Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Sugar in the Potatoes? (Overbooked Cook)

I love Potatoes.

I love them so much that if you stick me on a desert island with only one food available, make it potatoes, and we're good.

If there's salt.

Because what I should also mention here is that my fondness for potatoes stems from my craving for salt. And potatoes are the perfect delivery system for salt.

So why am I suggesting sugar in the potatoes for this week's cooking tip?

Because, as much as I love potatoes, I've had a love/hate relationship with cooking them. More specifically, with frying them.

For years I have tried everything to get crispy fried hash browns from fresh potatoes. I have blanched them. I have soaked them in saltwater, I have squeezed the starch out of them with paper towels, I have added lemon juice (tip from some cooking magazine - not a success and tasted terrible) - you name it, I've tried it.

Until recently, when my husband fried up some lovely potatoes - not from the store but from our garden - and they came out perfectly. They were the most delicious fried potatoes we have ever eaten. Bar none.

Of course, you say, produce from the garden is always fresher than the stuff from the store and it was also probably a better variety of potato.

And you would be half right, because the truth does lie in the fact that the potatoes were right out of the ground. But it isn't the variety because these potatoes originally were seeded from - store bought potatoes.

Remember the Montessori Garden? Well, a couple of years ago we had some potatoes in the pantry that were starting to sprout. We knew you shouldn't eat them when they get to that state (something about toxins in old potatoes) and our daughter was eager to plant them and see what would happen. And what happened was that those sprouting store potatoes turned into lots of new little potatoes. And they were delicious!

And when we fried them, they crisped right up. No sogginess, no falling apart, just gorgeous lightly browned fried hash browns.

Unfortunately, after the fresh potatoes for this season ran out, we were reduced to store potatoes again.

Oh, how depressing to come down from the mountaintop once you've seen the light.

So my husband got this idea. What if all those things we tried over the years were coming at the problem from the wrong angle? Those tips were designed to get extra starch out of the potatoes. What if, instead, we should be adding something in to the potatoes. What did the fresh potatoes have that the store potatoes didn't?

Sugar.

Of course. 

When you pick things from the garden, their sugar content is always at it's highest and then, the longer the produce sits, the more the sugar breaks down.

So we fried the store potatoes up as we always had - diced and thrown into hot hot butter in an iron skillet - but this time we sprinkled sugar into them while they were frying. Not too much - probably a little less than a teaspoon - but it did the trick. 

Voila! Non greasy, lightly crispy, fried potatoes.

Try it, you'll like it!

Bruschetta (Overbooked Cook)

Tis the season to harvest Tomatoes and Basil. Which means 'tis the season to make Bruschetta.

This is the recipe I've come up with over the years after some tinkering.

Knock Out Bruschetta

Ingredients:

2 good sized garden tomatoes like beefsteak or 4 smallish "on the vine" grocery store tomatoes or one pint grape or cherry tomatoes or 6 roma tomatoes, chopped into small pieces.

2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (the older, the better)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

6-10 good sized leaves of fresh basil, chopped

coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 small ball fresh mozzarella, diced into fairly small pieces

or

2 oz fresh parmigiano or asiago cheese julienned

Put everything except the tomatoes and cheese into a medium sized bowl and mix together thoroughly making sure the honey dissolves completely.

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces on a cutting board (not in a food processor) and try to drain off as much of the extra juice as you can before adding to the oil and vinegar mixture.

Add the cheese and mix all together.

Let sit for about 15 minutes before serving so that the cheese and tomatoes get sort of marinated. 

Overbooked version: serve with Breton Crackers

Full gourmet version: Using the best baguette you can find, cut it into diagonal slices. Then rub each slice with a clove of garlic (one clove should do several slices), brush lightly with olive oil and broil until lightly browned. 

Note: Eating Bruschetta can be a very messy business so I try to keep the bread pieces small enough for 2 bites. The same for serving on crackers - the less fragile the cracker and the fewer bites it takes to finish, the better.

Extra note: As the quantity and type of tomato vary, so will the exact measurements of the oil and vinegar mixture. There should be enough of it to coat every bit of cheese and tomato, and enough vinegar and garlic that you can taste the bite.

