Blueberry pie and tea (and movies)!

As you might know, blueberry pies are what started my obsession with pies. There's nothing better than a fresh blueberry pie shared with friends. However, until my short conversation about tea with other critics, I hadn't given much thought to what would be the perfect tea for a blueberry pie.

 Michal Oleszczyk's mother runs a tea shop in Tarnowskie Góry. According to Michal, "she gave the place a feel and a soul all its own."

On the topic of blueberry pie and tea she told Michal: "She said the last time she had blueberry pie she brewed some black caramel tea and added some cream to it. She told me the sweetness of caramel worked very well with the slight tanginess of the berries!"

We'll have to try that during our Pi(e) Month although March isn't a good time for fresh blueberries.

The same weekend we attending the tea festival 28-29 of September 2013), we went to see "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon," we attended the Tea Festival in Little Tokyo. So I came up with this question for my fellow film critics:

I don't know if you've seen the new Detective Dee movie: "Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon," but the plot concerns tea. While I do recommend drinking tea (over coffee and alcohol),  I do not, however, recommend the movie.

As it happens, the Saturday after I saw the movie, I went to an international tea festival in Little Tokyo. One of the tea experts recommended two of the movies below (2&3).

So I wondered if you had any suggestions of movies that involve tea. Movies with Tea Leoni do not count.

I already have:

1. "Eat a Bowl of Tea" (which is based on a 1961 novel)
2. "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" (1933 with Nils Asther and Barbara Stanwyck)
3. "Brief Encounter" (1945)
4. "Tea for Two" (1950)

From Nell Minow:

1. "Tea with Mussolini"
2. "Sayonara"
3. "Brief Encounter"
4. "The Importance of Being Earnest" 
5. British films ("always have people offering or asking for tea")
6. "84 Charing Cross Road"

Susan Wloszczyna:

1. "Love Actually" (Hugh G falls for his tea lady)
2. "Tucker"
3. "Dale Vs. Evil"
4. "Scott Pilgrim"
5. Jane Austen movies

Lisa Nesselson:

1. "The Great Escape"
2. "Stalag 17" ("a lone teabag is lovingly re-used for the umpteenth time")

Steven Boone:

"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" ("

has at least two pivotal scenes involving tea. One sweet, one brutal.") 

Michal Oleszczyk: 

1. Ozu's "The Taste of Green Tea Over Rice" 
2. In every British movie ever made the phrase "I'll put the kettle on?" or "Fancy a cuppa?" must appear by constitutional ruling.

Michael Mirasol provided links:

1. http://webhost.bridgew.edu/jhayesboh/coffee/CoffeeTeaCinema.html
2. http://steepster.com/discuss/2550-favorite-tea-movie-moments
3. http://www.pinterest.com/capitalteas/tea-in-movies/

Small pie refrigerator purchased

Thanks to Facebook and Shanglin Chen, I have a new 4 cubic refrigerator. We need to make some apple pies soon, but after AFI Fest!

Substitute almonds for wheat flour?

This woman uses almonds instead of wheat flour.

Pecan Shortbread Cookies

• 2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
• ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 5 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
• ½ cup salted butter, melted or vegan shortening, melted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and pecans
2. In a smaller bowl, mix together agave, butter and vanilla
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry
4. Place dough in the center of a large piece of parchment paper and form into a large log approximately 2½ inches in diameter
5. Place in freezer for one hour, until firm, unwrap and cut into ⅛ inch thick slices
6. Place slices on a parchment lined baking sheet
7. Bake at 350° until lightly golden, 7-10 minutes
8. Cool and serve

Makes 24 cookies

Her tart dough does include eggs however.  She has a few cookbooks out. Paleo (a term she uses) stands for Paleolithic.

More Gluten Free Recipes

This Gluten-Free Pie Crust Recipe is simpler than the others, so I feel this might work best.

