Happy Pi Day! Coloring page

Happy Pi Day! Or if you're a Supernatural fan- Happy Dean Winchester Day! My whole family are pretty big fans of the show, and making the colored example of today's coloring page this way sent TATG into giggles.

There are 2 versions of this coloring page- one has a nice big blank circle that can be personalized, used as a frame or used with a quote. The other is just a simple lattice topped pie. Either way it's a very simple page to color, but hopefully you enjoy it! Click on the images to get a bigger versions of these pie coloring pages.

Plain Pie- jpg version:

Plain Pie- large transparent PNG version:

Pie with circle- jpg version:

Pie with circle- large transparent PNG version:

Book Review- Not So Humble Pies

My family is full of pie lovers. Savory or sweet, full size, mini or hand pies, we like pie.
This cookbook by Kelly Jaggers is full of pie recipes. This is a classic style cookbook, while there are some gorgeous color photos, most of the pages are used for recipes. Instead of having 50 recipes all shown in full page photos, this book has over 120 recipes. A lot of dessert pies, but there is a great chapter on dinner type pies.

It starts like all good pie books should with the basics.  The first chapter, pie crusts, offers tons of options. Pastry type crusts like the perfect flaky crust, butter crusts and options like a buttery, spicy cheese crust. Cookie type crusts include gingersnaps, pretzels. There are also shortbread type crusts which fall right between the two using a cookie type recipe to make a crust for a pie.  The second chapter covers toppings, classic crumb toppings, meringue, stabilized whipped cream, and sauces.

Creams, Custards and Chiffons.-Nothing as simple as a chocolate cream pie, these are things like cantaloupe cream, vanilla rum meringue and for people who prefer a more traditional flavor profile, white chocolate chiffon. I tried the Orange and Dark Chocolate Cheese pie which has a silky rich texture from cream cheese and a strong orange flavor from reduced orange juice.

Fruits, Nuts and Berries- Based on classic recipes, these up the gourmet and wow factor, an apple pie gets a savory cheddar crust to contrast the sweetness of the apples, peach and ginger combine in a hand pie perfect for picnics. I haven't tried any of these recipes yet, but I'm looking forward to making the Strawberry Silk Pie with strawberries from my garden.

Tarts, Tartlets and Rustic Pies- These are the "dressed up for guests" dessert pies. Fine ingredients, flavors and textures like apple rose, white chocolate ganache and praline cream.

Dinner Pies- The savory flavors that make a main course. There are lots of tarts in this chapter as well that would work well as a side dish like the spinach and artichoke tart. Lots of cheese based tarts and pies as well. I recommend the smoked salmon and dill recipe.

Spicy, Salty and Exotic Pies- This was my daughter's favorite chapter, she's got it all marked up with sticky notes to remind her which ones she wants to make first. All the chapters have exotic pies that put twists on familiar favorites. This chapter ups the ante by adding chilis, spice and salt to classics. My favorite is the salted chocolate meringue pie with it's chocolate custard base, light fluffy meringue and salt to set off all the flavors nicely.

Published by Adams Media

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Happy Pi Day!

I love Pi! It's something that get used frequently by crafters and seamstresses.

Like cone hats- one of the easiest ways to make a cone hat that fits the person wearing it is to make it from a quarter circle. For that, you measure the circumference of your head, multiply that number by 4, divide by pi then divide by 2 for the radius of a quarter circle that will fit your head.

So now you can make your cone with newspaper or on fabric easily, adding a half inch to each side for a seam allowance or overlap.

Adding a brim for witch hat is measuring the circumference of your head and dividing by pi for the inner circle radius, then for the outer circle, add the number of inches you want the brim to be to the radius.

A couple of years ago I posted a PDF template for cutting the waist of circle skirts. You can find that here.

Also check out these printable pi(e) labels.

Miniature pies are trendy, check out my review of Mini Pies, and my review of Cutie Pies. 

Book Review- Cutie Pies

Cutie Pies: 40 Sweet, Savory and Adorable Recipes is a collection of miniature pie recipes and techniques written by Dani Cone who owns Seattle's High 5 Pie, which specializes in classic and new pie recipes in various shapes and sizes.

It starts with an introduction to the author and her love for pie, then explains how to use the book. The chapters are separated by pie shape, however, each recipe also lists options for shapes and how many pies it will make in those shapes. So if you don't find the exact pie you want in the shape you want, you can look at the other shapes and see if one will suit. Full color photos of the pies in a hard cover volume.

