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#PiePartyICE 2015
Earlier this month Pie Party came back in full form at the new Institute of Culinary Education in downtown Manhattan. It was a good carb-filled time.
Another year, another pie party. And for me, 2015 wouldn’t be complete without one. Once again, Jackie Gordon and Ken Leung were the organizers & MCs of a masterful event. I mean, the word ‘pie’ is in the name! If you’ve read my posts on this event from previous years you know that pie party is a gathering of the food writing/blogging community namely in sake of the almighty pie! Does it have a crust? Then yes it counts as pie-ish. It can be savory or it can be sweet. It can be gluten-free, vegetarian. It can come in mini form or ginormous size. It can have a thin crust with a bed of toppings or it can be encapsulated in dough with a delicious filling to bring the flavors home. Basically just bring something delicious and we’ll eat it.
My contribution was once again savory! This time a free-form onion tart. This wasn’t too hard to make either. Pre-make the dough and then morning of slice over 2 pounds of onions and cook with lots and lots of butter, some thyme, and a couple of scoops of crème fraiche (which I forgot). Roll out said crust then bake and you have yourself a tart! In my case not the prettiest of tarts but it was tasty y’all!
What also brings in the fun and camaraderie of Pie Party are the people and the fantastic and generous contributions from sponsors such as Cabot Creamery and King Arthur Flour so that there were high quality ingredients in this tart. Butter really does make a difference so putting two sticks of it in the crust and then a good amount in the onion sauté helps elevate the flavors entirely. And the crust was super easy to work with too thanks to the flour and method. Will I make this again? Damn straight. And I will remember the crème fraiche!
On a day that was completely gray skies, blistery winds, and rain it was cozy to come upstairs to the new Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) center and be surrounded by pie, Cabot cheese samples, many delicious hors d’oeuvres (they had mac n’ cheese bites!), and mix of fall themed drinks thanks to Reyka Vodka, Mizu Shochu, and Tequila Tromba.
The ICE staff were the epitome of kindness and professionalism helping us to heat pies, find plates large enough for some people’s tarts, and also serving those wonderful appetizers in a steady pie pre-game. Also on-hand was The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen’s (Susan Palmer) beef and chorizo empanadas. (I swiped several of those to take home, thank-you-very-much.) Add to that Cabot Cheese & Butter had samples of their apple pie with a cheese crust, and then there was the cheese station with crostinis and crackers and some fruit. Areas to try and win some goodies from such great culinary kitchen staples from Anolon, Wüsthof, or the Dub Pies station. Really Dub Pies has been a steady sponsor so I kind of keep an eye out for their minis since I was introduced to their goods at the very first pie party several years ago.
So, when did we actually get to the main course of the day? In due time my friends. Grab a drink. Get two, three even they’re themed drinks! Take a few photos of all the glory of pies. Put on an ICE jacket and take some selfies why don’t you for a chance to win a free class!
Okay, okay, yes, pie. The parade of pies were split by savory and sweet with them coming in at fifty-fifty in representation. In the sweet section some pies were melting. But, as I told several people even though I bemoaned the look of my own creation, “I don’t care how it looks, I just care how it tastes.”
After hors d’oeuvres and drinks I think my eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach. So much pie! Meat pies with oxtail or pork or duck confit (Thanks Experimental Gourmand)! And sweet! Since I had had my fill of the savory in the form of the cheese table and then some kick butt appetizers. I’m telling you those mac n’ cheese bits were something I honed in on. Whenever an ICE staff member was nearby with one my arm snapped out to grab a few. And once I found a plate of them it was all over. So when Jackie announced Pie Party was officially on I went straight to the sweets. No regrets friends.
Well, one regret is that I couldn’t eat more pie. I took home a conservative amount since I knew I would be out of town the following week. I had the ace Abby Dodge’s caramel apple pie that I, to this day, dream about. I perfectly folded galette crust with an interior that hit all the spots in terms of my craving for something sweet. I had Jeff of Foodmento’s lemon pistachio tart which, after much sugar and chocolate, was a citrus-y and light palate cleanser that I could’ve devoured in more than a couple bites. I also had someone’s pocket pumpkin pies with a cinnamon sugar glaze that was uber sweet. More contributions included Banoffee Pie from The Cake Dealer, a lovely strawberry tart from the ever creative and on point Daisy Bow, and a chocolate hazelnut torte by Kelly Vass I regret being unable to tackle due to the abundance of chocolatey goodness. So lovely and rich! And Jackie’s cupboard harvest pie was a literal pie with the words pie decorated all over. It was made of apricots, apples, currants, cranberries, and golden raisins. So consider your antioxidant intake fulfilled after a piece of this! It was just right as a mix of tartness and sweetness to truly hit the fell of fall.
