Pie! What would a 4th of July BBQ be without pie?!? Every year, I make one and this year, it ended up being Vanilla Bourbon Cherry Blueberry Pie … Cherries from from Washington State, Blueberries from Maine, Bourbon from Kentucky. That pretty much covers it. Celebrate well this weekend, folks, and Happy Independence Day!
You guys know me: always putting slightly odd ingredients in sweet, baked dishes. Sometimes it is by mistake (i.e. the chili powder that accidentally replaced the cinnamon in an apple pie — though that was a happy accident as it was really good) and sometimes intentional (pepper and bitters in strawberry pie the other day; also really good). This time I thought I would do another “intentional experiment”: red wine and Chinese 5-spice powder in cherry pie. While there is some dispute about what is even in five spice powder (some mixtures have anise, cinnamon, star nnise, cloves, and ginger while others replace the ginger with Sichuan peppercorns or fennel. And then there are other 5-spice mixtures what have all of those, which would actually make it 7 spice mix, but who’s counting?!?). And the red wine of course goes great with the cherries. So, another happy experiment.
I’m not sure this is tremendously “summery” really. I guess this strikes me more as an autumn pie, but cherries are harder to come by then, but you could always used jarred cherries, I suppose.
So today, Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday is called Green Thursday in Germany (not the only name, and no, I am not Catholic nor generally religious, so I am not going into the whole details of why, yadda yadda yadd… you all have the ability to google for yourselves), and some people eat green food today. Typically things that are leafy and herby and spring like. This year, given my work schedule, it kind of crept up on me (and Easter is particularly early this year) so I had to do what was in the house. Although, in my house, this involves quails eggs and smoked gouda. So, yeah, I’m a little odd when it comes to stuff in my fridge.
Every once in a white, in the middle of gray winters, you need something bright. Something tangy. Something vibrant. Enter this tart. As you all know, I have this “thing” for Meyer lemons and it is the season right now, so I made this tart. I’m made things before with the rosemary and Meyer lemon combination and I really love it.