There are 4 crust recipes, with instructions for rolling out and making crusts and tips for a perfect pie crust, and a recipe for a crumb topping at the beginning of the book.

Then we get to the good part!

The shapes are cutie pies, baked in muffin tins; petit-5s, baked in mini muffin tins; pie jars, made in little mason type jars; flipsides which are handheld pies; pie pops, adorable tiny button pies on sticks; and full sized pies.

The recipes include a few classic favorites that are true to your memories of the pies your grandma use to bake if she baked pies. Coconut Cream, Key Lime, Sweet Potato Pie, but also other sweet pies like the classic strawberry rhubarb updated with a kick of ginger or mango-raspberry-lemon pie.

Where the book shines for me isn't in the sweet pies. While sweet pies are my daughter's favorite, I love the wonderful little savory pies which make wonderful finger foods for dinner parties or made in a slightly larger style like the pie jars or flipsides make a wonderful lunch or breakfast option.

Salmon, Cream Cheese and Dill; Three Cheese and Onion; Ham, Gruyere and Onion are just a few of the savory options available.

Favorite sweet pie- Peach-Ricotta and Honey
Favorite Savory- Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella for it's colors and fresh flavor.

These little pies are fantastic for entertaining, and the recipes cover a broad range of tastes.
The recipes are well written and I like the fact that the pie size/type options are listed in each recipe. The ingredients are listed in U.S. volume terminology, but there is a conversion chart at the end of the cookbook if you cook by metric.

You can get Cutie Pies from the publisher, Andrews McMeel Publishing, My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- Mini Pies

Mini Pies: Adorably Delicious Recipes for Your Favorite Treats by Christy Beaver and Morgan Greenseth is a collection of recipes and instructions for miniature pies.

The authors run Mini Empire Bakery in Seattle, a bakery that specializes in tiny treats, with options for restricted diets.

When my husband saw this book, he said "It's a cute little pie book about cute little pies. You love it don't you?" It is a little book! It's 6x6 inches square, with 128 pages and 29 pie fillings and 7 pie crust recipes. It's simply adorable, and this is the kind of book that would have thrilled me in my stocking when I was younger.

The pies are made in muffin tins and topped with traditional toppings like whipped cream, meringue and a vegan whipped topping recipes, or with little cutouts made from crust. Along with traditional crust recipes, there is also a vegan pie crust and a gluten free crust. The instructions for making the crusts, rolling them out and putting them in the muffin tins are clearly written and easy to follow if you're a first time pie baker. There are also instructions for jar pies which use little mason canning jars as both the pie pan and the serving dish.

Each of the fillings and crust recipes are enough for 12 pies.  Fantastic mix of pie recipes. While they could have just done traditional pies and filled the cookbook, they didn't. A lot of the recipes have foodie touches and twists to make them a bit fancier. The fillings are made from scratch. No jarred pie fillings here! So there are some very traditional pies like key lime, pumpkin and chocolate cream, there is also an Apple Chai pie which adds more seasoning and flavor than just the cinnamon that's usually used. Instead of strawberry-rhubarb, there is a recipe for raspberry-rhubarb whiskey pie. Since I have raspberries and rhubarb in my garden, that will be popular this summer.

There are also a few savory options like a quiche and an onion pie. The onion pie I could easily see becoming a favorite of my son.

Some of the recipes have sweet tips on the side bars. For example with the above mentioned raspberry rhubarb pie, it suggests using liquid you pull off the filling to make a sorbet.

If you're a fan of baking  and love cute, you'll probably appreciate this cookbook. Great combinations of flavors and just wonderful presentation. The photos are gorgeous. I really love the ones they cut a slice out of these tiny pies.

Published by Ulysses Press.


My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Strawberry-Rhubarb coloring page

I'm working on a set of rhubarb labels for a friend, and put this together while I was working on it. Hope you like it! The idea of rhubarb "crossbones" with the cute strawberry to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie design just seems so cute. The coloring page can be used for coloring, embroidery, etc. It's 100 dpi PNG format- non-transparent. Click on the image for the full sized version.

Pi Day- Pie labels or gift tags

Pi Day is coming up, and today I drew some 2 inch circle tag pies that can be used to label jars of homemade filling or as small gift cards with pies you give as gifts. The example above is 5x7 inches at 100 ppi if you want to use it for a card or something. The tags themselves are 300 ppi in PDF format. You can download HERE.
The actual tags themselves have a circle of pie crust on the fruit pies so they can be written on and look like this.

Have a wonderful Pi day! We usually have pizza and pumpkin pie to celebrate.