Chocolate Creme Pie

This was my first attempt at making a chocolate creme pie from scratch (well at least the filling) and I'd say it was a huge success!

Ingredients:
1 pre-made Oreo pie crust
Whipped cream
Pie filling
 - 1 cup of sugar
 - 3/4 cup of heavy cream
 - 3/4 cup of buttermilk
 - 3 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch
 - Pinch of salt
 - 4 egg yolks
 - 4 ounces of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips
 - 1 tablespoon of butter
 - 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for pie filling:
 - In a small saucepan combine sugar, heavy cream, buttermilk, cornstarch and salt. Whisk until smooth and then place over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking from time to time (about 5 minutes). Continue cooking at a low boil for an additional 5 minutes while whisking constantly.

 - In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly. Pour 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan and whisk over hear until thoroughly combined and very thick, 1 to 2 minutes.

 - Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl, whisk in the chocolate, butter and vanilla. Again, continue to whisk until thoroughly combined. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap that is placed directly on the surface and refrigerate until cooled to room temperature, about 35 minutes.

 - Once cooled, put mixture into pie crust and smooth the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

 - Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

Amy's Bridal Shower

Amy's bridal shower was on Saturday and we could not have asked for a better location or a better day. The Inn at Shelburne Farms is absolutely gorgeous. The food was fantastic and most importantly Amy was thrilled. She managed to keep herself together while looking at the photo album that Dana put together for her, but when the cucumber tea sandwiches came out she shed a few tears. Amy had forgotten that she requested them at her bridal shower and was so ecstatic that we had remembered.

Amy crying over cucumber tea sandwiches

Cucumber tea sandwiches

The perfect brunch buffet

Gifts for Amy

Mother-of-the Bride, her sister Kelly and the Bride-to-be, Amy

Home Sweet Studio Apartment

Before

During the big move

After!

After 3 full days of moving in 90 degree heat, my new place is finally put together. This is a photo of my cute little living room and a little bit of my bedroom. :) I am so excited to be able to go home next time and not have to do any cleaning or unpacking!

I would just like to point out that the very nice light fixture that now lights my kitchen was installed by yours truly! Doesn't it look pretty! :)

Thanks Mom, Timmy, Aunt Jeanine, Brian, Linda and George for helping me move and thanks to Jenn for hosting us all at her house. I appreciate all of your contributions to my move.

A Slice of Heaven

I used to think that I loved slices because of pizza, but in reality I love slices of food in general. For example, a slice of greek pizza and a slice of blueberry pie make up my favorite dinner and dessert! See below for recipes.

I made these two pies during one long hot cooking session. First start with your pizza crust then make your pie crust.

Pizza crust:
1. 1 1/2 cups of flour
2. a pinch of salt
3. 1 packet of instant yeast
4. 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
5. 1/2 cup of hot water
6. Mix
7. Cover and let rise while you make your pie

Mom's never fail pie crust recipe:
1.  4 cups of flour
2. 1 teaspoon of baking powder
3. 1 teaspoon of salt
4. 1 tablespoon sugar
5. 1 3/4 cup Crisco
6. 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
7. 1 egg
8. 1/2 cup of cold water
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix together the dry ingredients then cut in the Crisco. Don't substitute store brand shortening for the Crisco, it might be more expensive but it is totally worth it. Mix together the cold water and apple cider vinegar, then whisk in the egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until your pie crust forms a large ball. Separate into 3 equal parts. Each 1/3 is a double pie crust. My mom uses this crust for sweet and savory pies, so I recommend dusting with cinnamon and sugar if it is a sweet pie!

Rollout a top and a bottom for the pie. Put the bottom crust in your pie plate and set the top aside for a few minutes.

The next step is to make the pie filling. For a blueberry pie mix 4 cups of blueberries, 1/2 - 3/4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of cornstarch together. As a side note, blueberry pies call for more cornstarch than a berry berry pie, which only uses about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.

Put your pie filling in your pie crust and put your top crust over the berries. Use your fingers to close the two crusts together. Make sure that the top is firmly attached to the bottom crust to avoid any blueberry juice from spilling out into your oven.

Sprinkle the top of your pie with cinnamon and sugar and cover with foil. Cook your pie for 25 minutes with the foil on and then cook for an additional 30 minutes without the foil. Let your pie rest overnight or until it comes to room temperature, before you cut into it. Enjoy!

Now that you are salivating over pie and cannot control your appetite anylonger, make your pizza!

Greek Pizza - inspired by pizza eaten with Anna Kovaliv on the island of Santorini!
1. Press out your pizza dough onto a pizza stone or baking sheet.
2. Coat your crust with a thin layer of olive oil. The olive oil traps the heat from below down to your crust so your crust is nice and crisp and brown! This makes a big difference in how your crust cooks.
3. Use your favorite red sauce. For this recipe I like red sauce with garlic.
4. Top with feta, halved grape tomatoes, onion, green pepper and kalamata olives if the mood strikes.
5. Cook at 425 degrees for 15 - 25 minutes depending on your oven. My old oven only took 15 minutes to make my pizza, but my aunt's oven takes almost 25 minutes to cook the same pizza!

Enjoy!!!

My Happy Place - Peak's Island

After driving 4 hours and waiting 2 or 3 more hours for the car ferry I finally arrive at my happy place. As soon as I see this sign I turn my cell phone off and can feel the effects of being on Island time. I am calm, relaxed and giddy about the fact that I am not going to get a single phone call, e-mail, facebook message or text message for one whole week.  This is the one week a year that I unplug and it is well deserved after the last 6 months of work.

This year the crew included: Mom and Timmy, Mike and Dawn, Meg, Corey and Owen, Aaron and myself. I can honestly say that we didn't do a whole lot, a few walks and runs, a ton of eating, some drinking and mostly reading, sleeping and sun bathing.

To conclude such a fabulous week I decided to take on a challenge: 2 scoops of ice cream, which was really more like 4 scoops. 1/2 Maine Blueberry, 1/2 Deer Tracks. While I am disappointed to say I did not finish all the ice cream, I did eat the whole cone.

Happy June 29th (aka June 30th, aka last day of busy season)

Happy End of Busy Season! I have to say that this has been one of the best and worst busy seasons ever. It was nice to know that this would be my last busy season at JLCo, but it was hard being on a new team with a much different operating structure. While I am excited to move on to the next chapter, JLCo has been a huge part of my life and I will miss it. Photo above is Emily, Me and Julia at Breakwaters. Photo below is Elena and Michelle at RiRa's. 

On a closing note WAAAaaaaHooooooo, I Made It!!!!!!!! :)