Rafaele's Meatballs (Overbooked Cook)

I have spoken before of my dear friend and cousin Rafaele who lost her fight with breast cancer two years ago. And I have mentioned how important I think it is to make time to cook together and share recipes. Perhaps sharing recipes is one of the ways we achieve immortality. A little slice of our lives gets passed along to others and enjoyed - possibly in perpetuity.

And so I offer to you a little bit of Rafaele that I get to carry with me - it won't matter where I live or what my circumstances are - I'll always have the memory of the time we lived together in college and she taught me how to make her German meatballs. I actually give her a little nod in my mind every time I make them or eat them.

Enjoy!

German Meatballs

 1 lb Ground Beef

1 egg

1 potato, peeled

3/4 cup rolled oats

1 medium onion, diced

2 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp oregano

1 & 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cloves garlic, crushed (or 1 tsp garlic powder)

Before I begin, I need to put up a disclaimer. When I make these meatballs, I never actually measure the spices. I just eyeball them. Through long years of experience, I have learned how much salt, pepper, garlic and paprika my family likes in their meatballs. So I have given you my best guess at amounts and, if something seems to be too much for you - like, say, the paprika - then cut the amount down the first time and then experiment as you go. To be fair, Rafaele never measured anything either and so experimenting is, apparently, part of the recipe! 

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with foil.

In a large bowl, put the meat and the egg, the onion and the oats and smoosh it all together with your hands - doing your best to distribute the oats evenly. Next add all the spices at once and, again, smoosh together and distribute them evenly. Now take out a course grater and grate the potato into the mixture. Again work the potato around until it seems well distributed.

Form the mixture into meatballs of desired size - I like to make them about 2 inches in diameter - and place them onto the baking sheet.

Bake for about 16-20 minutes or until done in the center. Baking time will vary with the diameter of the meatball so keep an eye on them the first time you make them. They should be thoroughly cooked but not crunchy.

Serve alone with mashed potatoes and gravy or in spaghetti sauce with pasta. One thing about these meatballs - they are good served cold and are even better the second day so they make great lunch food.

Overbooked tip: make a triple batch and freeze the rest for the next time you need a 16 minute dinner. Some cooked pasta and sauce from a jar and dinner will still taste homemade if you use these meatballs.

Banana Bread With - You Guessed It - Peaches! (Overbooked Cook)

 

So, in looking for recipes for things to do with peaches - many of which are now rotting because I just could not deal with them all - I came up with one of my own. The good news is that it is delicious. The bad news is that you can't put an entire bushel of peaches in each loaf. Here goes:

Banana Bread with Peaches.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup shortening or butter

2 eggs

3 tbsp buttermilk or yogurt

1 mashed banana

2/3 cup diced peaches

Preheat oven to 350.

Prepare a loaf or bundt pan by rubbing it with shortening or butter and then dusting it with sugar (not flour!)

Set aside. 

In a medium sized mixing bowl blend together the sugar and shortening. Once thoroughly combined, add the eggs and the yogurt. Then, again after thoroughly combined, add the fruit.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt, soda, and baking powder.

Gradually add this to the banana mixture.

Mix until combined - do not overmix. The batter should be thick and sticky.

Spoon into prepared pan (it will be too thick to pour) and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the type of pan and your oven. I always check it at about 40 minutes.

Loaf is done when the top is golden brown and springs back in the center.

Extra touch: I like to sprinkle raw sugar over the top before baking - it gives a nice crunch. (Raw sugar, if you're not familiar with it,  has much larger crystals than refined sugar and is light brown in color.)

Asiago - Super Cheese (Overbooked Cook)

 

So today we are going to talk about easy, delicious, appetizers to take to a gathering when you forgot you promised to take something to a gathering. 

A gathering that is in 30 minutes.

Heck - you may even have forgotten there was a gathering in the first place, let alone that you promised to bring food to it.

But first a word about Asiago cheese. 

This is one of the all time great cheeses. It is usually a pretty hard cheese so it has a longer shelf life than a soft cheese. Which is very important for overbooked people because we need to be able to stock our fridge or pantry for emergencies and we need to be able to do that with stuff that lasts longer than a nanosecond before we throw it out.

Asiago is also a pretty affordable cheese that has a great sophisticated taste - a little sharper than a Parmesian, but definitely more mellow than a Romano.

