pi(e) fixes everything

so pi day was this week, and you know we had to celebrate it somehow.  i was pretty sure the bean hadn't learned about pi yet, but when i asked her if she knew what it was she said "ummmm, it's something about math, right?"  so i explained it to her and asked her what that day's date was, and i damn near saw the lightbulb go off above her head.  heh.

i started looking up recipes that morning to see what i could come up with, and i knew i wanted to do something with lemons.  we've got a tree in the backyard and it's absolutely bursting at the seams with fruit right now, and i hate to see lemons go to waste.  i managed to find a really basic recipe for hand pies with an easy homemade lemon curd, and so i went outside and picked a few to get started.

while it was chilling in the fridge, i browsed for a chocolate cream recipe and settled on a simple chocolate cream cheese filling.  and while i was at it, i decided to add some savory hand pies to the mix and figured i'd make a few with ham and cheese.  kind of like a homemade hot pocket.

i looked up pie crust recipes too, figuring i had all of the ingredients on hand anyway.  but after i perused the first couple hits google brought me, i decided it was too much effort on that warm day and opted for the cheater method using store-bought crust instead.  maybe one of these days i'll tackle a homemade pie crust, but for now this did just fine:

i rolled out those crusts and cut out some circle shapes and then i started filling the little pies with my various ingredients.  it was fairly easy, and you know i had to throw some disney magic in there too.

a quick egg wash brushed on top and about 12 minutes in the oven and they were all ready.

the girls loved them, and it was a fun dinner to eat together.  yay for pi day!

3.14159265359 day

okay, so maybe math wasn't ever my best subject in school.  i do just fine these days with a calculator, thankyouverymuch.  but even i couldn't resist the temptation to celebrate "pi day" - march 14th, naturally - in a tiny, silly, but delicious way.  you expected nothing else, right?

but first, the bean had gymnastics class.  and i can't help but giggle at this picture.

i still had a roll of premade pie crust left over from the valentine's day extravaganza.  that made it super easy to create something for dessert that would satisfy the after-dinner sweet tooth for all of us.  and i wanted something cute and easy to eat, so i settled on an easy recipe for hand pies.

i rolled out the dough and cut out circles.  then, because you're supposed to cut some sort of small opening in the tops of pie crust anyway, i improvised with my paring knife.

the filling was easy - some softened cream cheese, sweet marshmallow creme, a little sugar, and a handful of mini chocolate chips.  i don't really love traditional s'mores - i always end up just eating the toasted marshmallow and chocolate - so i left out the crushed graham crackers.  using my pie crust circles, i made little sandwiches, crimped the edges with a fork, and brushed the tops with a little melted butter.  mmmm, butter.

they baked up pretty quickly, and in about ten minutes i had these little pretties:

can you see it?  can you see it??  it's PIE FOR PI DAY!