Pear Pie the Organic Way and How to Make Vegan Pie Crusts

A generous local organic farmer was kind enough to give me a bag of pears this past week, which I promptly turned into two PEAR PIES. I believe they were Yellow Bartlett pears, and they were very easy to cut in half, remove the centers, and cut into thick slices. 

 

I looked in Joy of Cooking for some ideas of how to flavor pear pies. My memory from a child was that pear pie involved some kind of creamy stuff around it, but I think that's just how my mother made it, and I don't remember it fondly. Yet, pears struck me as being a little more bland than, say, an apple, so I knew it would need to be perked up in some manner.

There was a recipe for baked pears that gave me some guidelines. I ended up adding a little cinnamon, lemon, sugar, chopped walnuts (the part I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own), and a few dribbles of the remains of the lemon-infused vodka. That seemed to do the trick, as the little chewy bits of walnuts were a nice foil to the mushy pears, and the lemon and cinnamon did their perking jobs.

Two Organic Pear Pies

 

Ingredients

 

Filling

½ peck of organic pears (about 16)

½ cup organic sugar

1 organic lemon, juiced

½ tsp cinnamon

1 Tblsp. lemon infused vodka, or maybe some white wine

1 cup organic walnuts, chopped

Crust

2 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

2 cups organic white flour (with the germ added back in — you can buy it that way)

½ tsp salt

1 cup organic sunflower oil (or enough to turn the flours into crumbly mixture)

Up to ½ cup of water (or enough to be able to form dough into a soft pliable ball)

Coral Mushrooms

 

I finally identified some edible mushrooms out in the woods behind my house yesterday afternoon. They seemed to be Coral Mushrooms. Since they weren't bitter (yes, I tasted a tiny bit), did not bruise brown, and weren't gelatinous at their base, they passed the test. Some were white and some were tan. All grew along a woodsy path attached to rotting branches. I left some behind in hopes they will continue producing.

Always check an expert source before ingesting any wild mushrooms. A few weeks ago I had found loads of what I hoped were small puffballs, but, alas, they were poisonous. My first hint was when they were dark purple when I broke them open. My second was when a friend's mushroom expert friend confirmed their identity. I had also researched them online. In other words, this is not something to take lightly.

A sure sign these coral mushrooms were fine: All of us who ate them last night suffered no ill effects. We made sure that not all of us ate them — so somebody could explain what had happened to the rest of us had the worst happened.

The good news is they were very tasty, indeed, just sauteed in some olive oil with a sprinkle of tamari. First I did have to pick off all the pine needles and leaves stuck to them. Even though I know you aren't supposed to, I submerged them in water to help me clean them. Then I lay them out to dry before sauteing them.

This has been a great wet year for mushrooms and toadstools, if not for people, so be sure to take a walk in the woods to check out the wide variety. There are some very surprising shapes and colors. Most not edible, but all of them interesting to look at.

Vegan Pancakes

Making a vegan pancake is just as easy as making any other kind of pancake. The good thing about vegan pancake batter is you can throw all kinds of healthful ingredients in, if you want, and nobody will be the wiser. The basic batter can be changed and adapted to what you have on hand. Blueberries or bananas are always a welcome addition, or ground seeds or nuts. I used up the yogurt that separated (because I didn't follow my own recipe ...), and every pancake was gobbled up. We like to eat our vegan pancakes with applesauce, organic Smart Balance, and syrup.

Zucchini Lasagna

 

I wanted to make a lasagna last night, but didn't have any wide lasagna noodles — but I had a lot of zucchini to use up. Hmmm. I'd made a large pot of tomato sauce, and I decided to layer up what I had on hand. I had seven people to feed, so I wanted a large amount of whatever I came up with.