Pie and More Pie

Sometimes having an allergy requires creativity in cooking  and sometimes that creativity can go awry. Last Saturday was our monthly movie night with friends Gerd and Maria. I decided to surprise everyone by making a banana cream pie. While I knew it was Dan's favorite, I didn't realize that Gerd and Maria were fans as well.

I started with a nice graham cracker crust, sliced a banana on the bottom and set to work making the pie filling (it's called instant pudding and pie filling). I put the metal mixing bowl in the refrigerator to cool it down, then added the pudding mix and 2 cups of almond milk (yes I did say almond milk) and turned on the mixer.

After 5 minutes and no thickening in site I turned off the mixer and did the proverbial head scratching. I pulled out the package and noticed a small note on the bottom of the directions that said something like "hey stupid don't use low fat or dairy free milk" which obviously is the secret to making pudding.

But I had a plan, I put the pudding in a saucepan, turned on the burner and added a little cornstarch and boiled it – Poof it's Pudding; but not enough to fill the pie crust. So I throw on my jacket, drive to the big box grocer for another package of pudding and milk – real milk.  After 2 hours we have pie.

Fortunately pie number 2 – a vegetarian potpie topped with sweet potato biscuits was a lot easier. I started by roasting the veggies I had in the fridge: cauliflower, turnips, carrots, pearl onions, and broccoli with olive oil, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. While they were roasting I chopped an onion and added some whole sage and thyme leaves to a can of coconut milk and simmered it for about 15 minutes to infuse the flavors.

While the milk simmered I made a roux of flower and butter and cooked it until it was golden brown. I strained the milk, added it to the roux and cooked it until it I had the desired thickness.

When everything was done I added the veggies to the sauce and poured it into a deep casserole, and topped it with the sweet potato biscuits (just a standard biscuit recipe to which I added some mashed baked sweet potato).  About a half hour before our guests arrived, I put it in the oven and baked it until the biscuits were golden on top.

Despite all that dinner was good and I appreciated having leftovers for dinner the next day, my back wasn't interested in standing for another afternoon of cooking. Note to self, almond milk and pudding do not play well together.