The Drink and The Bored Vegetarian Present… 2nd Annual Gala Gala Hey!
An Apple Festival Featuring Kate Lebo of Pie Stand and author of A Commonplace Book of Pie

3:00pm – 10:00pm Sunday, September 15, 2013 at The Drink

FREE

Check out the FB invite

We had such a blast last year, so Gala Gala Hey! is back for more! Kate Lebo will be slinging her delicious fresh baked pies by the slice, as well as reading from her book A Commonplace Book of Pie. We’ll be celebrating the almighty apple all day long with fresh pie from Pie Stand, bobbing for apples, old timey music, cider on tap, apple pairings, corn hole and the return of the creepy masks!

Kate Lebo of Pie Stand will be baking up five varieties to be sold by the slice for Gala Gala Hey!

Cheddar-Crusted Apple Pie
Whiskey Crumble Apple Pie
Honey-Ginger Apple Pie
Brandied Apple Cardamom Pie
Apple Pear Pie

Gala Gala Hey! is free and open to the public.

About Kate Lebo

Kate Lebo is an award-winning baker and poet from Seattle, Washington. Lebo’s first book A Commonplace Book of Pie is a quirky collage of fact and fiction that combines humor, art, recipes, pop culture, and poetry to redefine America’s favorite dessert. Pie is a medium for conversation in this debut book from Chin Music Press, balancing Lebo’s technical baker know-how with lyrical ruminations on the real and imagined relationships between pie and those who love it.

Kate’s writing has appeared in Best New Poets, Gastronomica, and Poetry Northwest among other journals, and she’s currently at work on a pie cookbook for Sasquatch Books, forthcoming in 2014. She teaches creative writing at Richard Hugo House and pie making at Pie School, her cliche-busting pastry academy. She also hosts Pie Stand, a social that uses pie to create conversations across communities. For more tasty treats, visit katelebo.com.

My mom used to make a similar pie growing up, but with walnuts in the crust. You could also do a filling with peaches or other berries if you’d like.

– 3 large Egg Whites
– 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
– 3/4 cup Sugar
– 3/4 cup unsalted Pistachios, toasted and chopped small
– Canola Oil
– 2 tsp Vanilla 
– 2 cups fresh Strawberries, chopped
– 1 1/2 cup Whipping Cream

I left out the sugar for the whipped cream since the meringue is already so sweet.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Use a small amount of oil to lightly coat the inside of a pie pan. In a bowl, use a handmixer with a whisk attachment to whip together the eggs, vanilla and cream of tartar until frothy. Slowly stream in sugar as you continue to beat on a high speed. The meringue is ready when it’s glossy and forms stiff peaks. Add in 1/2 cup of the pistachios and gently fold them into the meringue. Spread the meringue into the pan. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely, about one hour.

For the strawberries and cream, whip the whipping cream and vanilla in a bowl until stick peaks form. Fold in strawberries. Spread over the cooled meringue crust.

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. I love Fall and everything, but considering that I only made it to the beach here ONCE, it seems a little too soon for it to be over. The good news is that the 2nd annual Gala Gala Hey! is coming up next month at The Drink.
Details coming soon!

As always, you should like you should like The Bored Vegetarian!

Kate Lebo of Pie School flew into New York yesterday and her and I were in The Drink’s kitchen prepping pie dough for Gala Gala Hey! until the wee hours of the morning.

Here are the apple pies that Kate will be offering today:Cheddar-Crusted Apple PieWhiskey Crumble Apple PieHoney-Ginger Apple PieBrandied-Apple Cardamom PieOld Fashioned Plain Apple Pie 
WE ARE SO EXCITED. Hope to see you in a few hours xoxo 

The Bored Vegetarian & The Drink present…

GALA GALA HEY!

An Apple Festival Featuring Pie Stand Sunday, October 7th, 2012
2:00pm – 10:00pm
The Drink
228 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn, NY 

Apples! Fall! We love them, so we’re throwing a big ol’ party to celebrate all things apple: apples pies, apple cider, apple brandy, bobbing for apples, songs about apples(?). We’ll be offering free classes about apples and making apple pies, as well as lots of apple treats for you to eat and drink. More details to come.

