate bowl, mix the bottom four ingredients well (it's helpful to try to fish the tough, slimy egg strings out, but this can be tricky).  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and mix until just mixed. Pour into pie crusts (don't forget to prick an unbaked crust with a fork several times before filling).  Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.  Note: This recipe definitely makes more then one pie, but not quite two.  Also, it usually takes more like an hour or more to really bake them.  Just keep checking on them.  Finally, the pies will puff up high and then fall. 



The Verdict:

It's nice to have a meal to feel really good about once in a while.  It's not necessarily extremely healthy but the fact that everything but the dressing was fresh and I knew exactly where most of it came from was pretty cool.  This pie is one of the most comforting pies.  It's got a great fall-ish clove flavor.  It's also pretty hard to mess up, and though it will most likely give you cavities, it's worth it. 

Pictures will follow.