re.CAP: PI day

RER 3.14.15

Saturday was Pi Day, like super Pi Day 3.14.15, so of course we celebrated, a lot. Instagram, facebook and other social media were flooded with sweet and savory pies, and other super cute pun-inspired treats, which furthered our desire to party it up on Pi Day.

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

First, it was cherry pie. Sure, we may have cheated by using canned cherry filling and store-bought pie crust, but we would never cheat in math. It was just something fun and easy. To make our pie even more nerdy for Pi Day, I cut out different sized circles to decorate and cover the top of the pie (like this). Turned out super cute and festive.

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

The second phase of celebration was… you guessed it, a pizza pie! We bought our favorite whole-wheat dough and almost all of our favorite toppings and threw together a pizza (we might have continued the festivities to Sunday with a second homemade pizza…shhh).

Pie Day is everyday to me, but Pi Day is a great excuse to geek out and bake up something tasty (even if it’s fake). Did you do anything special for 3.14?

RER

3.14.15

RER 3.14.15

MangiaMore: WALNUT cookies

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RER 12.24.14

Like I said, we were trying some new cookie recipes for this Christmas holiday. In the past, I mentioned a super amazing math teacher that made cookies for us to eat during tests. For years after graduating high school we made almond cookies in effort to replicate those happy taste buds from our math teacher’s cookies. I may have also said that the almond variety we make is extremely similar to hers, but that is where I am very mistaken. We actually found the recipe she typed up on her typewriter and photocopied on very blue paper for all of the students in her classes.

RER 12.22.14

RER 12.22.14

RER 12.24.14

Miss Couturie’s White Walnut Cookies

aka: Viennese Crescents or Russian Tea Biscuits

adapted from the NY Times Cookbook

Grind, very fine, 1 cup walnut meats

Mix together well : ¾ cups granulated sugar

                                  2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter – at room temp is easier

                                  1 Tablespoon (or more to taste) genuine vanilla

Add the walnut meats and mix well.

Add a scant 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour and mix. Final part of mixing may need to be done by hand since dough can be crumbly.

Shape into balls or cubes and bake 8-12 minutes at 325 degrees on ungreased cookie sheet.

Allow to cool as they are fragile and move close together. Sift powdered sugar while still warm.     

Note: DO NOT OVERBAKE! To check for doneness, carefully look at the bottom— top should almost look “raw” but bottom should be no more than light golden.                                                                                                                                                            

RER 12.22.14

RER 12.22.14

RER 12.22.14

So this year, we tried out these cookies, word for word! They are delightful and are redolent of sweet memories while scratching quick math on color-coded sheets of paper. The generous amounts of powdered sugar speak to the sweet holidays and cold weather. These walnut-centric cookies are strikingly different in flavor from the almond ones we had grown accustomed to, but with similar buttery, crumbly textures, they are A-Okay for Santa.                                                                           

RER

12.22.14

RER 12.24.14