hello there friends- Laura here from xoelle.com and I am bringing you pocket pies today! I adore picnics but really want them to be as convenient as dining out (= hate coming home to a basket full of hot-from-the-car-dishes) so when I bumped into the glorious idea of pies that you can tote in your hand, I knew that I had found my perfect picnic food. I mean, is there anything unlikeable about pie?
I began with this basic pie crust (oh Martha, it's perfect) and cut out lotsa hearts using a 3 inch heart cookie cutter. For my fillings I used some overipe berries, pasta leftovers, and sauteed spinach (so, in other words, stuff that I was about to toss out of the fridge). I mixed the berries with a spoonfull of sugar and a dash of cornstarch and topped the leftover pasta and sauteed spinach with some shredded mozerella. Each filling was lovingly tucked between two pastry hearts and squished at the seams with my fingers, the placed on a baking sheet. I baked them at 350 until they were starting to brown on top- about 15 minutes.
I made these a day early so that they could chill and set overnight in the fridge and pack well (not being too crazily gooey and soft) and it worked splendidly. The next day, after our normal work/school routine we packed ourselves into the car and headed for an adventure on the North Shore. The pocket pies packed beautifully into a lunchbox (lined with tea towel- so no napkins! no baggies! no silverware! no plates!) and looked so incredibly delicious when we arrived at a new-to-us beach in Waialua and unpacked them. It was like a three course meal in pie form: 1. spinach, 2. pasta, 3. berries. Yum.
Everyone liked them- even our kiddos who are pretty famous for being food snobs. We gulped them down and then explored our lovely location. Mountains on one side, ocean on the other. Bright sunshine and wind, a world full of tiny shells and treasures to sift from the sand. And sea turtles. And orange dump trucks. Everyday is an adventure, my friends.
xo elle