About Pie Stand

Pie Stand is a semi-regular, semi-secret pie social hosted by Kate Lebo, an award-winning baker and poet from Seattle, Washington. The premise is simple: Kate makes a seasonal selection of the best pie you’ve ever had. You stop by for a slice, a drink, and a chat—or you can order a whole pie ahead of time by e-mailing kate@pie-school.com. Kate’s the author of A Commonplace Book of Pie (forthcoming in fall 2013), and she runs Pie School, a cliche-busting pastry academy whose mission is to make pie as easy as it’s supposed to be. More info at Pie School.

Pie Stand will be baking up five varieties for Gala Gala Hey! Keep in mind that you can PRE-ORDER WHOLE PIES, just email Kate: kate@pie-school.com

– Cheddar-Crusted Apple Pie
– Whiskey Crumble Apple Pie
– Honey-Ginger Apple Pie
– Brandied Apple Cardamom Pie
– Good Old Fashioned Perfectly Plain Apple Pie

We have lots more brewing (ripening?) for October 7th. I’ll be posting more info here, or you can check out the invite (and invite your friends!)

I haven’t mentioned Montreal!  I went there.  I ate at more vegetarian/vegan restaurants in a weekend than in the time I’ve been in New York.  Thanks to Omar, Nana, Katie and Mitz for making it a great trip. 





In big life-changing news, I became an Auntie this week!  Marion Grace was born on August 25th at 4am PST.  I will (try to) keep the baby gushing to a minimum, but isn’t she cute?!  Congrats to my big bro Andrew and his wife Shannon for ushering this little lady into the world.

Last week I told someone I planned on making a Marionberry pie to celebrate my niece’s birth, but seeing as I have no clue where to find a proper marionberry, I settled for strawberry pie… and a blackberry (marionberries are actually a kind of blackberry, mostly found in Oregon) and blueberry pie, which is currently cooling on my windowsill.
As I may have mentioned, I’m not much of a baker.  Until yesterday, I’d never made a pie before, which explains my limited success.  I made the dough using a basic recipe, and sort of winged it with the filling. 

Basic Pie Crust Recipe1 1/2 all purpose flour1 stick of cold butter, cubed1 tsp salt1 tsp granulated sugar4-5 tbls ice waterIn a food processor, combine flour, salt and sugar until mixed.  Add cold butter and pulse until it forms small pea-size pieces.  Add ice water a tablespoon at a time until you can pinch the dough and it holds together. 
Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and put in the fridge for at least an hour.
Once it’s cold, dust your counter with flour and roll out until even thickness and about 10 inches across.  Press into pie pan.  Line the inside of the pie with parchment paper and use pie weights or dry beans to hold in place (if you’re making crust ahead of time.)  Bake at 350 for 20 mins. Poke bottom of crust and bake until it’s no longer doughy.

Strawberry Filling
2 containers fresh strawberries1/2 cup (or more) granulated sugarcornstarchjuice of 1 lemon (optional)lemongrass (optional)Chop one container of strawberries and heat in a pan with sugar and lemon juice.  Add cornstarch (check directions) and boil until sauce thickens.  I used some stalks of lemongrass, but removed before adding to the crust.  Cool in the fridge.  Chop remaining strawberries and add to the saucy mixture.  Add strawberries to pie crust.  If you’re overly girly, you can cut out a strawberry from dough, bake it, and add to the top.  Your friends will think you bought it at a store that sells strawberry-shaped cookies.

I brought this to a BBQ on Mat’s roof.  Since I had neglected to bring veggie dogs, I cut into this early so that I would stop eating all of the guacamole.  It was a bit (ok, a lot) runny, but tasted pretty nice.  Sadly, I have no pie filling skills (yet.)  Perhaps I should read up on my friend Kate Lebo’s blog, who is a pie baking expert and wins all sorts of pie-baking awards in Seattle.  Show me your wise ways, dear Kate.