And, most importantly for our purposes, Asiago generally slices well with a sharp knife without crumbling and it pairs beautifully with sweets and crackers.

So my all time best last minute hors d'oeuvre for emergency, panic stricken situations is as follows:

Sweet Asiago Canape's

Prep time 15-25 minutes - (add extra time if you have to run to the store and get these ingredients - the great thing is you can even take the ingredients with you and make these canapes on the spot if needed.)

Ingredients:

1-2 boxes of quality crackers - Breton and Carrs make several good varieties. 

(Occasionally I have also used thin cookies instead and that is even more delicious - check out Annas Thins here.)

1 wedge of Asiago

Jam or Honey (Raspberry and Peach Jam are particularly good for this)

To best serve these canapes you will need a pretty good sized tray so they don't overlap. The canapes themselves are incredibly simple - arrange several crackers on a tray, spread a little jam on each cracker, and then - with a very sharp knife - cut small pieces of cheese and set one piece on top of each jam covered cracker. The ratio of cheese to cracker is up to you but you can actually get away with pretty small pieces.

If you use honey instead of jam, put the cheese on the cracker first and then add a small amount of honey. Be careful not to add too much because the honey will just keep spreading out and spilling over the cracker if there is too much. When I make this with honey, I actually add the honey at the event.

If you have extra time and want an even tastier canape, add a small apple wedge, or a piece of walnut or a raisin.

Voila! A tasty appetizer that will impress everyone and they'll never know you how colossally disorganized you are!

(Unless they read this blog.)

Salsa, Baby! (Overbooked Cook)

 

OK, this is officially a Big Deal.

I am publicly putting up my salsa recipe.

The one that gets raves everywhere I take it.

I am particularly proud of this recipe because it came entirely out of my own head. About 15 years ago I decided to make salsa. As the internet and google were in their infancy, just pulling up a recipe was not an option. In those days, if you wanted a good recipe for something, you had to look it up in a cookbook, happen upon it in a magazine or on a cooking show (of which there weren't that many - no HGTV either) or get one from a friend.

Well, not only did I want to make salsa - I wanted to make it Right Then.

And, not finding one in any of my resident cookbooks, I decided to make one up.

I didn't have the vaguest idea what constituted a genuine salsa - I only knew that I didn't want to have to cook it and I didn't want it to be "ketchup-like". ( I would later discover that what I make is called a raw salsa.)

So I set to work and, after some trial and error, came up with the following:

Sweet and Sour Salsa

Ingredients:

16 oz (or 1 pint) cherry or grape tomatoes

1 cup chopped fruit (see notes)

2 green onions or a generous handful of chives, chopped

1 glove of garlic, pressed

finely chopped hot pepper (optional - see notes)

1  1/2 tbsp honey (secret ingredient #1)

2 tbsp red wine vinegar (secret ingredient #2)

salt and pepper to taste

Extra optional ingredient if you can get them: Tomatillos - about 2 small or 1 large one

Chop the tomatoes and fruit into small pieces (a food processor tend to make the whole thing too juicy and mushy) and put them in a small to medium sized bowl. Add the onions or chives and the pressed garlic. Do not stir. Add the honey on top of what is now a little pile, then the pepper (I use about 1/4 tsp) and the salt (dash). Now add the vinegar on top of that and stir the mixture all together, making sure the vinegar breaks down the honey. 

Get the flavor of the basic salsa exactly where you want it, adjusting garlic, salt, pepper, honey, vinegar as you see fit.

Then add the hot pepper of your choice. Adjusting the seasonings becomes very difficult one the heat of the pepper has been introduced.

Serve with tortilla chips or in tacos and fajitas.

Best if consumed within 10 hours but can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Notes:

The tomatoes - This salsa will turn out well with any type of tomato except Romas. If you are using large tomatoes like Early Girl or Best Boy or Beefsteak etc., be sure to take out the pulp and the seeds. Otherwise you have too much juice. I have recommended cherry and grape tomatoes because they are the most flavorful tomato you can find in the grocery store year round. For me, the only decent large tomatoes come from my garden or the farmers market - the supermarket ones seem to have no flavor at all.

