We hosted Pie Night for the AIC Malmö last Saturday and it was a smash success. We had 25 people (including myself, Anders, and Martin), though originally 29 were supposed to show. We’ve had Pie Night at least 7 times now, if the oldest one on the AIC website in 2016 was actually the first.
As usual, Anders made 2 taco pies at my request, and I made 2 fruit pizzas. We had 6 different savory pies for dinner including the taco paj: spanakopita (which was delish), chicken tamale pie, French leek quiche, shepherd’s pie, and steak & carrot pie. And for dessert, we had (in addition to the fruit pizza), 2 apple pies, 2 blueberry cobblers, a lemon curd custard (divine!), and banoffee pie.
We actually ended up with half of one of our taco pies and an entire fruit pizza left over, which we were not sad about. We finished off the fruit pizza yesterday. Yum yum! Since I usually only make it once a year for Pie Night, I was glad to have some left over. We usually have taco paj a few times during the year, since it’s a family favorite. Karin even got the recipe from me and made it last month in Italy for her roommates. She swapped out the red pepper slices on top for sliced cherry tomatoes. I have 2 kids that dislike bell peppers. Not so weird, I guess…I wasn’t a huge fan of them until I was in my mid-twenties, when I discovered how good roasted red peppers were, and how much I like thinly sliced green bell peppers on a tuna melt.
My favorite pie has always been pumpkin, since I was really young. I loved having pumpkin pie with whipped cream at Thanksgiving and at Christmas. I still remember my mom giggling when she tricked me with a sweet potato pie one year. I hated sweet potatoes, so I would have totally refused it if I had known. 😀 And I remember also having a Ritz Cracker pie once as well: it tasted EXACTLY like apple pie. So funny!
My grandmother used to make cherry and apple pies every year and those were the favorites of my cousins, and while I like them now, before I was just not interested. Anders has made cherry pie with our own cherries a couple of times. So good! Can’t really go wrong with pie dough and fruit. I think the caramel pie (cola paj) that we discovered when the kids were smaller (we got the recipe from Martin’s friend’s Frida’s mom) is really my favorite, but we rarely make it because it’s so much work. It’s got meringue on top, and I love meringue. Also something I discovered after I was grown.
I don’t remember ever having pies with meringue as a child. Is meringue on pies not a thing in the States? I feel like I always heard about cream pies, and key lime pies, and apple and cherry pies, and of course, pumpkin, but not much else. At least when it comes to dessert pies. I just looked up the most popular pies in the US, and all of those were on it. I forgot about pecan pie, but since I’m not a fan of nuts in food, I don’t remember ever eating pecan pie until someone brought it to one of our Friendsgivings and I finally tried it! Maybe it was only served in the south, and we only lived in the south for one year when I was a child and my dad was stationed in Alabama. So weird about food that you don’t eat as a child, that you discover as an adult is not that bad, haha!
It doesn’t seem like we ate a lot of dinner pies, either, except for chicken pot pie, usually as a TV dinner. I loved Swanson’s chicken pot pies. Someone brought a chicken pot pie to the very first Pie Night and I remember how happy it made me: tasted like home. We didn’t eat quiches for dinner when I was growing up…I don’t think I had ever even heard the word quiche; usually it was casseroles, which seem to sort of fill the quiche department in American cuisine. Quiches are really common here in Sweden and you can buy 1-portion frozen ones that are really good: broccoli and bacon, cheddar cheese (västerbottenost), mushroom, ham and cheese, salmon and spinach. Everyone brings quiche to Swedish potlucks! My sister-in-law’s ham and cheese quiche is delicious. Both Anders and his sister are whizzes at making pie crusts, thanks to their mom.
Good thing I already had dinner! But sad I have to wait another year for Pie Night. I suppose I could host more than one a year, but it’s worth waiting for. 🙂
Mood: happy
Music: The The—Uncertain Smile
growing up, my favorite pie was lemon meringue. i could always talk my grandma into making it for me. that’s the only pie i can think of that reliably has meringue. maybe because meringue is kind of a pain to make.
I love lemon meringue now! What a lot I missed out on as a picky child!