Seasonal Sundays (Week 11) Spring Pies & Tarts

Spring is as much a state of mind as a season ... so let me tempt your tastebuds with seven easy pies and tarts that evoke robins and spring baseball and Easter dresses and ... and ... but leave plenty of time to step outside for a deep breath of cherry blossoms or the sound of spring peepers. Here's my promise, there's at least one that's going to call to you over the next few weeks as spring emerges at its own pace. Just make it!

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

Hey, all. Thank you for following Kitchen Parade, for checking in on these Sunday recipe collections. It means the world to be welcomed into your InBox and RSS readers and most of all, your kitchens. So thank you, thank you. And if you like this week's recipes, perhaps you'll share them with a friend or social circle?

It's a big week coming up, Pi Day on Tuesday, St. Urho's Day on Thursday, St. Patrick's Day on Friday. But who has time for all that?

So this week I selected seven pies that will carry us through spring, strawberry, rhubarb but also lemon and coconut and a few surprises.

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: An iconic photo, learning how to roll out a pie crust, wondering how (if) how all of you learned to do this. Moms and grandmoms? Are you passing along this skill?

In Praise Of ...

• ... metal pie pans (affiliate link), no more pasty-white pie crusts
• ... one-piece metal pie crust shields (affiliate link), my sister gifted one at Thanksgiving, way easier than a foil shield, it's light and just gently rests on top of the crust
• ... there are soooo many new pie cookbooks (affiliate link but really, your library probably has a few of these)
• ... but my go-to remains the Farm Journal's Complete PIE cookbook: 700 Best Dessert and Main-Dish Pies in the Country (affiliate link) from 1965, it's been hard to find at an affordable price but at the moment, there are used copies for under $10

Made Me Think ...

• Habit Stacking & Why Does Your Brain Like It So Much Does absolutely everything start in the brain? Without realizing, I've been habit-stacking my night routine. Our doctor has recommended a hit of protein before bed to prevent hand cramps during the night and it really works. (And no wonder why we so appreciate this physician ... ) I've come to love-love-love that cup of Greek yogurt so use it as an incentive to finish cleaning the kitchen (counters too, AK!) and record notes from the day's cooking and most of all, decide what's for dinner tomorrow. Wow, what a difference, all thanks to stacking things I'd usually procrastinate (or never do) atop something I rarely forgo.


• Covid Revisionism from Katelyn Jetelina aka Your Local Epidemologist. Take Away: Can we please have a serious conversation about the pandemic and how to prepare for the future? Our lives depend on it.

May I Suggest ... a Link?

Let me just presume that if you're reading this, well, you're both a cook and a recipe collector. Don't the two kinda go together? And that means you tuck aside interesting recipes all over the place and then, dang, where is that chicken recipe that looked so good anyway? Here's an idea. Start a folder on your phone, call it "Kitchen Parade" or "Alanna" or whatever makes best sense to you. Then save the recipes you're most interested in right there in one place. Easy Peasy.

• Start here? Kitchen Parade Pies & Tarts

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SEASONAL INSPIRATION: Seven Pies & Tarts for Spring

• THE RECIPE Fresh Strawberry Pie Fresh glazed berries in a homemade chocolate-cookie crust, a real crowd pleaser.
• ANOTHER TAKE Finnish Strawberry Whipped Cream Cake A real celebration cake.

• THE RECIPE Lemon Meringue Pie Sunny slivers of the lemony classic.
• ANOTHER TAKE Brown Sugar Lemon Curd My Canadian family's signature recipe.

• THE RECIPE Coconut Cream Pie How to move grown men to silence.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy-Easy Chocolate Coconut Pudding Just five ingredients and ten minutes to pudding.

• THE RECIPE Perfect All-Rhubarb Pie A summer masterpiece.
• ANOTHER TAKE Custard with Rhubarb Sauce Creamy custard topped with sour rhubarb.

• THE RECIPE Blueberry Cheesecake Pie Cheesecake topped with homemade blueberry pie filling. No bake!
• ANOTHER TAKE Mini Blueberry Tarts With a "pop" of fresh blueberry right in the middle.

• THE RECIPE Last-Minute Pantry Pie Just five pantry ingredients. No bake!
• ANOTHER TAKE Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie A creamy concoction, with just a hint of peanut butter and a drizzle of chocolate.

• THE RECIPE Easy-Easy Jam Tart An amazing tart in just 15 minutes!
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy Elegant Fruit Tart Part tart, part cheesecake, all impressive, all dramatic.