Fruit - to date I have made this salsa with: strawberries, grapes, kiwi, cantaloupe, and now, of course, peaches.

Garlic - you can use garlic powder but it's not quite as good.

Onions - this recipe does not come out well with yellow, white, or red onions. They make it too bitter.

Peppers - your choice of pepper will depend on how hot you like your salsa. Fresh peppers make this salsa much better than dried ones. I always add my pepper slowly until I can tell how much effect it is having. For a truly mild salsa, don't add any at all.

Vinegar - this is the most important part of the recipe! Only use red wine vinegar! No other vinegar has the right sweet/sour element. Trust me - I've tried them all.

Jammin' UPDATED (Overbooked Cook)

 

Due to family circumstances (see prior post "apologies") I am blogging from the road via my ipad. Because it doesn't support flash, formatting the post properly with things like paragraph intentations, is very challenging. I'm going to do my best and then clean everything up when I get to a better computer.

For the Overbooked Cook this week, the topic is homemade jam. What kind of jam, you ask? Why, peach, of course! (Are you really surprised?)

So here's what I've learned about jam making in general and peach jam in particular.

First, the Surejel people are gods whose every direction must be obeyed! When they tell you not to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe, or to be sure not to use too much over-ripe fruit, or not to puree the fruit, or to boil the jam for EXACTLY ONE MINUTE at the crucial point in the process, THEY ARE NOT KIDDING! I have several jars of peach soup that can attest to this.

Read the rest of this story.....

No really, you should - there are pictures with funny captions.

OK People, I Am Not Kidding!

 

This is yesterday's harvest from the small tree. I repeat, the small tree. 

The peaches on the big tree haven't started to ripen yet, thank god!

So I am in need of a serious amount of peach recipes, people!

Or at least creative uses for peaches - baseball practice already springs to mind.....

Peaches And Peaches And Peaches, Oh My!

Help!

These are our peach trees. 

  
    

 And they are Full of peaches this year. (This basket contains maybe 1/4 of the peaches from the small tree)

And they are starting to ripen.

And I have exactly four good recipes for things to do with peaches.

So I'm putting out a desperate plea for peach recipes!

Or anything else you can do with them, for that matter!

Some context: several years ago I was at a friend's house and they had this marvelous peach tree. I had no idea you could grow peaches successfully this far north of the Mason Dixon line, but this friend had had great success with them.

So, when we moved to this house, we resolved to plant a peach tree. We ordered one from a reputable tree catalog and it never came. Then we ordered another one from a different company. That one arrived but looked like death before we even got it in the ground. Needless to say, it died.

But this company had a replacement policy so they sent us another tree. This one didn't look to be in much better shape than the first one - it was just a little stick of a thing - but we planted it anyway.

Now, I'm a tad impatient - plus we had promised our son that this would be his tree (our daughter already had a cherry tree that was doing great) - and, when, after a year, this tree still looked sickly, I asked my friend where he had gotten his tree. Turns out he just grabbed one from the local garden center. So I went out and bought another tree. One that seemed a little more established.

And so the two trees got planted in the front yard and proceeded to take up space, and needed to be watered and mowed around and such, and produce exactly no peaches.

For about 5 years.

Two years ago, they produced approximately 5 peaches between them. We watched and watched them grow and waited hungrily for the day we would finally taste our first homegrown peach.

The squirrels got them.

Then last year, there were maybe 20 peaches all told.

We got to eat three.

Which is why the abundance of this year caught me just a wee bit Off Guard.

We knew something was up in the spring because, for the first time ever, there were blossoms galore on both trees. But, I guess I gave the squirrels too much credit because I was sure that, no matter how many peaches might grow, they would all be promptly carried off by the cadre of the little varmints  that seem to call our property home.

Which leads me back to: 

Help!

I'll take any suggestions you've got - overbookedandunderpaid@gmail.com

How to Make A Blueberry Pie

OK, so I'm still figuring out a bunch of stuff for this blog and, because of the way I linked to this recipe instead of posting it, apparently no one can find it. So I'm posting it here as a real post.

Good grief- I hope this works!

My Blueberry Pie Recipe with help from Betty Crocker

 

 

When it comes to making fruit pie, I think everyone should start with Blueberry. 