On the savory spread my tart got demolished with a small portion left. Yay! There was Margaret’s Oxtail pie. The pictures she’d been posting the previous day and her contribution from last year was a short rib that was braised similarly. Consider that pie on point. I also enjoyed Kian Lam Kho’s Sichuan chicken hand pies. Day after and toasty warm it was delicious with or without the accompanying Sichuan dipping sauce. There was 4 cheese pie with tomatoes and leek pie and more hand pies. Pies with bacon! Pies with more and more cheese in various forms! Love. It.
At the end ICE provided a tour of their new digs for anyone willing. There was plenty of Dub Pies to go around and also some that they again generously provided in our goodie bags. Did I say goodie bag? Why yes I did! Those have also become a staple of Pie Party. Take home pie and get some pie-themed goods. Check out this swag, y’all!
I didn’t want to go home and walk back through the whipping winds and drizzling rain. I could’ve stayed at ICE all day and eaten pie, gabbed with my foodie peeps, some of whom I hadn’t seen in a long while and some I met for the first time in person, and had more of those mac n’ cheese balls if they were around. But it was time to go and we all got to take home a little bit of Pie Party with us, or a lot, I mean there was a lot of pie left, for next year. I personally cannot wait and now have an additional arsenal of goods to make my pie or tart or galette (whatever you wanna call it) to bring my A-game.
As always a HUGE THANKS to the kindness of sponsors like Anolon, Wusthof, Dub Pies, HalfPops, ICE, King Arthur Flour, Wild Hibiscus Tea, Honey Ridge Farms, Cabot, Tovolo Home, Mizu Schochu, Reyka Vodka, and Tequlia Tromba for making Pie Party the place to be for the local food writing community. We are indebted and now addicted to your respective products, you know, if we hadn’t been already.
Food Tasting Event: Village Voice @ChoiceEats 2015, March 13th!
Village Voice Choice Eats is doing a tasting event on a smaller scale. Consider it your Choice Eats pregame.
This year marks the 8th annual Village Voice Choice Eats event in NYC. I've gone three years in a row and gorged myself silly. There will be over 50 restaurants participating including faves like Red Hook Lobster Pound, SCRATCHBread, The Meatball Shop, and Queens Comfort. If you were considering going to the big Choice Eats but were hesitant the Tasting Event may whet that appetite so you can preview some of the new fare that'll be offered. Now, prepare for mouth watering images from Laura June Kirsch at last year's Choice Eats.
Go forth and mangia my friends!
Third Times the Charm at #CookieTakedown
Tried my hand for the 3rd time at the Brooklyn Cookie Takedown to represent Queens, y'all!
This is what my cousin said to me a couple times on our way to the 2014 Sunday edition of the Brooklyn Cookie Takedown I was not wholly optimistic. For me, baking is somewhat therapeutic. I couldn't imagine baking full-time as some of the love would be chipped away. Whereas writing is a passion, and something I consider work, baking is a hobby. And like any hobby why the heck not make over 200 cookies for people to consume and judge at the annual Cookie Takedown? Matt Timms organizes the slew of Takedowns that goes on, and not just in Brooklyn. The cookie version is the only one I've dared to enter because of my love for baking.
I found I was pretty uninspired for cookies. Wanting to do something different, and without chocolate, like in previous years. 2012 was maple cookie with a candied almond. 2013 brought a toasty coco-lime shortbread. This year...I was blank for a bit.
In the end I knew I wanted to try shortbread and perfect what I did last year in a way. Shortbread is a good try for several reasons. One of which is that it is so full of butter that it freezes well and is easy to roll so moisture and texture can retain if you make dough ahead of time.
But what to add to said shortbread? Who the heck knows? Time flew. Thanksgiving came and went. And I figured "The hell?!" I'll do shortbread dipped in chocolate with homemade caramel swirled on top. Perhaps there'll be a slew of chocolate items like the year prior. Perhaps there'd be a lot of caramel or bourbon items as well. I dunno. All I knew was that even though I was going through some personal issues and was not wholly invested that I'd make the best damn cookie I could.
Some things I learned in re-trying my hand at shortbread.
