Pie Passion! (and a Kitchen Tool of the Week)

We're in a bit of a pie making frenzy. In years past, when this kind of pie passion takes over, I would bake 10-12 pies at a time and freeze them for winter nights, potlucks, dinner parties, or just an afternoon when we all needed some summer fruit reminders. I have a feeling this will be one of those years, and judging from the fruit coming on our backyard apple tree, it may just have to be an apple pie year.

For now, we eat strawberries. Here's the latest: a strawberry rhubarb pie that had us all licking our lips. For the crust, I usually use coconut oil and whole wheat flour, although this one was part spelt. Zeal and I enjoyed the tapping out the strawberry shaped vent holes. He's still learning the art of the crust pinch, but I say not too bad.



But here's the real fun when it comes to Zeal's pie making forays. He loves these little molds we picked up last year in one our bulk orders to Frontier. These are a great tool to have on hand for anyone wanting to get your kids involved in the kitchen more. They take very little dough (and will even work with a rolled out piece of bread) and are great fun to fill. Zeal usually gets them out when I have some kind of crust or dough in the works, and therefore fills them with whatever pie filling we have going, but he's also been know to use them for sandwich fillings (especially jam), sliced cucumbers and a bit of herb salt, or any number of styles of cooked veggies (the favorite has been Ethiopian style - we're still working on a teff recipe that we like).

Here's the nifty little mold just before being graced with some strawberries and rhubarb: