Something Good to Have on Stand-By

A brunch with friends was planned for the end of Week 25 and I figured a breakfast pie would be a hearty dish that all of us could enjoy.  The trick for this dish was finding a breakfast pie that did not involve potatoes.  My husband is not a fan of potatoes, and believe it or not, most breakfast pies throw potatoes in the mix.

Earlier in the month I had seen a recipe for a pie with egg, cheese, bacon and potato, so I decided I would do a little modification of my own and make a pie using all but the potato.  In order to make this happen I used portions of the recipe I had found, as well as a recipe I had used in December for Three Cheese and Onion Pie.

I used a parbaked All Butter Crust for this pie.

The filling consisted of small pieces of bacon, a cup of cheese (Mexican cheese is what I had on hand, though any number of cheeses could be substituted here), small amounts of cayenne, salt, and pepper, half & half, and eggs.  The most time consuming part was frying up the bacon before mixing all the other ingredients together.

This pie was tasty, but not a show-stopper.  Would I make this Egg,Bacon and Cheese Pie again?  Yep, but not for a crowd you need to impress.  Thankfully, my brunch was among friends and no one went away unhappy, including me.

Egg, Bacon and Cheese Pie

Should This Even Count?

Week 24 was slipping through my fingers much too quickly and I did not want to take another pie break so soon, so as I was putting the box of Bisquick away, I came across a recipe called the Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie.  My family needed dinner, I needed a pie, and so here we are.

I feel as though I am cheating a bit since part of this pie comes from a boxed mix, but I have concluded that although I may have been given a head start I am still following a recipe for pie.  This counts, however brainless it may be.

This pie truly does live up to its name, unlike my pie from Week 23.  If you can chop an onion, brown some meat, and stir a few ingredients around in a bowl, then you can make this pie.  It is not only easy, but fast and reminded me of growing up.

Easy, tasty, and I should hardly get credit for baking it, but I am.  

Browning ground beef and onion

First layer: Ground beef and onion

Second layer: Cheese

Final layer: Bisquick mixed with milk and eggs

Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie

When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie, That's Amore...

Week 19 was leading into my husband’s birthday weekend, so he asked if I could make a “pizza” pie for him.  At first I laughed at him, but I told him if he could find pizza recipe with pie in the name, I would use it for my blog.  Well, he found a few and this week I went with the Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza Pie recipe that he found at Epicurous.com.

This pie was very much about layering.  The base layer, or crust, was my All-Butter Crust.  From the base I added layers of sliced mozzarella, sauce, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, sauce, pepperoni and sausage.  I repeated this once more, omitting the green olives on top of the last layer of meats since my man has an aversion to any type of olive.  I finished the pie off with the remaining sauce and the top crust. 

Beginning the layering with pastry crust and sliced mozzarella cheese

More layering...

More layering...

More layering...

Final layer before the top crust 

Now, I was trying to speed the process up a little to have my young family eat dinner at a reasonable time, so I cut into the 30 minute cooling time by 10 minutes.  Mistake.  As I cut into this pizza pie, the layers were still not set enough.  Had I left if for the full cooling time, perhaps with an additional 5-10 minutes, the layers would have been much more stable.  However, regardless of my impatience, the Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza Pie was delicious, if a little soupy.  Our second slices were much more manageable on a plate.

Baked pizza pie!

Ooey, gooey goodness... that's Amore!

If cheesy, deliciously gooey pizza gets your mouth watering, this pie needs to be on your radar.  The Hubs is already asking when my next pizza pie will be.

Potluck Pie

During the fifth Sunday of December, my church was having a day of Worship Through Action, in which we would put together crisis care kits to be sent all over the nation/globe during major catastrophes (i.e. hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, etc.) , followed by a time of potluck fellowship.  My go-to on these pie adventures has been dessert pies, so I thought I would break my pattern and bring a brunch-type pie: Three Cheese and Onion Pie. 

The recipe I selected comes from a new cookbook I received for Christmas entitled, Cutie Pies.  The author of this cookbook is the owner of a pie shop, High 5 Pie, and a couple of coffeehouses, Fuel Coffee, in the greater Seattle area.  One of the interesting things about this particular pie cookbook is the variety of options that are held within.  Each recipe can be made into a variety of forms—Cutie Pies made in standard muffin pans, Petit-5s made in mini muffin pans, Pie Jars made in small jam-type jars, Flipsides formed like a pocket, Piepops made on a stick, and Full-Sized Pies made in a traditional 9-inch pie pan. 

With the new cookbook, came a new recipe for an all-butter crust, so I gave this a try.  This first time around I made the crust by hand, not my food processor, and found that I may not have mixed it thoroughly enough as well as let it get too warm because it was very sticky when I rolled it out.  The next time I will definitely try my food processor for the mixing and not letting the dough sit out for more than ten minutes before I get rolling.

The filling was very simple and I had two Three Cheese and Onion Pies ready to bake in no time at all. 

Final product?  Apart from baking the pie for an additional 10-15 minutes longer than the recipe indicated, delicious.  This was a great variation from my usual dessert pie and a success at the church potluck.  As long as you can handle a strong onion flavor, this is your pie.  

Perfect for a brunch