B-A-N-A-N-A-S! GO, BANANAS!

EDIT: Pictures are now here!  I posted this entry sans photos, but now I have them, so there you are! 

So I've been a wee bit busy, and I just realized that it's been over a week since I updated my blog.  Woopsie Daisy!  Sorry 'bout that.

I'm getting ready to head back to Michigan for my sister's wedding this weekend, and I want to have a blog posted about last week's pie as well as this week's before I leave on Thursday morning, so this is going to be rather short and to the point... take it or leave it!

So the pie of the week was Banana Pudding Pie, and the recipe was one of those that was sent along after hearing about my project through facebook.  Jen sent this to me... we had a few classes together a few years ago, and she messaged me a month ago with the recipe, hoping to help out on this endeavor.  So thanks, Jen!  I love when that happens :)

Here's what she had to say about the pie: "So, I've been called 'un-American' because I've never liked pie...ever. Until my friend's mom had this. I was over at their house (this was like...3 maybe 4 years ago) and she came out and gave us all some, I was like...GAG pie! But to be nice I figured I could choke it down...turns out it was delish. Every time I visit now I request that she makes it."

Yay!  A pie convert!  That's the best news ever!

So the recipe involved making homemade pudding... like, 100% from scratch.  Okay, so I didn't grow the wheat and chop it down to make flour, but there was no box mix involved.  Win.  I had never made homemade pudding before, and it was suprisingly easy... I'm planning to make it like that from now on!  Delish!  Except I only know how to make vanilla pudding, so if a recipe calls for anything else, then I guess the box will come back into play.  Ah well.  You can't have everything.

I had to borrow a small pot to cook the pudding from Alison... I love how this becomes a community effort since I'm short on a lot of dishes/ingredients/pots and pans/etc.  I only have 1 pot, and it's big enough to feed 30 people chili for a week, so not small-time baking material.  That's what you get when you steal dishes from your sister.

Anyway, I cooked the pudding, failed on making a fancy edged crust (boo), added the bananas, and put it all together to set.  Well, my pan is a lot bigger than the standard size (Paula Deen likes big pies, apparently), so I had to whip up another batch to add, since the first filling mixture only took up half of the dish.

So that was about all I was supposed to do, but since I failed at making a fancy crust, I wanted it to be a bit more decorative, so I found some cool whip in my fridge, which I spread on top, and then shaved a chocolate bar over the whole thing.  Voila!  Presentation win!

 

The pie was a bit messy to plate, but once again, the messy ones are the best ones, right?

 

K, this was a total plating fail.

Here's how it came up in the ratings (MUCH better than the last one):
Appearance: 17/20
Taste: 20/25
Crust: 17/20
Filling: 17/20
Originality: 12/15
Total: 83/100

And the comments:
The Good:
 "I'm not a huge banana fan, but even so, you had me convinced!"
"It was especially delicious... The crust could have been prettier, but overall it was a definite win!"
"Crust was amazing!  I was pleasantly surprised by its fresh, non-burnt taste!"
"Loved it, almost as good as my fav."

The Middle-Ground:
"Looks great in pan and sometimes okay on plate."
"Banana filling had a weird consistency -- didn't make it bad, but maybe you could firm it up a little bit."

The Bad:
"I didn't like the banana chunks.  I wish they were mushed."
"The crust was really buttery/salty." -- Okay, so explanation on this one.  First, the comment is from Brianne, who is probably the pickiest of my pie eaters... in this case, that's a good thing though!  I appreciate that she can pick out the tiny little details (seriously, Brianne, keep it up!).  I laughed when I read this, though, since I had to halve my crust recipe (no top crust) and I accidentally poured double the salt I was supposed to... I pinched what I could out, but I really had no idea how much salt remained.  So apparently it was just noticeable enough!

Okay, well I'm out for now... I'll have another blog up by Wednesday night!

Oh, and SEND RECIPES!!!  Pretty please?!?!  Also, vote in the poll!!!