To prepare the fruit, all you have to do is rinse it in a colander, pick out the bad ones, and check for stems.

No pitting, no peeling, no slicing. (Although, if you decide to try Cherry Pie, I have a tip for you - the end of the potato peeler that you use to take the eyes out of the potato is a perfect cherry pitter. Don't waste money on another expensive gadget for your kitchen.)

So, the easiest pie on the planet is a Blueberry Pie made with a roll out refrigerated crust.

But, if you want to try your hand at a scratch crust, I'll do the best I can to show you a pretty foolproof recipe.

Step one: Measure your pie pan. Most are either 8 or 9 inches in diameter. (Tip: I often make the crust for a nine inch pan when I'll really be using an 8 inch one - it gives me enough leftover dough to compensate for mistakes. It also lets my daughter make "pie crust cookies" out of the extra dough. Before I hit on this little bonus, she was pretty uninterested in helping me make pie.)

Step two: pick your crust recipe - these are both for two crust pies that means top and bottom crust.

8 inch crust:  1 $ 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup salted butter - chilled

1/4 cup shortening - I have found Crisco to actually be superior to the 

store brand - dangit!

3 Tbsp. very cold water

9 inch crust:     2 cups all purpose flour

1 & 1/4 tsp salt 

1/3 cup salted butter - chilled

1/3 cup shortening

4 Tbsp. very cold water.

Step three: put the salt and flour into a mixing bowl - my favorite is my old pyrex - it keeps the butter cold - and whisk them lightly until they are combined.

Step four: add the chilled butter in small pieces  Tip: I use an egg slicer - the kind you use for hard boiled eggs - to cut the butter into small pieces. First I cut off a slice about the size of a butter pat at a restaurant, then I push it through the slicer. This gives you small pieces in about half the time of any other method and helps keep the butter from thawing.

Step five: mash the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter. 

 

This is my favorite kind - the old fashioned wire one. The new ones are like knife blades and you can cut yourself on them when you're trying to get all the residue off. Keep cutting the butter into the flour, making sure to get all the flour from the edges of the bowl, until the whole thing resembles cornmeal. (A note here about food processors - a lot of people use a food processor for this step - I don't for 2 reasons. 1) I find the pastry cutter and bowl a whole lot easier to clean up after than all the parts of a food processor and 2) when I tried one, the crust was tougher - maybe it overworked the dough.)

Step six: add the shortening and do the same thing all over again until the mixture resembles lumps the size of peas. This two step process comes straight out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook - they say adding the shortening in two steps makes a tender (first time) and flaky (second time) crust.

Step seven: sprinkle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, gently fluffing the mixture with a fork between each addition. This is important - you don't want to stir the water in - it will create damp, pasty, unworkable spots.

Step eight: gather the dough together by gently mushing it to one side of the bowl - almost as if it were playdough. Then turn it all out on a good sized piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic wrap to gather the dough into a ball. This allows you to further smoosh together the dough without touching it with your hands - another thing that can make a crust tough is touching it too much with your hands.

Step nine: open the plastic wrap and, with a butter knife, cut the dough into two equal sized pieces

Step ten: put 1/2 the dough, cut side down, onto a new piece of plastic wrap

Step eleven: using the plastic wrap as before to shape the dough, form it into a disk about 5 inches in diameter and 3/4 of an inch thick. Make sure it's fully encased in the plastic wrap - use another piece if necessary, and put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

I know all this sounds complicated, but it all really takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. Once you've done it once, it's amazingly easy.

The Filling

While the dough is chilling, you can prepare the blueberries. I use about 2 pints of berries for an 8 inch pie.

Step one: Rinse the berries in cold water in a colander and throw out any bad ones. Also look for little tiny stems and get rid of those. Let them drain.

Step two: have some softened butter standing by for later

Step three: in a small bowl, whisk together:

1 cup sugar

1/4 to 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

When the dough is done chilling, set it out on the counter for about 5 minutes. You don't want to wait until it's all the way back to room temperature, but it's a little easier to work with if you don't try to roll it straight out of the fridge. 

Now would also be a good time to turn on your oven. All ovens are different so it may take you a few pies to figure out your best temperature - I set mine at 365 F.

