Ah, the day I have been anticipating for days, even weeks! Today is pie-baking day, as well as the day we smoke the turkey breast. (I have the image of the Dunkin’ Donuts guy in my head, only he is saying ‘Time to bake the pies!’ instead of ‘Time to make the donuts’) This may be the last I see of my couch for the remainder of the day…my legs and back will be aching within hours, but a wonderful ache that will be! In a few short minutes I will head out to fire up the smoker. It is rather large and will take close to a solid hour to come up to temperature. My turkey breast went into the brine last night. I did a simple brine of salt and brown sugar (about 1/2 c Kosher salt, 1/4 c brown sugar and 1 1/2 gallons of water). Once the smoker is heating up I will take out the turkey breast, pat it dry and apply the rub…then into the smoker it goes!
Pies will follow. Last night I moved the crusts from the freezer to the fridge, which was cleaned out and ready to hold lots of pie. I made a lemon curd and cranberry curd last night to use for my mini meringue pies. I am experimenting to see if the meringue holds up better in bite-sized portions than it does in a full-sized pie. I will be using the mini phyllo dough shells to test…