The Young Women in our ward held the annual dinner and auction to raise money for their camp this coming summer at Camp Shalom. Each year Kerry donates one of her fantastic quilts and we make a couple of pies.

We bought some plates to be donated with the pies at Macey's Grocery Store in Provo. When we checked out and the clerk was laughing at the price of the pie place I hadn't noticed until he mentioned it to us. Do you think it was a coincidence?

Karly Jo came over and helped make the pies. She has a very creative flair as you can see with the Jumbleberry pie.

Mothers Day 2016

Kerry asked for her favorite pie on Mothers Day - Sour Cream Lemon. We also had some fresh blackberries, so we made a double-crust blackberry pie. We followed the recipe for our Boysenberry Pie and used buttermilk crust for both. They turned out great.




Thank you Kerry for being a great mother to our children and grandchildren!



Blackberry Pie

PI Day 2016

I was lucky enough to be in St. George for PI day (3.14) and visit two great pie shops. I first stopped at Veyo Pies and had a classic Apple Pie, then I went to St. George and had a slice of a great Dutch Apple.

Young Women Camp Dinner and Auction

Our young women ages 12 - 18 are going to Camp Shalom this year. Each year they hold a fundraising event with a dinner followed by an auction. The ward and neighborhood turns out to support these wonderful young women. There are many donated items, baked goods, homemade clothing, etc. One year, Dan Wells donated the right to have "your name" used as a character in one of his books. I won, and as it turns out, in his book "The Hollow City" I am a doctor in the first chapter.

Camp Shalom

Every year Kerry donates a quilt to the auction. It takes her many many hours to cut, piece, and stitch the fabric together but she loves doing it especially since it is benefiting our young women. Each quilt is beautiful and she doesn't even blink at giving it away.

I also donate a pie or two. This year I made a Sour Cream Lemon and a Raspberry Cream. The Sour Cream Lemon is a main staple but the Raspberry Cream is a new pie that we made for the first time last Thanksgiving. The auction was a success and those that bid on my pies even reported that they were edible!

Raspberry Cream

11/26/15

We wanted to try a new pie this year for Thanksgiving. I saw a billboard with a raspberry pie that looked really good. So a web search resulted in several recipes for raspberry pies. This one for raspberry cream looked the best, we tweaked it a little and it turned out really good. It would be a great pie on a hot summer day. 

FILLING:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

TOPPING:

3/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 tablespoons water

1 cup fresh raspberry
3 cups frozen raspberries

DIRECTIONS

Use a graham cracker crust.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, orange juice, extract, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Fold in whipped cream. Spread into crust. Chill until serving.

Mash raspberries and force through a screen to remove seeds. 

In a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; stir in water and 2 cups mashed raspberries.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Transfer to a bowl; refrigerate until chilled. Spread topping over filling. Garnish with fresh berries.

Mashing Raspberries through a fine strainer

Raspberry Cream Pie

11/26/15

Thanksgiving 2015

This is a special year for us, we have everyone in town. Nathan and Nicole's family moved back from Chicago so Nathan can work on a PhD at BYU. We are grateful for so many blessings: to be together with our family; our country; and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Karly's table setting

Katie ready for pie!

Grayson's Thanksgiving Feast

Here are the pies we made for this year's Thanksgiving. It reminded me of a Thanksgiving at my Grandma Murray's in Myton. It seemed that we wad a dozen of different pies. We cleaned out the garage and put up tables and chairs. And I finally got to sit at the adult table next to my Uncle Jerry.

Classic Apple Pie with leaf topping

Mariel and Kerry cutting out leaves

Pumpkin Pie with snowflakes

Mashing Raspberries through a fine strainer

Raspberry Cream Pie

Veyo Pie Bakery

When I was a young Boy Scout the Utah National Parks Council sponsored a hike on spring break. We would camp the first night near Enterprise, Utah, then hike south along Magotsu Creek. We would spend one more night on the trail and eventually finish at Veyo, Utah, with a swim at the Veyo Pool. We had some great adventures along the way. We did the hike twice, once with our scoutmaster Brother Walton and the second with Deward as our scout leader. Yesterday I read in the news that there is something else Veyo is known for besides the swimming pool: Pies! I can't believe I missed this. Check out this article in the Deseret News: Veyo Pies. Next time I am in the area, I think I will visit the bakery. It's only twenty miles from St. George.

Veyo Pool

Veyo Pies

Coconut-Pecan German Chocolate Pie

Thanksgiving 2014

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year for the Elison side of our family. Thanks to Lori for reserving a church to fit the 50 plus people attending. We used SignUpGenious.com to organize the dinner. We signed up for a couple of pies. We decided to make Kerry's favorite pie: Sour Cream Lemon. Natalie found a new recipe that sounded good so here it is.