Rice Flour Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups rice flour
• 4 tbsp cold water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut shortening into rice flour until crumbly. Add water. Work dough with hands until soft and form into ball.
Place dough in 8 inch pie pan and press it into the bottom and sides, use the back of a spoon or fingers.
Use fork to prick the bottom of the crust to prevent buckling. Place crust in oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.
Looking for more gluten-free dessert recipes? You can find dozens of recipes for gluten-free cakes, cookies, pies and more here.

More Gluten Free Recipes

I'm considering using this for a tart crust, but I'd have to substitute honey or agave for sugar.



GF Sugar Cookies:

Use a food processor to make this fast and easy recipe for gluten-free heart-shaped sugar cookies for your gluten-free sweethearts. There are so many fun cookie cutters- make big hearts, little hearts and hearts with LOVE.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 42 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups amaranth flour
• 1/2 cup arrowroot starch OR cornstarch
• 1 cup gluten-free powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon guar gum
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup cold butter, cut in small pieces (2 sticks)
• 1 egg
• 1+ tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla OR almond extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F / 177°C

Line baking sheets with parchment paper

1. Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 3 times to thoroughly blend.
2. Add pieces of butter and pulse about 10 times.
3. Add egg, 1 tablespoon of milk, vanilla OR almond extract and pulse about 5 times. The mixture should form a sticky, stiff dough. If the dough is too stiff, slowly drizzle in more milk. You don't want the dough too sticky or it will be harder to roll out.
4. Wrap the dough in waxed paper and refrigerate for about 1 hour or longer before rolling and cutting out cookies.
5. Lightly flour a large sheet of waxed paper with sweet rice flour and roll the dough to the thickness of pie crust, about a 1/16 to 1/8- inch thickness. Roll the dough evenly so cookies will bake evenly.
6. Dip heart-shaped cookie cutter in flour for easier cutting. If the dough softens too much while cutting the cookies, place the dough on the waxed paper on a baking sheet and freeze it for several minutes and then continue.
7. Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes or just until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown.
8. Cool and store in an air-tight container or wrap tightly and freeze for a make-ahead holiday convenience.

Yield: About 2 dozen 4-inch cookies- more or less depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use

Reminder: Always make sure your work surfaces, utensils, pans and tools are free of gluten. Always read product labels. Manufacturers can change product formulations without notice. When in doubt, do not buy or use a product before contacting the manufacturer for verification that the product is free of gluten.

Gluten free pie crust?

One of my friends is vegan and needs gluten-free food.

That becomes a problem with pies and pie crusts.

My friend sent me a PDF:

Blueberry Ice Cream: Fosselman's versus Dr. Bob

Fosselman's ice cream costs $8 per quart.  Creamier than Dr. Bob's and has a lighter color. It is the ice cream on the right. This flavor was not offered at our local cupcake store. However, they have it at the store famous Fosselman's store in Alhambra. 

Ian prefers Fosselman's because is compliments the taste of the pie better.  This ice cream works well with my standard 30-second microwave heated slice of blueberry pie. 

Dr. Bob's Blueberry ice cream costs $14 per pint at Surfas (probably the most expensive place to buy anything but I still like it). Has a deeper blueberry taste. There seems to be a layering of flavor. Ian likes this ice cream better alone as a solo act.  If you use this one, I think you should eat your pie more slowly and heat it up more (45-60 seconds in our microwave). 

Ian thinks that Dr. Bob's would work better with a straight dark chocolate mousse tart because you need a stronger flavor. For me if I had a straight plain vanilla tapioca pie I feel Dr. Bob's would work better.

Now we have to discover the best tea for our blueberry pies. 

Blueberry pie a la mode or thank you Dr. Bob

I made this blueberry pie last weekend, but didn't eat it until this weekend since we already had the passionfruit yogurt creme pie and because it needed something--Dr. Bob's Blueberry Ice Cream.

