After agreeing that it seemed silly to have mashed potatoes AND mashed sweet potatoes, we decided we’d use the bag of sweet potatoes we bought for a homemade pie. There are thousands of sweet potato pie recipes out there… but when we saw a recipe for Duck Fat Pie Crust, our jaws dropped and we started baking. We were, after all, having DUCK instead of turkey, so the duck fat would be easy to come by.

The crust is exceptionally easy to make, and the duck fat made it perfectly flaky and crumbly. The pie filling is pretty standard – except that it has a little bourbon in it, which adds a nice kick. We know that about 95% of people in America ate sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving, but we think ours was pretty special.

Oh, and it’s not pictured here, but if you add a little bourbon and sugar to your whipped cream, it pairs pretty darn well with this pie.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Pie with Duck Fat Crust 

Hopefully you’ve used the search function on our blog to find our roast turkey recipe and any other side dishes that you might want for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Maybe some mashed white sweet potatoes?  Or perhaps you were looking for butternut squash? (If you substitute the pancetta in that recipe for an equal amount of guenciale, its even better!)

Instead of traditional Thanksgiving fare, we’re posting a fall-affiliated recipe this morning for when you’ve recovered from your turkey feast – Colonial Game Pie!  A legendary meal in the Rordam household from many good memories at the King’s Arms Tavern, its worth the effort.  Landon visited a few weeks ago, and we spent the afternoon fixing these delicious pies.

Maybe you’ll spend time today making the pies on a whim!  Like everyone else, you probably have some game lying around the house (think of those still-life paintings you see in the museums) and need a use for it this Thanksgiving.

Even if you’re not cooking up some game pie, we hope you have a very happy day.  We sure are thankful for our incredible family and friends, for Chance, for each other, and for great food.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Recipe: Colonial Game Pie

I don’t think I ever ate Buttermilk Pie growing up – even though I’m told it’s a classic Southern dessert. For a dinner party recently I decided to take this traditional pie and add some pumpkin – because who doesn’t love pumpkin in mid-October? We topped the pie with brown sugar and nutmeg spiced whipped cream… and it was all divine.

Once the dinner guests ate their pieces of pie, we ended up with 3/4 of a pie in the fridge. And guess how long it lasted after that. … Not very long.

Pumpkin Buttermilk Pie with Spiced Whipped Cream

Dan doesn’t like cooked fruit – so he doesn’t count…but everyone else seemed to love this dessert. I think I was the only one licking my plate at the end, but everyone said it was tasty. and it was.

This “crumble” is different from a normal fruit pie for several reasons – the crumble topping is obviously different than a lattice top pie… but that’s not all. The preparation calls for cooking some of the fruit in sugar before adding it to the rest of the fresh fruit – this releases the juices early so that the pie doesn’t turn into fruity soup when cooked, which has happened to me wayyy too many times.

This pie is great – it’s sweet, it’s fun, it’s fairly easy…and it uses the best of summer ingredients. Go for it before blueberries go back out of season. Have some people over, kick your feet up, and eat “crumble.”

Recipe: Blueberry/Strawberry Crumble

We thought about making our Chocolate Chess Pie for the holiday, but we just posted that in January. Then, we thought about a variation on our Summer Berry Pie, but it is January and we weren’t sure we could pull that off in a non-frozen kind of way. So – our choice took us back to our New Orleans roots (we’ve talked about these before…)

Which leads us to the second momentous occasion last weekend. THE SAINTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!! We’re not excited. Clearly.

Recipe: Pecan Pie

Oh, and I totally cheated and bought a pie crust. I know, I know…I usually make it myself (and tell you to do the same), but I didn’t feel like it. Everybody has days like that, right?

Recipe: Pear Pie

I decided to make the most of it and tackle a new recipe. I’m not sure you can consider a variation on tomato pie a real accomplishment, but it occupied my time (before my girly movie, of course) and was comforting…and oh so delicious.

I realize this is the 3rd tomato pie recipe on this website. I would promise that this is the last, but that may not be a promise I can keep. This is cheesier, and less traditional than the other tomato pies, but it is more savory and dense, in a good way. Summer is almost over, so why not devour all the big, bright, juicy tomatoes that we can while they last?

Recipe: Cheesy Onion and Tomato Pie

For dessert, I made (healthy) blueberry muffins. Actually, I made them for this morning, but ended up tasting them for dessert. More on that later.

This is a special post. Normally, we give you one recipe per post. That all changed on July 26th, when two recipes showed up under Roasted Summer Vegetables. Now, we have something new and exciting – 2 recipes on one page! (Ok, so we have done this before with Mahi Mahi, but it’s been a long time!)

These two tomato pie recipes are sure to please. The first is more traditional and the second has a few more bells and whistles. You may like one, you may like both, and if your grandmother/grandfather/mother/father/aunt/uncle makes one, you’ll probably like their’s better anyway.

Recipe: Two Tomato Pies

Summer Berry Pie

Pie Dough 1