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Finnish Fruit Tart For blueberries, raisins, lingonberries, sweet & sour cherries, rhubarb and more ...
• THE BITE-SIZE VERSION Mini Blueberry Tarts With a "pop" of fresh blueberry right in the middle.

Compliments!

Dang spammers. But I've turned comments back on because I miss hearing from y'all!

• "I haven't found a recipe as good as yours." ~ Barb from Minnesota
• Truth here, Barb is the talented visual artist at Barb Kellogg Photography and yes, we're related! But her compliment meant the world because it's not been so long since Barb needed coaching to replace dusty old flour just to make pancakes. She's come a long ways since! She and her husband just wanted good bread so she started baking whole-grain breads and loved the flexibility of my recipe, below. When they later switched to a plant-based diet, they learned how much cooking that entails. At the moment, she's also switching to gluten-free and it warmed my heart (for the recipe, not for her) that the bread recipes she's worked with are not satisfying that yen for bread in the way my bread did. She's still on the hunt, the difficulty is that so many gluten-free yeast-bread recipes lean on eggs for structure and eggs don't fit the vegan diet. If anyone has solved this problem, even with one of those "packets" of bread to bake vs a recipe, she'd love to know!
• THE RECIPE Our Daily Bread: My Easy Everyday Bread Recipe An easy, European-style bread I make every few days.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy Everyday Bread for the Stand Mixer Better bread, no kneading by hand!

Looking Ahead ...

• Fridays During Lent - Friday Fish
• March 12 - time change today!
• March 14 - Pi Day
• March 16 - St. Urho's Day
• March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
• March 20 - First Official Day of Spring
• April 9 - Easter

• THE COLLECTION Kitchen Parade's Fish Recipes, many Quick Suppers, many healthy meals.
• AND ANOTHER Kitchen Parade's Seafood Recipes including shrimp, oysters, lobster, crab.

• THE COLLECTION St. Patrick's Day Recipes including fun ideas for "green food".
• ALL THE HOLIDAYS All the Holidays Year-round food for fun and celebration.

• THE COLLECTION Easter Recipes From brunch to bunny hunts and much more.
• ALL THE HOLIDAYS All the Holidays Year-round food for fun and celebration.

Looking Back ...

• Rotisserie Chicken Recipes (Week 10)
• Dried Beans for Bridge Season (Week 9)
• Breakfast Occasions (Week 8)
• Dinner for ♥♥ (Week 7)
• Winter Salads (Week 6)
• Leaning into Lentils (Week 5)
• Quick Breads (Week 4)
• Winter Dinners (Week 3)
• Winter Plant-Based Dinners (Week 2)
• A Cozy Cool Down (Week 1)

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Just so you know, everything's not all pretty pictures around here, in the background is a pile of dirty dishes. And just like many (all?) of us, come five o'clock, I too draw a blank about what to make for supper, despite so many recipes I so dearly love. Here's a quick peek from the last week.

• THIS WEEK This is the sleeper recipe of Winter 2023! We both love the mini meatballs and the sauce (usually spaghetti sauce or a doctored can of tomato soup) is super simple. This week I used a random can of chicken and rice soup, which at first seemed like it might be too rice-on-rice so I tucked in a can of green beans. It turned out kinda like a meatball casserole. Oh. And this goes extra quick cuz there's no browning the meatballs, they bake in the oven draped in the sauce.
• THE RECIPE Mini Porcupine Meatballs A retro recipe updated for contemporary tastes.

Just Updated!

• THE RECIPE Irish Beef Stew A hearty, beer-rich stew with carrots and potatoes.
• ANOTHER TAKE Corned Beef with Red Potatoes, Carrot Chunks, Cabbage Wedges & Cheese Sauce Traditional for St. Patrick's Day.

• THE RECIPE Irish Soda Bread Muffins Moist, buttermilk muffins studded with dried fruit and scented with caraway.
• ANOTHER TAKE Irish Spiced Fruitcake NOT your grandma's fruitcake.

• THE RECIPE Baked Cabbage Wedges Healthy cabbage slow-roasted with carrots and onion.
  
• ANOTHER TAKE Cabbage Noodles Ribbons of soft, silky cabbage, almost like pasta.

• THE RECIPE Chicken Cacciatore The classic Italian stew, chicken slow-cooked in a rich tomato sauce.
• ANOTHER TAKE Italian Lemon Chicken Italian-style baked chicken, lemon-y and garlick-y.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address is in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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