If you don't know who Dr. Bob is, then you don't take your food seriously, at least your desserts. The most memorable frozen delights I have had were the watermelon glace and the blueberry glace at the now closed Elements (chef Onil), the shave ice at Get Shaved, the shave ice in Hawaii and Dr. Bob's handcrafted ice cream.

Dr. Robert Small was a professor at Cal Poly Pomona (in Pomona, CA) where he about wine, food and beverage management and he decided to produce a premium ice cream using the finest ingredients. That means it is high in butterfat. We were introduced to his blueberry ice cream.

We initially tasted the blueberry ice cream at BabyCakes Baking Company. Unfortunately, BabyCakes now carries Fosselman's Ice Cream (also a very good ice cream that I had while living in Pasadena). As dedicated pie people, we are not really cupcake lovers. If I'm going to have a cake, it had better be made of frozen yogurt or ice cream--no cake.

So when it came blueberry season again this year, Ian went down to see if they had blueberry ice cream. On our first try, we found it was closed on Sundays. Then later Ian made the horrific discover--they no longer sold Dr. Bob's and we had a blueberry pie that needed blueberry ice cream.

We looked around and there was no distributor of Dr. Bob's in our area and even if we drove to Santa Monica we'd have to call each distributor to check and see if they carry blueberry ice cream. I wasn't even sure if it was still in season so I sent an email to Dr. Bob's. 

I got a response Monday, but they couldn't tell if their distributors carried blueberry. I was thinking I'd have to call each store when I got an email that the Orange County Surfas had ordered six pints of blueberry. I asked Ian to pick up one and he came home Thursday with two pints.

So Thursday for dinner we had a healthy slice of blueberry pie with a large scoop of Dr. Bob's handcrafted Blueberry Ice Cream. Friday, I did some more baking--blueberry-nectarine pie, an apple crisp and another tomato pie (with heritage tomatoes, sage, thyme, rosemary and chives from our garden).  The white balls are tapioca pearls because my husband bought the pearls instead of what I usually buy. 

Then I watched "Pulp Fiction" where one character says he'll be back faster than you can say...blueberry pie. "Pulp Fiction" was filmed in Los Angeles, but I don't know if Quentin Tarantino is a fan of pies (blueberry or not). 

For breakfast, I had blueberry pie with blueberry ice cream. That's two servings of fruit and dairy, right? What makes Dr. Bob's so good is the creamy intensity of the blueberry without being too sweet. The layering of the two blueberry tastes--the ice cream and the pie (honey no sugar and no filler), is what puts Ian and I in blueberry heaven. 

