Pi Day Recipe: Cutie Pie!

The KLAW is now an 18 month old toddler with a strong will. He knows what he wants, and even though he has a very small vocabulary, lets us know exactly what that is. Lately the thing he wants most is FRUIT!  He will eat fruit for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Today he has had five bananas. I know this is about four too many, but at least it's something unprocessed and full of nutrients. He can say banana (nana), but also loves apples, pineapple, grapes and citrus, especially clementines or mandarins.

mmm nanas!

peeling Cuties

The Cuties clementines/mandarins are especially great because he likes to peel them once I get it started. Then they break up in to bite-sized seedless wedges, perfect for little hands (as advertised). I made the mistake of buying another type of orange citrus (tangerines, I think) and made a huge mess every day as I unseeded the darn things for him.

Cuties!

Pi Day is here, an annual tradition observed on March 14th (pi=3.14=3/14) by nerds like me around the world. This year is going to particularly epic. Pi to many decimal places is 3.141592653 which makes the magical moment 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 a.m. or if you want to be extra specific 3.14159265359 which rounds to 3/14/15 at 9:26:54 in the morning. But with a toddler around, I would be doing pretty good to have anything coordinated in the nine o'clock hour, in some time zone somewhere. We'll be having breakfast pot pies (the cheapie Budget freezer ones) at that epic moment, or thereabouts.

But I still wanted to have a sweet pie, so I came up with an idea for a pie I can make ahead of time and serve after our supper (or maybe lunch, we'll see). Combining my kid's love for the Cuties and the momentous Pi Day, I came up with... wait for it... the CUTIE PIE! Get it? Get it? I crack myself up. I have a family-favorite standby recipe from my Gram for key lime pie. It is so universally loved that it even won a bake-off at my former employer which meant the recipe was printed on their Recipe Hand Towels and sold to the public!

Wisteria Recipe Hand Towels

For the Cutie Pie, I simply substituted orange juice concentrate for the lime juice and added a dash of lemon juice to give it some extra tang. I was going for a Creamsicle type flavor. Garnished with some fresh Cutie wedges, and voila, a simple Cutie Pie that even a toddler can help make.

The Cutie Pie

Ingredients

1 can Sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup Orange juice concentrate (no pulp, thawed)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

8 oz. container (regular) Cool Whip (thawed)

1 large graham cracker crust

Cutie clementine wedges for garnish

Directions

Whisk sweetened condensed milk with orange and lemon juice. 

Fold in Cool Whip until just blended. 

Pour filling in crust.  

Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. You can also freeze it to serve later. Garnish with Cutie wedges before serving.

 

Don't forget to lick the spoon and whisk!

And clean up any sticky messes. 

Apple Cranberry Brown Butter Pecan Crumble Pie

How do you like dem apples?

I recently split an order of apples with a friend who is a member of Bountiful Baskets farm share. My portion was 10 pounds of small, ripe, delicious Fuji apples. I needed to find a use for them, and had everything on hand to make a pie or a crumble. I asked my hubby which he was in the mood for, and he said both! So I came up with a hybrid pie crumble that was delicious. Unfortunately I'd need to make 4 more to use up the apples, so the rest will probably become applesauce for the KLAW.

FILLING

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
5 cups sliced peeled apples (I required 7 of my small ones)
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Some excellent compost being generated there

CRUST

1 frozen deep dish pie crust

TOPPING

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats 
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1/4 cup cold butter
1/3 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 400°F. Place cookie sheet in oven to heat. 

In small saucepan, cook 1/4 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, until melted and lightly browned. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

My Quality Control Manager

While the butter is cooling, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the egg with wire whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in 2 tablespoons flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in cooled butter, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Fold apples and cranberries into the mixture. Pour filling into a frozen pie crust.

To make the topping, mix the dry ingredients except walnuts in a medium bowl. Add the butter in pats and cut in using a pastry blender or fork until crumbly; stir in the walnuts. **Add more butter if necessary. I did not have a pastry blender so I used a potato masher and my hands. Sprinkle topping over the filled pie.

Bake on cookie sheet 20 minutes. Place sheet of foil over pie (crust and topping) to prevent excessive browning. Bake 30 minutes longer or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown. 

Cool at least 30 minutes before serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Nom Nom Nom