wow-the final pie. how quickly the year went. well, now what? don’t know yet but i will be sure to do something crazy, something inappropriate, something stupid and who knows what else but in the mean time, i’ve got some splaining to do…
i decided to have some fun on thanksgiving and all at the expense of my family and guests. they were kind enough to play along-some more than others (kids-what are you gonna do with them?) and they were served a pie and told to guess what i made it from. it kinda looked like it could be some sort of squash pie but alas, it wasn’t…only one of our guests was able to figure it out-and he nailed it!
the inspiration for this pie came from my job. every day, or at least it seems like every day, i partially bake pie shells for use in my pie recipes. to do this, i line each pie shell with a restaurant sized coffee filter and fill that with pinto beans. the beans act as a weight and keep the crust from puffing up. the running joke is that the bean pies must be popular since i bake so many…yes, those are crickets chirping-i don’t find the joke very funny either; after hearing it on a nearly daily basis for 7 years, can you blame me? so anyway, what was funny though was the day one of my latino coworkers had the realization that if she bakes those bean pies every day, they must taste good-he then proceeded to taste some of the beans. did i mention that i reuse the beans, a lot, until they stink so bad that i replace them? we never did talk about those beans he tasted and trust me, he never tasted another. but anyway, i came across a recipe for navy bean pie in an old farm journal cookbook and decided to give it a try but not tell anyone what was in the filling.
a few notes, first of all, anytime i am going to fill a pie shell with a custard filling, i partially bake it to be sure that the bottom crust is baked and not gummy when the pie filling is finished baking. the recipe calls for evaporated milk which is something i never use and i have found that half and half is a perfect substitution. to save time, i used canned beans that were drained and rinsed and then pureed in a food processor.
That's hilarious, about the guy trying those beans. Great Northerns are my hubbys least favorite bean; I wonder if he'd be able to tell they were in this pie if I try it. Hmmm. Can't wait to see what you do next. That's a great picture of your daughter w/ her pie!
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