Buttermilk Pie

Buttermilk is a favorite of mine; therefore, buttermilk is something I always have in the refrigerator. To keep things simple, you can just buy pie dough from the refrigerated section of your supermarket, or you can buy preformed shortbread or graham cracker crust pie shells, which come in a baking tin. I "believe" they are all 9 inch pie shells, but this amount of filling from this recipe should be fine for 9 or 10 inch diameter pies.

 

 

Ingredients (for one 9 to 10 inch pie):

 

1 cup buttermilk 

1 1/4 cups sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 extra large eggs 

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon orange or lemon juice

1 tablespoon orange or lemon zest   

unbaked pie dough (preformed shortbread shell)

raspberries, blackberries or strawberries for garnish 

Mix together well the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, flour, melted butter, orange or lemon juice and orange or lemon zest. Add the filling to the pie shell and bake at 350 F for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the middle of the pie is well set. Let the pie cool for about 15 or 20 minutes, then cover it lightly with a kitchen towel or a paper towel and let it cool a further half hour; or, refrigerate until the pie is chilled.  Serve with fresh or thawed frozen raspberries, blackberries or strawberries; OR, a mixture of these. Oh, and there is whipped cream to top the fruit, or you can simply top the pie slices with whipped cream.   

Variation #1: Chocolate Buttermilk Pie: use a preformed chocolate pie shell, use no lemon (or orange) juice, no lemon (or orange) zest, add and mix into the filling 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa.

Variation #2: Chocolate & Peppermint Buttermilk Pie: use the same mixture as for the chocolate pie  above, except, use no vanilla extract, but add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract to the filling mixture.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Bore-This is the noun and verb form having to do with "piercing a generally solid material to make a hole." It is related to the main body of "perforation" and "perforate," both words borrowed from Latin. "Bore" goes back to Indo European "bher(h)," which meant "to pierce or cut through." This gave Old Germanic the verb "buronan," meaning "to pierce, to make a hole in a material by turning a sharp tool to drill into the material." This gave Old English the verb "borian," with the same meanings. This then became "boren," before the modern form. The English noun form "bore" either developed from the verb or there is a possibility that Old Germanic had a noun form "bur/bor," meaning "a tool for piercing," but the English noun form doesn't seem to show up until the 1300s, which adds the possibility that it came along into English via Old Norse, or that Old Norse strongly reinforced a developing native form based upon the existing English verb form. The noun also took the meaning of "the result of boring;" that is, "the bored hole in a material."   

Frozen Creamy Fruit & Nut Pie

A "no bake" pie for the hot days of summer...

Shortbread pie shells should easily be found in your local supermarket. 

Ingredients:

2 shortbread pie shells (9 to 10 inch)
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 container (8 ounces) whipped topping 
12 ounces crushed pineapple, drained
11 or 12 ounce can mandarin oranges, drained
1 banana, peeled and chopped 
pistachio nuts, whole, halved or chopped
fresh cherries, seeded and halved (or maraschino cherries)

It's best to let the whipped topping thaw first. Mix together the condensed milk and the whipped topping. Drain the pineapple well in a sieve over a bowl and do the same with the mandarin orange segments. You can save the juices for drinking. Add the various fruits and the pistachios to the milk mixture and fold it in gently, so as not to break up the fruit or to discolor the filling. I used fresh dark cherries, so some juice is bound to make some small patches of color on the filling. Pour the filling into the pie shells and smooth it over. Cover with the lids provided with the pie shells and secure them with the folded over edges of the pie pans. Put into the freezer (make sure the pies are level) for several hours, until completely frozen. If you'd like, you can slice the pies and put the slices onto serving plates and give them just a couple of minutes to soften just a little.   

WORD HISTORY:
Dense/Condense-This word has an unclear origin, although it seems to have ancient connections to Indo European, and transliterated Hittite, an Indo European language, had "dassus(h)," which meant, "strong." Ancient Greek had transliterated "dasys/dasus," meaning, "thick with leaves/foliage, or hair." Latin may have borrowed the Greek word, or perhaps it already had its own form, "densus," an adjective meaning, "cloudy, crowded, thick." English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1400s, certainly with reinforcement by Latin-based French "dense." The more figurative meaning, "not easily penetrated," developed in the 1700s (see the Hittite form above), and this led to the further meaning, "dumb, slow on the uptake," in the first half of the 1800s, from the notion, "slow to penetrate the brain." It is also the main part of the word "condense," a Latin-derived word, with the prefix "con" seemingly used as an intensifier, and the word meaning, "to make dense, to make thicker, to compact." This was borrowed in the 1400s from French "condenser" ("to make dense, to condense, to reduce to a compact form," which came from Latin "condensare," with the same meanings. 