Now comes the tricky part and where I'm going to use a lot of pictures to show what can go wrong and how to fix it.

First - I have learned that you are only as good as your tools. What I am about to tell you, I have never seen mentioned by any cooking show - I found it in the BCC and I swear it is the most important component of my crust - A PASTRY CLOTH AND PASTRY SOCK. These are not that hard to find on the internet and boy, are they worth it! You cover the rolling pin with the sock and spread out the cloth on your work surface. Dust them both lightly with flour. The main thing they help with is keeping you from having to add a boatload of extra flour to your work surfaces and, ultimately, your dough. The more extra flour goes into your dough, the tougher it will be.

Next, when the dough comes out of the fridge, it frequently looks something like this:

 

Don't panic!

Using the plastic wrap as you did before, gradually work all the cracks together until the dough looks smooth and crack free.

 
 

Now turn it gently onto your floured pastry cloth and start rolling it out. Don't be in too much of a hurry - speed makes cracks.

 

If the dough begins to crack again, gently push it back together - ignoring cracks only leads to bigger cracks. This is another reason to make a 9 inch crust for an 8 inch pie, you can ignore a little bit what the edges of the dough look like.

 
 Roll the dough out until it is about 10 or 11 inches in diameter and relatively thin.

 

Now you need something to cut around - the lid to my flour container is about the same size as my pie dish - you might want to use a dinner plate.

 

Set the template (plate) lightly onto the crust and trim about an inch from the edge of the template.

 

It should look like this.

 

Now to get the crust into the pan without breaking it. Another BCC tip:

Lightly set your rolling pin onto the crust and pick up the edge of the pastry cloth. Gradually tip the crust up onto the rolling pin and drape it into the pan. Be careful how you position the rolling pin over the pan - you won't be able to pick the crust up to move it. If it doesn't go exactly where you want it, gently slide it into position.

 
 
 
 

If it cracks like this, gently push it back together with your fingers - it's the bottom of the pie - no one will ever know!

 
 

Sometimes you get breaks or holes that can be patched. Just insert a piece of dough left over from the trimming and push it into place. Pampered Chef actually makes a tool for rolling out dough in the pan - I use mine all the time.

 
 
   

Now you're ready to deal with the filling.

 

Take about a third of the blueberries and put them in a separate bowl. Coat them with some of the sugar/flour mixture, tossing them and adding sugar/flour until they are all coated generously. 

 
 

Then put them into the pie crust. Add a little more of the sugar/flour mixture over the top of the berries after you put them in the pan. Do the same two more times with the rest of the berries and sugar/flour mixture. For a tart pie, add a little lemon juice at this point. (I always skip this step - I find the blueberries to be plenty tart enough) Then dot the top with some softened butter. I use about 3 tablespoon sized dollops. Too much butter will not add to the flavor, it will only make the pie runny.

 

At this point, the easiest thing to do is roll out another crust for the top, drape it over the berries and pinch it together. Then cut some venting slits into the top and bake for about 45 minutes until it is bubbly and juicy.

If you're up for more of a challenge, you can attempt a lattice crust. It's tricky but it tastes better, in my opinion. Higher berry to crust ratio.

Roll out the dough and cut it into strips. Oddly enough, the thinner the dough, the easier it will be to work with. Thick strips seem to be less pliable and break. Also, the wider you cut them, the fewer strips you will need to deal with when weaving.

 

Start the lattice by putting one strip in each direction.

 

Then add strips in twos alternating horizontal and vertical. With each addition, carefully peel up the needed bit of crust to get an over and under effect. 

 
 

Tip: the more pieces there are on the pie, the harder they are to weave. I have been known to weave only about the center third of the strips and lay the outer strips all the way across without weaving them. Honestly, no one notices!

  

Totally woven:

 

Cheated:

Sometimes there is not enough edge crust to flute the edge. You can use scraps leftover from the lattice to fix this. 

 

Put the pieces onto the edge and work them in so they look as though they belong.

   
 
 

Then use your fingers to flute the crust - 2 fingers of the right hand, index finger of the left.

 

Now just pop it into the oven and Voila! 45 minutes or so later, delicious pie!

 

Let it cool for at least 30 minutes before you try to eat it.