Soooo.... the kids have decided that dinner Christmas Eve will be pies -

[hedgehog]

For the vegetarians : quiche with pearl onions, spinach and mushrooms sauteed in butter and garlic, then sprinkled with swiss cheese

For the carnivores - the same plus sausages?

Dessert apple pie, egg nog pie, what else is Christmasy? Not mince meat, i don't think i could sell that. Chocolate cream with peppermint sprinkles? Something with coconut made to look like snow?


I should add - we're working on something that starts with a crust of mashed potatoes, I'm thinking Duchess potatoes nicely browned on top to get a crisp layer, topped with green bean casserole with french fried onions..... That'd be for Christmas Day. It's based on my youngest's preferred thanksgiving left-over feast!

[LaydeeBug]

1. make this. Trust.

http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/pie/mamas-buttermilk-pie-3.html

[hedgehog]

4. Add some rum, nutmeg and cinnamon, and i think you've got the perfect eggnog pie!

[LaydeeBug]

17. That sounds delicious. nt

[LeftofObama]

13. I made this today for my elderly mom.

She loved it!

It kind of reminds me of this custard pie.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-egg-custard-pie/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=grandms%27a%20egg%20custard%20pie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

The texture is a little more smooth, but the taste is very similar.

Thank you for posting the Buttermilk pie recipe. I try to make things I think mom will like.



Edit: I forgot to say that the buttermilk pie recipe is a lot easier and quicker than the custard pie recipe which is another reason I liked it.

[LaydeeBug]

16. I am so glad you enjoyed it, It was a hit at my house. nt

[SariesNightly]

2. Sounds delicious

=9

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. The thing with the mashed potato crust is a variant of the English dish

Shepard's pie.

[hedgehog]

5. We were trying to think of other vegetables we should add -

or whether what we came up with was plenty.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

6. Peas, carrots, perhaps turnips or parsnips

Basically, anything you like

[pinto]

9. I make something similar, but use browned ground beef, corn, diced bell pepper as a "filling",

with more mashed potato spread over the top, brushed with butter and baked in the oven till potatoes just get browned. Served with chopped chives over all.

Sometimes add diced onion to the ground beef as it browns and always add spices to the beef mixture in the skillet. The oven is primarily just to brown the potatoes on top and let all ingredients sort of meld. I find if it rests some out of the oven, it slices better to plate at the table.

[hedgehog]

10. I should have mentioned - thuis has to be a vegetarian version -

Maybe the thing to do is not gild the lily and make another fancy vegetarian dish. The centerpiece for the carnivores will be a roast ham. I like sweet potato casserole, but mashed and mashed may be overdoing it. Probably brussels spouts would be better.

[pinto]

11. Ah. The green bean version sounds good in that case.

Enjoy!

[grasswire]

7. bacon in quiche is delicious ya know

I make a quiche with artichoke hearts (Trader Joe's has great ones with stems included, in jars), kalamata olives (pitted), fresh basil, minced red onion, and gruyere or fontina. It's damned good.

[hedgehog]

8. Bacon! I forgotr about bacon!

[GoCubsGo]

12. How about tamale pie?

There are oodles of recipes on the Internet, both meat and vegetarian versions. Here's a pretty good vegetarian version. It uses polenta, rather than cornbread, so it's actually more like an actual tamale. It calls for kidney beans, but I prefer to use pintos:

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/1365378-Laurel-s-Kitchen-Vegetarian-Tamale-Pie

You can buy tubes of ready-made polenta, if you don't want to fool with making it from scratch, not that it's all that difficult. Sometimes I might add Boca/Morningstar Farms "recipe crumbles". I believe that one or both companies have tamale pie recipes on their web pages, as well.

May I suggest a gingerbread crust on that apple pie? Or, maybe with a pear tart? And, how about maybe an ice cream pie? Chocolate cookie crust, peppermint ice cream, fudge topping.

I have a good chocolate-bourbon cream pie recipe, if you are interested. It's a fairly simple one to make.

[cbayer]

14. A delicious (and vegetarian) appetizer is a tomato/basil/cheese pie.

It can be eaten at room temperature, too.

Let me know if you are interested and I will dig up the link for the recipe.

[Retrograde]

15. One of my winter go-tos is root vegetable pie

Dice enough potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, onions - whatever's on hand - and put them in a pie pan lined with pastry. I like to add peas for color, and mushrooms to give it a little moisture. Season with salt and pepper. Make a white sauce - you can add curry powder to give it a different character - and pour over the vegetables (it takes about a cup of sauce for a 9" pie). Cover with another crust, and bake.

I once had a lamb and apricot pie in England which I really liked and haven't been able to duplicate yet: there's a whole cuisine of meat pies in the British Isles.

For dessert, pumpkin pie! A real mince pie with meat and suet would be interesting, but from what I've read is a lot of trouble to make. The ones I've had with canned minced meat filling were too sweet for my tastes.