Pie, pie, me oh my!

After one month at the pie shop I felt confident enough to take on Thanksgiving pies. So here they are, from start to finish all from scratch! 

This is a pretty standard pate brisee, with a twist that I learned at the shop... secret, of course. 

For the pumpkin filling I went with Paula Dean's recipe. I thought the addition of cream cheese sounded good.I won't know until tomorrow if that risk paid off. 

For my apple pie I decided to get a little creative. I learned there was going to be apple crisp served as well I thought a pre-cooked apple with orange juice, a little zest, vanilla bean and clove would be nice.

And here they are!

Happy Thanksgiving

Baby... it is cold outside.

Chicago weather has turned gray and rainy. A sure sign of the end of summer and a small taste of the long winter to come. While I am not looking forward to the snow and ice, it is ideal weather for bread baking. This Oatmeal Wheat Bread is sweet and hearty. If I made this again, I would either push it over to the sweet side by kneading in raisins and nuts of some sort or go the other way by reducing the amount of honey in half. Either way, this is one loaf (or two) definitely worth making. 

Pizza Club

It has been a long standing tradition for my family to make homemade pizza every Saturday. Well it isn't Saturday but it is Pizza Club night tonight! So in order to rally the troops and work up an appetite check out this super sweet video  that my wonderful and talented husband made. Now who is hungry?

Edited to add: You can check out the high resolution video here!