Chicken Pot Pie with Bacon and Butternut Squash

It's Pi day and what better way to celebrate than with a whole assortment of pies!

I remember every year in high school there was always a Pi day celebration and one of the events was to see who could memorize Pi the farthest. I never participated but I was always amazed at how far some people got.

Are you surprised that I'm posting a savory pie today? I kind of am. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to make and I just couldn't think of a sweet pie that I was really craving. Which is also odd. I have been craving chicken pot pie for awhile now though so it kept coming back to me. I had a recipe that I loved that I made a whole bunch a year or so ago but I haven't been able to find it lately. I gave up on finding it so I went exploring the internet for something new. I found this one on Bon Appetit and I thought it would serve as a good base and I liked how it was a bit different than usual.

Classic Lattice Top Cherry Pie

I picked up 8 lbs of sweet cherries from Costco on Friday night. And they're all gone. Not that I've eaten them all, but they've all been made into three amazing desserts that I can't wait to share with you.

Caramel Pumpkin Pie

This is the second in my Thanksgiving prep series, providing you some fun new recipes for the upcoming holidays. Today, we're going straight from soup course all the way to dessert. Hey, I never said I was going to go in order.

Pumpkin Pi

I love pumpkin pie, although it usually is best with equal amounts of fresh whipped cream. Most traditional pumpkin pie recipes are made with a mixture of spices and evaporated milk. In this version, sugar and water are cooked together until it becomes a deep amber color and is then mixed with cream to make a smooth creamy caramel. The caramel is then mixed with spices and pumpkin puree and cooked together in the crust of your choice. It's not dramatically different from your traditional pie, but I absolutely love the hints of caramel throughout the pie.

Peach Pie Two Ways~ Vanilla Cardamom and Caramel

Well, my Emeril streak is over and it's time to move on to my regular schedule, which is certainly not three posts a week. It was a lot of fun but cooking, photographing and posting that much is just a little too much for me to keep up with.

I made these pies a few weeks ago, so I wanted to get this post out before it was impossible to get fresh peaches anymore this season. Although, truthfully I really actually prefer canned peaches when I make pies most of the time. Is that sacrilegious? They just hold up better when cooked and I just love fresh peaches, well, fresh.

Blackberry and Raspberry Pie Bars

A few weeks ago I attended another Minnesota Food Bloggers event where we had a bake off featuring bar recipes from many of the bloggers that attended. I was busy that evening so mine was more of a drop off entry, and I didn't even get to taste the other bars that were there! They all looked amazing though, and although mine didn't win, I thought they were pretty darn good.

Lime and Blackberry Italian Meringue Pie

One of the things I miss most about Seattle summers is being able to walk into our backyard or along any street and pick bucketfuls of the most beautiful blackberries you have ever seen. My memories of the scratches received while digging through the branches have faded somewhat but I can vividly remember the cobblers, pies and jams that we made each year. Now I have to hope Costco gets a good batch of decent berries and then pay an arm and a leg for a little container of them. For that reason I really don't use them much for anything.

Strawberry and Pastry Cream Tart

Last week we had a get together with some of our friends that like to cook where we each brought some of our "specialties" and spent an evening together with some pretty amazing food. Kids were involved too so we tried to get them fed and then banished to destroy the basement play room before we sat down and enjoyed some amazing appetizers and grilled meats. There was enough food for at least twice as many people so there was no excuse for anyone to go hungry. I was assigned the dessert but honestly I'm getting a little desserted out. I'm sure that's a real word right? And as soon as I wrote that, I almost deleted it. It's not that I don't want to eat dessert, just not make it again for awhile. At least for a day or two.

Spinach Quiche

Traditional quiche is typically a simple egg and cream mixture baked in a pastry crust but there are numerous additions that can make a fantastic quiche suitable for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This version adds crumbled bacon over the bottom and then spinach, pepper jack and sharp cheddar cheese mixed into the egg and cream mixture. Be creative with your cheese selections and create your own version of this quiche.