Here’s to friends far away – and to reconnecting with folks you meet years later to collaborate on awesome projects that blend two perfectly-balanced passions: wine and dessert! This whole post starts back in the summer of 2019 (remember those days? no masks, hugs, handshakes, and seeing people’s smiles?) when we visited one of my best friends in Vienna, where she’s living her best life. She happens to have a marvelous rooftop terrace just above her apartment where we organized a late-summer dinner paired with incredible wine, and we met her downstairs neighbors, Iker and his boyfriend Felix. And Iker happens to be not only an incredible academic (just a…
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Gluten Free Toasted Coconut Custard Pie
Custard pie has been one of my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dessert table treats since I can remember. To give you a bit of background – my mother hails from Alabama (moved to Oregon when she was in 8th grade), so we continue to ride the long coattails of southern cuisine, from pecan to karo to custard pies, to green jello salads (I had a MIND-blowingly-good one when we visited family outside of Montgomery when I was five and still think about it *sigh*), to hush puppies and family-secret barbecue sauce. Custard pie is arguably one of the simplest ones on that list, but it’s just so dang good! Now, after…
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Gluten Free Cranberry Apple Pie with a Flaky Crust
Gluten free pie crust has been my nemesis for 16 long years. Either it’s a soggy bottom, or too tough, or too mealy and damp, never flaky, never buttery, I mean come on, it turned into a half-ass attempt to carry the actually-good part of any pie: the filling! I would reluctantly pull out my food processor and do what I’d always done and come out with the same dry, crumbly crust that I would (if we’re being honest) throw away after scooping off spoonfuls of custard or pecan or karo. Crisps were a much better match: tons of fruit, tons of spiced, nutty, crumbly (because it was supposed to…