Coconut-Pecan German Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

Crust: Basic Buttermilk

Filling:
4 ounces German sweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans

Topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 eggs yolks
1 cup flaked coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees bake pie shell for 11-13 minutes until bottom is lightly browned. Cool on wire rack, reduce heat to 350 degrees.

In a microwave, melt chocolate, stir in milk, egg yolks, and vanilla, stir in pecans. Pour into crust and cool for 1 hour.

In a saucepan combine brown sugar, cream and butter. Bring to boil to dissolve sugar. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks, add small amount of hot mixture, pour into saucepan. Cook for 3 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, sitr in coconut and vanilla. Cool for 10 minutes.

Pour over filling and sprinkle with pecans

Movie Pies

Karly found this fan of the week pie as a tribute to the Hunger Games series. I read the books but I don't think I am interested enough to make a pie about it. But maybe a pie in honor of John Wayne?

Merry Christmas

Cherry Pie with Crumble Top

Jil brought pies to Grandpa Murray's on Christmas evening. They were very good pies: Chocolate Moose; Pecan; Apple with a crumble top; and my favorite Cherry with a crumble top. Jil and my other sisters are great pie makers.

My feelings at Christmas season has changed.Our children are grown and Nathan and Nicole and our two grandchildren were in Chicago this year. So Christmas morning wasn't as exciting as it used to be watching little children open their presents. My highlight is now Christmas eve - having as many of our family with us as possible. We had a wonderful dinner and afterwards played Sleigh Ride (Kerry and Natalie on the piano and the rest of us with bells, clapper, wooden block, and the triangle). We sang Christmas carols, read stories, danced the Merry Christmas Polka, told about Christmas' from the past, and finally read the Christmas story from the Book of Luke. For me Christmas is being with family and remembering Jesus Christ.

God lives and He loves each of us. God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish; but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). The gifts spoken of in the gospel are not material gifts but the gift given to us by Jesus Christ. We celebrate the Savior’s birth and remember that he was born to save. He gave us the greatest gift – he gave his life that we might have eternal life. May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving Pies

Raspberry Key Lime

We took a well deserved break from pie making and posting. With the holidays, however, we made a few pies for parties. My office employees association has an annual Thanksgiving lunch and I made two pies, both variations on Key Lime. I repeated pie No, 43 Black-bottomed Key Lime (see post on 4/17/12). I also made a Raspberry Key Lime as a variation from the American Pie Council's book "America's Best Pies."

Crust: Store-bought Graham Cracker Crust

Filling:
One 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks (whites not used)
1/2 cup (and a little more) Key Lime Juice

Topping:
6 oz. seedless raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice and blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell and bake in pre-heated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Heat raspberry preserves in a pan, add butter and lemon juice and vanilla. Spread over pie then refrigerate. Before serving, top with whipped cream and lime slices.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner and thought we would have a lot of people so we reserved our church. As it turned out we only had 17 (we were thinking of 50). We made Sour Cream Lemon (see post on 11/23/11)  and Coconut Cream pies (see post on 6/4/12). We forgot that the Coconut Cream recipe is for two pies so Kerry posted on facebook that we had some extra filling. We immediately had Savannah and Sage at our door who took the filling of our hands. We also tried Apple Pie Cookies which tasted okay but were a disaster to make - not recommended.

Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie (5 stars)

52
Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie
6/18/12

Well, its hard to believe we have reached the end of 52 pies. I think the family is pretty sick of pies but they were good to humor me since last June. We learned many things along the way: I think our crusts have improved; we have a double boiler; we learned to use the bottom rack in the oven; and we have discovered some good taste combinations and some that we really don't like.

We were stumped when it came to the last pie. We considered many recipes, asked for suggestions, but in the end we turned to the "Pie" recipe book by Ken Haedrich that Nathan and Nicole gave me a couple of years ago. It has 300 recipes! And one Caramel - Apple - Pecan Recipe.

I heard somewhere that the king of candy used to be caramel until Milton Hershey developed a cheaper way to make milk chocolate for mass-production. After this recipe however, we might need to reconsider caramel. It really is a good combination.

Thanks to Kerry for putting up with my crazy idea and for tasting every single pie.  From now on we can make our favorite pies when we feel like it. Hopefully we will try a new recipe now and then.

Thanks for reading the blog everyone.

