Pantry Collective

This dish is unbelievable. It is so simple and easy to prepare that it seems like it can’t possibly be as delicious as it is, but if you aren’t craving seconds when your first bowl is empty, well, I guess we have very different tastes. I can’t get enough of this dish - it’s light, but filling, sweet and savory, and meat-free since we’re trying to eat a little less meat in this house.

The second time I made it, I did it a bit differently than what is shown in the photos. I used whole wheat linguine and walnuts instead of almonds, and I cut the brussels sprouts into quarters instead of halves. All worthwhile changes, for sure, although the first version was delicious as well. You can decide for yourself - just MAKE this. Try it, even if you wince at the thought of brussels sprouts. Believe me, if you put a maple vinaigrette on something, it immediately tastes a million times better than you think it might.

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Around Thanksgiving, when cranberries were readily available and inexpensive, I bought an extra bag and froze it so I’d have some around once they were gone for another year. For some reason supermarkets think we don’t want to eat cranberries any time of the year except late fall. While it’s true that they happen to be in season then, it’s not like seasonality has ever concerned the grocery store before (see: tomatoes RIGHT NOW).

These muffins are delightful. Have I ever made muffins from scratch before? Nope. Were these super easy? Yep. Tart cranberries, fresh orange zest, and yummy toasted walnuts, with a crunchy muffin top thanks to the sugar sprinkles. You could make blueberry muffins with the same recipe, although I would use lemon zest in that case. I might increase the amount of fruit, too - 1 1/2 cups is fine, but I think they could have handled two cups and would have been all the more full of cranberry flavor.

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This pie was the winner of the Best Fruit Pie award at Piefest 10! You may recall last year’s entry, Poached Pear Pie. Well, this year I knew I had to up the ante, because all the pies last year were over the top. The pies at Piefest are hardcore, people. This year there were some amazing entries (Johnny Cashew Chicken Pot Pie, Coffee Talk with Linda Richmond Pie, Wishlist Pie - based on the Skee-Lo classic from 1995, Ted Kennedy Would Have Voted For This Blueberry Pie, and many other pies that did not have clever names but were delicious nonetheless).

Best in Show went to an amazing NPR Tomato Pie which I admit had me going back for seconds (that is saying A LOT when there are 25 pies to sample). There was a “hurry up and eat it” ice cream pie, a dirt pie that came in a huge vase with ornamental paper flowers, a late-entry stawberry-peach cream cheese pie that wowed me with super fresh, sweet strawberries, and of course, many more. You can see a video of me and John going through the line, sampling each pie one last time before voting (I should not be the cameraperson ever again, sorry!). There’s also an awards ceremony video! Piefest 10 was a lot of fun, and I’m already thinking up an entry for next year’s event. I think I’ll break away from fruit pies and go for either Miscellaneous or Savory.

Notes on this year’s pie:
I originally made this pie a month or so ago, using fresh blueberries, a store-bought traditional crust, and almonds instead of walnuts in the topping. We took photos of that pie; they’re below the cut. Happily, Evan (host of Piefest) took a photo of the improved version I made for the event. The Piefest version, with a shortbread crust, frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries, and walnuts in the topping was a lot better, in my opinion. Frozen blueberries are actually really good, especially when fresh ones aren’t in season. In my experience they are a bit sweeter than fresh, and at this time of year, a lot cheaper. In this application they turn the sour cream filling a beautiful bright purple color that we didn’t get as much of in the fresh-blueberry version. You can also see the mostly-eaten Piefest Version in the first video - don’t worry, we’re pretty close to the beginning.

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