Pies and Movies

MOVIE	YEAR	DIRECTOR	GENRE	AVAILABLE
3.14	2013	G. Gotham Smith	Fantasy
Almost Famous	2000			Amazon Instant
American Pie	1999	Paul Weitz	RomCom	Amazon Instant
Babette's Feast	1987	Gabriel Axel	Drama	Amazon Instant
Battle of the Century	1927	Clyde Bruckman	Comedy Short
Blackbird Pie	2007	Jean Anouilh	Short
Blazing Saddles	1974	Mel Brooks	Comedy	Amazon Instant
Bugsy Malone	1976	Alan Parker	Comedy
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie	1983	Henry Jaglom	RomCom	Amazon Instant
Carnage	2011	Roman Polanski		Amazon Instant
Chicken Run	2000	Peter Lord, Nick Park	Comedy	Amazon Instant
Coal Miner's Daughter	1980	Michael Apted	Biography	Amazon Instant
Drive	2011	Nicolas Winding Refn	Crime	Amazon Instant
I Drink Your Blood	1970	David E. Durston	Horror	Amazon Instant
In the Sweet Pie and Pie	1941	Jules White	Comedy Short
It's a Wonderful Life	1946	Frank Capra	Fantasy	Amazon Instant
Labor Day	2013	Jason Reitman	Drama
Men in Black	1997	Barry Sonnenfeld		Amazon Instant
Michael	1996	Nora Ephron	Fantasy	Amazon Instant
Mildred Pierce	1945	Michael Curtiz	Drama	Amazon Instant
Million Dollar Baby	2004	Clint Eastwood	Drama	Amazon Instant
Mystic Pizza	1988	Donald Petrie	RomCom
O Brother, Where Art Thou	2000	Joel Coen	Comedy	Amazon Instant
Pi	1998	Darren Aronofsky	Sci-Fi	Amazon Instant
Pie Noon	1985		Episode TV series (Function Room)
Pulp Fiction	1994	Quentin Tarantino	Crime	Netflix Streaming
Severance	2006	Christopher Smith	Thriller	Amazon Instant
Singin' in the Rain	1952	Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly	Musical	Amazon Instant
Small Time Crooks	2000	Woody Allen	Comedy
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937?	William Cottrell, David Hand,
Stand By Me	1986	Rob Reiner	Drama	Amazon Instant
Sweeney Todd	2007	Tim Burton	Musical	Amazon Instant
The Great Race	1965	Blake Edwards	RomCom	Amazon Instant
The Help	2011	Tate Taylor	Drama	Amazon Instant
Theater of Blood	1973	Douglas Hickox	Horror	Amazon Instant
Thinner	1996	Tom Holland	Horror	Amazon Instant
This Boy's Life	1993	Michael Caton-Jones	Drama	Amazon Instant
Titus	1999	Julie Taymor	Drama
Toast	2013/2006
True Romance	1993	Tony Scott	Crime	Amazon Instant
Twin Peaks	1990		TV series
Waitress	2007	Adrienne Shelly	RomCom	Amazon Instant
Young Einstein	1988	Yahoo Serious	Comedy	Amazon Instant
Young Mr. Lincoln	1939	John Ford	Biography

In the beginning...

When I was single, I took a risk and flew to Louisville, Kentucky (didn't make it to the Kentucky Derby Museum) to speak at a conference for theater critics and bought for a modest sum, a book about pies ("Baking with Jim Dodge") at a fundraising silent auction. That book inspired me to bake pies, but you need to round up friends to help you eat them. One of my friends from my single days, Rosalie Marley, reminded me that March 2014 was going to be pi month, something that wouldn't happen for another 100 years. Although I'd say 3-14-15 is sort of Pi-ish, too.  Here's the email she sent me via Facebook.

I know you are into making Pies, and that March 14 is Pi day. Well, I just realized that this spring will be Pi MONTH! 3.14 (month.year). Just wanted to bring it to your attention in case you'd like to observe with a Month of Pies - and maybe put together a block of recipes Pi Month won't be around for another 100 years...

Since I don't expect to be around in 2114, this was my one chance to take on the challenge of 31 pies.

This weekend, I am missing not having a pie refrigerator. Yes...in my single days, I had two 3/4 size refrigerators. One came with the loft I was living in. The other I brought and it became the pie refrigerator. I got rid of that one when I got married. It was old and not very energy economic.

Two years ago, we moved from our condo to a new place where the appliances are even older than the ones I was using. Eventually, we will need to replace the washer and drier with something more energy efficient, but with this pie challenge coming up, I am missing my pie refrigerator. Our regular refrigerator is full after two pies and I need to make two more (tomato pie and a nectarine-blueberry pie). We've almost finished the passionfruit pie which got my husband's approval. The passionfruit is from his own plant.

So I began looking into buying a small refrigerator and making a list of things that it would be nice to have for this pie challenge.

Dream refrigerator: Samsung model #RF268ABRS French Door Refrigerator $2,399.00
More reasonable: Frigidaire 4.4 cu ft. Compact refrigerator #236299 Model # LFPH44M4LM $179

Two new long oven mitts. Short won't protect your arms when you're getting out cobblers and pies. I have two old and very stained ones that I got at Ikea. I think they were on sale.
Dream mitts: Marimekko Hauki Long Grey Oven Mitt $28 each.
More practical but boring: Chef Revival Oven Mitt $21.95 each.

