Scribbles & Munch

      In the time-honored classic Anne of Green Gables, a young Anne Shirley pronounces that she takes no pleasure in cooking, because it holds no "scope for the imagination." I could not disagree more. The cooking process accommodates plenty of day-dreams, the recipes themselves beg an educated palate imagine substituting a bit of this or tweaking a touch of that, and then the final product, well...! The right plate of food can transport me to anywhere from Buckingham Palace to deserted tropical islands, from ancient Japanese rice paddies to log cabins in the old American West.* And the last of these is easier to imagine than ever when baking a real, rustic, fresh fruit pie!
      In keeping with my Pie of the Month Oath for 2014, I obeyed reader feedback and made my first-ever Plum Pie last weekend. It was a double first: not only had I never made a plum pie, I'd never eaten one, either. As far as my mania for summer fruit goes, plums have always been appreciated but not sought after. If one of my farmer's market vendors tells me they have some particularly good ones, I will indulge, and if there happen to be some nice ones at a potluck I may munch on a slice or two. Peaches, nectarines and cherries have been what really get my pulse up, but I had hoped that swaddling the fruit in a couple layers of flaky pastry might deepen our relationship, so to speak.

      When getting to know a new ingredient, I generally start with a fairly straight-forward recipe. I chose this Spiced Plum Pie from Bon Appetit Magazine's website, and followed it essentially to the letter except for omitting the vanilla bean (I used vanilla sugar instead of regular sugar) and substituting some Meyer lemon zest for the orange zest. I also dotted the filling with butter because I have never met a fruit pie that didn't go from tasty to luscious with this simple addition.


Finally, I used this opportunity to break out my Pie Bird. It's a lovely crimson creature I had not yet employed simply because I never had one growing up, but in theory this little fellow lets out the steam in lieu of fork holes or knife slashes, plus looks really darn cute. Here he is rearing from the freshly baked pie like a phoenix from its crusty nest!



 *Ok, you caught me: I basically write stories because as an adult if you play pretend out loud, you get put on medication.