Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie!

This is a Gold Medal Flour recipe that I just had to try because the peanut butter and banana combo just sounded really good to me. And it proved to be true! I love the texture of the pie and the whipped topping. The peanut butter mixed with the cream turned out really good and rich and the banana pudding filling had a lot of bananas in it. Delicious! I took this pie to work and it was gone in 30 minutes. I have such lucky co-workers! haha...

And if you would like to make this pie, here is the recipe!
http://goldmedalflour.com/Recipes/PeanutButterBananaCreamPie

The Pitch Fork Pie Stand!

This weekend I was very fortunate to be able to drive to Elden, Iowa and visit the American Gothic House where Beth Howard lives and bakes pies. She only opens her place up a few times a year. But when she does, the line is out the door! I got to sample her apple, chess and peanut butter cream pie. They were all very delicious! Her butter crust was divine and every pie was baked to perfection!

http://theworldneedsmorepie.com

Peanut Butter Cream Pie With Graham Cracker Crust

I got this pie recipe from the Cooks Country Magazine and it turned out wonderful! I'd never made a graham cracker crust before. It was just the crackers, butter and brown sugar and it was really good. Then the cream was made of cream cheese, peanut butter, heavy cream and powdered sugar. Really yummy. Kind of rich. But I love the rich... ;-)

Goat Cheese & Basil Tart

This goat cheese and basil tart is a recipe from Ina Garten. It is delicious! I made it for dinner, but it could also be a breakfast tart, because it has egg in it. The recipe called for fresh basil, but the grocery store didn't have any. I used dry and it was still really good, cheesy and basil-y. Success!

Oatmeal Apple Pie

This pie turned out really well. A really good texture on the inside. And I fluted the edge of the crust really well. I'm so proud of myself! I can finally flute and make it look good! Woo-hoo!

Different Types Of Fat Used In Pie Crust

I Found A Great Blog Post On Food52.com On Different Types Of Fat Used In Pie Crust

http://food52.com/blog/8742-pie-fats-butter-vs-oil-vs-shortening-vs-lard

But This Is All You Really Need To Know: =)

The Combo:
My grandma swore by a combination of fats. Once upon a time, it was half lard, half shortening. Then it became half butter, half shortening. Either way, she liked mixing the sure result of shortening with the better flavor of other fats. <-- And this is so true! Because my grandma's pie crust recipe mixes shortening and lard. But I usually only see pie crust recipes with one kind of fat online.

1887 Pie Crust Recipe

I found a pie crust recipe from 1887.  I haven't tried it yet. But I love how they explain to add enough water to work the dough. Most recipes call for 4-5 tablespoons of water, which never seems like enough. So reading this makes me feel better about how much water I use in my crust and how I don't really measure it! This recipe also uses baking-powder, so I'm not really sure what that would do to the structure of the crust, so it might be fun to try.

http://www.rubylane.com/item/508881-2133/c1887-Cook-Book-Meat-Poultry