Cutting apples

Kerry cutting apples

Crust: Buttermilk Bottom Crust

Kerry and Reed

Filling: 
10 Caramels cut into quarters
7 cups peeled, cored, and sliced Golden Delicious apples
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pecan Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup pecan halves

Pie 52

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Caramel and Garnish
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon water
30 caramels
Large handful of pecan halves
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Prepare bottom crust and sprinkle 10 quartered caramels in the pie shell, put into freezer until ready to use. Combine apples, brown sugar, lemon juice in a bowl, mix well. Mix add granulated sugar and cornstarch together. Mix into apples, add cinnamon and vanilla then mix.Pour into pie shell and bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 30 minutes.

Make crumb topping by combining flour, pecan halves, granulated sugar, salt and pulse in a food processor. Add chopped butter and pulse again. Remove pie from oven, reduce temperature to 375 F and add crumb topping. Tamp down lightly. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, tent with foil for the last 15 minutes to prevent over-browning. Cool for one hour

Prepare caramel by placing 30 caramels, water, and butter in a double boiler, melt and stir together. drizzle over cooled pie sprinkle chopped pecans and pecan halves on top of the drizzled pie. Let cool for another hour.

Last Pie

Natalie, Spencer and Pie: 5 days before the wedding

Nicole, Katie, and Nathan

Caramel Apple Pie (5 stars)

Caramel Apple Pie
51
6/9/12

Jim slicing apples

In the oven

In the Oven

 After a year and a half of planning we held the stake Aaronic Priesthood Encampment down at Escalante, Utah. It went really well. We had activities: Zip Line (ask about the rubber chickens), Canoeing, Challenge Course, Frisbee Golf, Iron Man, Top Shot, and Man Skills. We had hikes: Egypt 1, Egypt 2 (300 foot rappel), Pine Box/Death Hollow, etc. Some of us went down early on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the event that started on Tuesday. Saturday night we made a pie in a dutch oven. We have done it once before, we use a 14 inch oven and put a pie tin upside down on the bottom and then the pie on top of the inverted tin. We made the crust at home and carried it in a cooler but the top crust cracked so much we just crumbled it on top. In this recipe we used Granny Smith apples and then drizzled Caramel topping on top of each slice. It worked very well.

Jim, Reed, and Nate

Reed and pie

Out of the oven

Crust: Double Buttermillk Crust

Filling:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1./2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 Granny Smith apples
1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons cream

Topping: Smuckers caramel topping.

Prepare crust and keep in the refrigerator until ready to fill. Peel and core apples, cut into chunks. Mix dry ingredients then mix with apples and vanilla. Pour into prepared shell, cover with top crust. Cook at 375 F for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes then drizzle topping over warm pie.

Slice of Pie

Well set-up

2 More Pies

Only two more pies to go. I've decided that number 51 will be baked in a dutch oven, outdoors, over hot coals, but I'm at a loss as to what to make for the last pie, number 52. If you have any suggestions please let me know. Remember it must be unique from the other 51 pies.

Thanks, Reed

Coconut Cream Pie (5 stars)

50
Coconut Cream Pie
6/3/12


We were home teaching Sarah and she mentioned that her favorite pie is Coconut Cream. I thought we had made a coconut pie already but after reviewing the posts, I guess not. It is a Lion House recipe and I really like their pudding - it beats the jello pudding, cooked or instant that we used to make. We doubled the amount of coconut from the recipe because it sounded kind of skimpy. The recipe is for two pies so we can give one to Sarah. It was her idea after all. We exceeded the maximum capacity of the double boiler trying to make two pies, so for the last stage we sent to a medium pan directly on the stove at a lower temperature and it seemed to work. Here's our modified recipe.

Paula Dean Double Boiler

Crust: 2 Buttermilk bottom crusts

Filling:
4 cups whole milk, divided
2 cups half-and-half
2 Tablespoons butter
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
3 egg yolks, discard the whites
1/4 teaspoon salt

Adding garnish

1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups coconut
Whipped cream and toasted coconut for garnish

Place 3 cups whole milk, half-and-half, butter and 3/4 cup sugar in double boiler and stir. Heat over medium high heat until butter is melted.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Slowly add egg mixture to hot milk mixture, stirring constantly. Cook for 15 - 20  minutes stirring frequently.



In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup whole milk, and cornstarch then add slowly to hot mixture, stirring constantly. Continue stirring for about 2 minutes and then stir frequently for 15 - 20 minutes. When pudding is thick, stir in vanilla and coconut. Allow to chill in refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours. Top with whipped cream and toasted coconut.

Coconut Cream Pie

Joslyn, Dante, and Jordan