1. Use the BEST butter you can. And that meant Kerrygold Unsalted. Being part of the Kerrygold Food Blogger Network I knew I could utilize some coupons and found the texture and quality to be enhanced than with that of butter available in my local stores.
2. Confectioners over Granulated. Sugar matters when it comes to shortbread. Shortbread needs to be smooth and crisp, but buttery and not too sweet. Which is why it's important to have a good balance in that taste when you're adding items onto it. Don't just add stuff to shortbread! It has to work on all levels. So confectioners tones down the sweetness to not overpower while also being so fine that it works in the dough itself to get that crispness you want.
3. Watch. Your. Shortbread. I moved into a new place and so have a much more powerful oven. Which means I had to nurse and guard my shortbread until it turned a slight toasty on the bottom edges. Once that happens and the top is somewhat firm take it out and slip onto your wracks to cool and then seal up tight.
So I made all the cookies on Friday. And then it was time to melt the chocolate (use a pan!) and dip said cookies into chocolate. What did I find though after 2 hours of waiting for chocolate to set in my hot a** apartment? That I need to set these things in the fridge because my apartment was not having it. This meant the 200+ cookies I had spread throughout my small NYC apartment in Queens needed to go into my fridge in shifts over the course of another 2 hours so I could stack them up.
Sunday morning, right before heading out to Brooklyn, I made caramel complete with more butter, (light) brown sugar, heavy cream, and kosher salt. After making the caramel I put it into a squeeze bottle and wrapped that up in foil to retain the heat in the hopes it was not too cold out (since my apartment was Hades) to freeze the caramel and rushed off to the Takedown.
Well, after 3 years of doing this I was having fun. Eating the other participants' cookies. Friend and Takedown Queen (Ice Cream Champene) Daisy Bow was my table buddy and had my fave cookie of the day her Darth Tater potato chip shortbread with chocolate drizzle. Sooo good.
The judges tasted. One of them co-owner of Baked Renato Poliafito and a previous Takedown judge from Schnack. So, at the end of the competition you get up on stage, introduce yourself and your cookie and wait to hear the verdict. The judges choice came first and they announced the two Honorary mentions. Then came third place.
At this point one is hopeful to hear their name but not expecting it and by the time the second place was called I was waiting to hear whom I'd be congratulating for the first place prize while sweating under the Bell House lights on stage and smiling due to a sugar high and since you're being watched by many, many people.
And then, someone, Renato of Baked, calls #19 Chocolate dipped & caramel tipped shortbread and your mouth drops open and you stagger back into your friends Daisy and Emily in shock at having your name called. Then you, or I, walk slowly to gain your prizes and smile really big and goofily and when the mic is placed in front of you say "I've been in this competition three times and this is the first time I won. Yay!" And then you get a bunch of congratulations from many people with genuine smiles and must figure out how to carry a Kitchenaid mixer home from Brooklyn to Queens with your cousin.
Afterwards you eat Thai food for dinner to try and cancel out the sugar. :-)
So yay! Bridesmaid turned bride at the latest Brooklyn Cookie Takedown after a rough couple weeks and worrying about what I was making knowing I made something people enjoyed--even having Matt Timms dad Pete strike up convo about how much he liked my shortbread and the best he's had was by his wife who is English and they, you know, invented shortbread--can be enough. I really do simply like to feed people and have them enjoy it. But winning a Kitchenaid mixer and Baked cookbook is pretty damn awesome too.
Happy Baking peeps!
The #SupportWNDB Campaign! It's All the Rage These Days
The #SupportWNDB campaign has kept me a tad bit busy these past few weeks (and for the coming weeks until it ends). And if you haven't heard about it after it trended on Twitter here's a bit of background on the initiatives of We Need Diverse Books.
Yes, yes, yes. I have been delinquent in posting. Almost a month! My apologies. One of the things that have kept me busy (beyond end-of-the-year deadlines) is the We Need Diverse Books Indiegogo campaign that started October 24th. As a team member and social media person I've been helping on that end and it's been go, go, go!
It's also been fantastic to witness the support online as well as in dollars and donations that people have been providing for their belief that We Need Diverse Books (WNDB)! Being part of the WNDB team has been so great. Everyone is very committed to the belief and pitches in. It's a family as much as it is a team and I am very honored to have been asked to be a part of it after SCBWI. (Thanks, Ilene!)