Acorn or Butternut Squash & Sage Tart

This was my own idea, so if anything goes wrong, blame someone else. That may not sound right, but I'll get Sarah Huckabee Sanders to explain it to you later. I used an acorn squash about the size of a softball. Actually... I checked and found that the diameter of a softball is typically 3.8 inches or 9.65 centimeters. Just before I put the squash mix into the pie shell, I had a brilliant, very brilliant, idea. I'll have Sarah Huckabee Sanders explain how brilliant I am later and she'll tell you with a totally straight face. That girl can lie without batting an eye. Anyway, I added some mushrooms to the ingredients. You can use whatever you have, but use only one portabello (also spelled, "portobello") mushroom, as they are so big. I happened to have a few shiitake mushrooms, so I used those.    


Ingredients:

1 acorn or butternut squash
1  9 inch pie shell
about 10 fresh sage leaves, torn into 3 pieces
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
3 mushroom caps, chopped 
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 egg, beaten

First, heat the oven to 325 F. Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Place the squash cut side down in a shallow ovenproof pan or on a baking sheet (foil or parchment paper lined makes for easier clean up). Bake for about 1 hour, or until a knife or fork can be easily inserted into each half. Scoop out the flesh of the squash into a bowl and let it cool a bit. Put the pie shell into your preheated 375 F oven for about 6 or 8 minutes, just to firm it up. Mash the squash flesh and then add the sage leaves, the dried sage, the chopped mushrooms, the cayenne, the salt, the pepper, the flour, the cream and the beaten egg. Mix very well with a large spoon. The mixture should be very thick. Fill the pie shell with the squash mixture and bake it for approximately 45 minutes, but check it at the 30 minute mark. The tart can be served warm or cold.

WORD HISTORY: 
Squash-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this is the noun for the general name of the vegetable, of which there are a number of varieties. This is a shortening of a compound word, "askutasquash," from Narragansett, a language of the Algonquian languages of North America.^ The word meant, "thing eaten raw," with the "askut" part meaning, "green;" thus also, "raw," and  "asquash" meaning, "eaten."   

^ Some of the best known other members of this language family are Shawnee, Cheyenne, Cree and Arapaho, but there are many others. 

Blueberries & Cream Pie

I've known and used this recipe for more than 25 years, but how I got it, I don't recall, and I don't even have it written down. Over the years, besides blueberries, I've done this pie with strawberries, peaches, blackberries, and one time, I even used pineapple. It was good! I've simply chosen to use blueberries this time, because that's what I just bought at the market. The pie has no crust for the top. Very simple to make.

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries, well rinsed and drained
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup heavy cream + 1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
9 inch pie shell (homemade or store bought)

Heat the oven to 375 F. Place the pie shell in the oven for about 6 or 8 minutes, to firm it up for the cream/milk component that will be added. Remove the crust from the oven and add the blueberries. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the blueberries, then do the same with the cinnamon. One more time, sprinkle the flour evenly over the top. Mix the cream and milk and then gradually pour it over the pie. Some berries may not be fully covered, but do not fear, civilization has never ended over such trivial things. Bake the pie at 400 F for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the cream has essentially set (it should not be runny). Let the pie cool a bit, then place in the refrigerator to chill it, before serving, as it will set further as it cools/chills. 

 WORD HISTORY:
Bramble-This word, related to "broom," goes back to Indo European "bhrem," which meant, "bristle, thorn, sharp-pointed object." This gave Old Germanic "breme," meaning, "bush with thorns (often specifically used in reference to the blackberry bush)," and the extended, "bremel," as a diminutive form.^ This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bræmel," with the same meaning. The "b" appeared to make the word, "bræmbel," but still with the "thorny bush" meaning, including the reference to "blackberry bush," and the derived word "bremel" was compounded with "berie," the then form of "berry," to make the Old English word for "blackberry."^^ "Bræmbel" then became "brembel," before the modern version. Forms in other Germanic languages have tended to remain connected to words for "blackberry" in modern times: German "Brombeere," Low German Saxon "Brummelbeer," West Frisian has "brommel" ("seems" little used nowadays), Dutch "braam" (meaning, "blackberry"), Danish "brombær," Icelandic "brómber."   

^ A diminutive is a form that conveys a sense of something as smaller or dearer.

^^ Besides "bremelberie," the color of the berry brought about the development of "blaceberian," also, "blæcberie," both of which are forms of modern "blackberry," but "bramble berry" also developed. German too has had various names for the blackberry, with "Brombeere" being proper, but there are many dialectal forms, a few of which are: "Schwarzbeere" (literally "blackberry"), "Dornbeere" (literally "thornberry"), "Brommelbeere" ("brambleberry") and "Kratzbier/Kratzbeer" (barb berry, after the thorns/barbs. "Kratz" is related to English "scratch").