Stay Fresh Pie Keeper $19.95 for 2
An added thought would be the Progressive Collapsible Pie Carrier for $29.95

Because of our chocolate (Ian) and no-chocolate (Jana and the dogs) household I was thinking mini pies would be nice so either the Libbey Just Baking set ($29.95) or the Libbey Just Baking mini pie plate set ($29.95)

I have a green marble pastry rolling pin (free from Freecycle), but I don't have a marble pastry board ($29.11).

I am curious about this NaturalStone Deep Pie Dish ($19.95) although I usually use glass.

As this is a geek project, I thought I'd need some geek-themed pies so I'd also like:
Death Star sphere mold ($9.99)
Dinosaur cookie cutter set ($39.99)

I'm calculating that I'll need at least 36 (3 dozen eggs), probably more since I will make a custard or two.
I'll need 62 cups of flour. I might not bake every day since in March not everything I love to make into pies is in season and some of the recipes have come from my trips to Hawaii.

I'll also need to clean up the dining room and kitchen for real baking production every or nearly every day.

So at present, my ideal budget would be:

$2,399.00
$179
$28 x 2
$19.95
$29.95
$29.11
$9.99
$39.99
Subtotal: $2753.04
Tax: $247.77
TOTAL: $3000.81

So let's round it down to $3000. If I get a Kickstarter campaign up, then I'll add 10 percent for the Kickstarter and Amazon fees. 

Now a more reasonable budget would be:
$179 for the compact refrigerator
$19.95 Stay Fresh Pie Keeper 
$29.95 for the Libbey Just Baking set
Subtotal: $218.90
Tax: $19.70
TOTAL: $238.60

With the Kickstarter and Amazon fees for a Kickstarter campaign, I'd put that up to $265.00.

I've put in a proposal for Kickstarter so I'm waiting to hear back if I need to make adjustments. 

The planning for a month of pies

In my planning book, I have the following notations for March which might inspire pie ideas: 

Noodle month

Women's History month

Nutrition month

Red Cross month

Irish American month

Frozen Food month

1 March: Korean Independence Movement Day

2 National Reading Day/Texas Independence

3. Girls Day (Japan)

8 International Women's Day

13 Pluto Planet Day

14 White Day (Asia)/Save a Spider Day

14-20 National Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week

17 St. Patrick's Day

21 Naw Ruz

22 World Water Day

23 Pakistan Day

26 Purple Day (for Epilepsy Awareness)/Prince Kuhio Day in Hawaii/Bangladeshi Independence Day

Since this is a real geek project, I definitely need some geek factor in there such as a Star Wars or Star Trek pie. There will be a dinosaur pie and a Los Angeles reference pie. There may even be some pie puns. 

I've already gotten some ideas for Noodle month (ramen pie), Irish American month/St. Patrick's Day, MS Week, Korean Independence Movement Day and White Day.

1. Korean spinach pie with moffle crust
2. Guava yogurt cream pie
3. Rose-peach pie for Girls Day
4. Peach pie with cinnamon crust
5. Lamb barley pie
6. Lamb fig pie
7. Passionfruit yogurt cream pie
8. Pineapple walnut pie
9. Apple pie with cinnamon crust
10. Blueberry pie
11. Blueberry nectarine pie
12. Autumn fig pie
13. Pluto formerly known as a Planet Day purple carrot pie
14. Ceres and Persephone's complaint pie 
15. Orange pie
16. Avocado lime cheesecake
17. Corned beef and cabbage pot pie with caraway soda bread crust
18. Mint-chip ice cream pie with mint crust and chocolate crust
19. Pomo grapefruit mint sorbet pie with mint crust
20. Orange pie with chocolate cookie crust
21. TBA
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31. TBA