So what is #SupportWNDB? Where is the money for this campaign going? Well lots of initiatives but focusing on providing grants to emerging writers as well as established diverse writers (there are other diversity grants via SCBWI--which I won last year--and Lee & Low [New Visions & New Voices Awards] as well as the Speculative Literature Foundation) but We Need Diverse Books wants to add to that and not relegate the sole aspects of diversity to people of color.
There's also diversifying classrooms via partnerships with An Open Book Foundation, NEA, and First Book to bring diverse authors for school visits at disadvantaged schools; educational kits for librarians and educators on how to diversify literature offered and dispensed to young readers; in addition to funding the 2016 Diversity Festival we plan to have in Washington, DC! So many things and plans ahead to promote diversity and changing the course of thought for what is considering "mainstream."
As a writer of color this is something I believe in not only in terms of being an emerging diverse artist but being a reader who would've loved to see more diversity in what I read as a kid and clamor for it as an adult no matter what the genre. I very much believe and am happy to give my time and money in #SupportWNDB and I'd urge others to also.
So that's one reason I've been busy and if you'd like to find me I'm more than likely behind the @diversebooks account on Twitter. :o)
Wine & Cheese Pairing w/ @KerrygoldUSA
Thank you Megan and everyone at Kerrygold USA for hosting a wine & cheese pairing event at Sur La Table for those of us in the Food Blogger Network. We were educated in the pairing of the right cheese and fine Napa Valley wines and got to taste items made by Chef Gamoran and Co. made exclusively with Kerrygold cheese/butter to enhance flavor.
On Wednesday night over a dozen bloggers in the New York City area convened at a food blogger's paradise in midtown: Sur La Table.
Kerrygold USA hosted a wine and cheese pairing as a treat to those in the Kerrygold Food Blogger Network. I have to say that Kerrygold has been quite generous to us food bloggers being a consistent sponsor for Pie Party Live and also hosting regular events and contests to win their coveted cheeses and butters. Anyone who bakes/cooks with Kerrygold knows that their product is top notch. Their butter especially when it comes to making crusts and oh-so-crisp cookies. There's a quality to Kerrygold's butter especially that transcends whatever you get on sale and really does bring up your dessert and savory game when added to any recipe. So invest in the product.
Terlato Wines and Rutherford Hill in Napa Valley supplied the perfect complements to the various cheeses Kerrygold supplied with tastes that helped enhance rather than overpower.
On display were several Kerrygold favorites such as Skellig, Dubliner, Cashel Blue, and Dubliner with Irish Stout that was sweeter than the singular Dubliner and was so delectable it didn't need wine. We continued to eat the crumbles with our fingers before and during the pairing.
Apricot Shallot Chutney and water crackers were displayed as a precursor to our formal pairing. We got to chat and in the case of some of us we caught up! It was so nice to see many of the other local food bloggers whom I haven't seen since Pie Party or even before.
And then things got started with us bloggers being educated by a representative of Terlato Wines about tasting the Dubliner with Irish Stout and a nice Chardonnay and even the Skellig and Merlot and the proper balance of tastes coming together to enhance sweetness or saltiness rather than the liquid overwhelming a lighter cheese. This guidance was helpful and made the event that much lighter fare for us to know what to do in the case of taking a good wine and fine cheese and hosting our own event to have our guests enjoy the spread.
Kerrygold and Sur La Table were also generous enough to serve appetizers from Chef Gamoran and staff such as Bacon-wrapped Dates stuffed with Cashel blue cheese. One of the Sur La Table staff suggested having this with the Merlot and the subdued Merlot and the natural sweetness of the dates mixed in a really fine way.
There were Kerrygold Irish Mac and Cheese Bites that were buttery, crunchy, cheesy (in a good way) with parmigiano-reggiano and Kerrygold Aged Reserve, Swiss, and Dubliner. In addition to Sriracha Glazed Chicken Skewers in a salsa verde that was hot but the heat didn't linger too long on your tongue. And another addiction were the cranberry tarts with a crust made from the go-to Kerrygold unsalted butter to get that fine crispness and sweetness that you can eat a couple dozen. I tried.
In the end there was more wine, additional bites for snacking--and we did snack--as well as goody bags for those in attendance with more generosity from Kerrygold in providing various cheeses, butters, and their cookbook so we can attempt to make these fantastic & filling dishes in our own homes.
Thanks again Megan and everyone at Kerrygold, Chef Gamoran and staff and everyone at Sur La Table for making us feel welcoming and stuffing us with such deliciousness I didn't want to leave. With cookbook in hand I know what my plans will be this weekend.