Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I know folks who prefer the cheeseburger because it tastes better than the double cheeseburger.

I have to say the McDouble works for me because the one slice of cheese allows for the meat flavor to come through more than on the double cheeseburger.

I know this is off the subject, but the new Angus Mushroom & Swiss is good!

I want to know why the double cheeseburger was cheaper than the cheeseburger for a while. does anyone remember that? one was $1 and the other $1.29

I would like to try this Cauliflower and BS Gratin. Pine nuts on anything make it even cooler!

I also love the pastry snails made from leftover dough, butter, sugar and cinnamon. I like crust, but not the bottom soggy crust. Usually pick around it and leave it behind. Lately I've been making little tarts and putting just a dab of whatever homemade jam or jelly is around. I use less sugar so the fruit flavor is more pronounced. Good way to clean the refrigerator out of too many jars with just a dab in the bottom. I've also used guava paste and quince paste with good results. I have silicone tart pans and a tart tamper gadget that takes the work out of pressing the dough in place. It really works! Can't live without it now. Here is my dough recipe. It exactly fits two 12 cup tart pans and I whip it up in the food processor. A fast sugar pastry fix!
JAM TARTS
6 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add yolk and vanilla. Mix well.
Add flours and salt. Mix just to combine.
Pinch off about a tablespoon of dough, roll gently into a ball and press into tart mold.
Fill with a teaspoon of jam or jelly.
Bake at 350 for 9 to 11 minutes. The edges should be very lightly golden.
Cool on rack. Make a pot of tea and try not to devour them all.

I also am a "good" crust junkie. When my mother made pies she always had enough scraps left to make what we kids called piewheels. She would roll out the scraps into a rectangle shape, put a layer of butter then brown sugar and sprinkle with nutmeg & cinammon. It was the rolled up on the longer side, edges pinched and cut into little rolls. These were baked until golden brown & bubbly. I cannot make a pie without a few piewheels to snack on while the pies finish baking. Even friends ask me to make them.

This sounds exactly like my Asian family. Everything is "too sweet! too sweet!" We also scrape most of the frosting off cakes. I'm a savory kind of gal, but my favorite sweet pie is when the fruit filling is a bit tart.

i could never resist fruit pie filling! But, that being said, i used to make little pie crust cut-out cookies for an old boyfriend. He loved them - they were little, flaky bits of goodness that were covered in cinnamon and sugar. Good alone, with milk, or sprinkled over ice cream... mmmmm :)

Couldn't agree more about The Plush Horse in Palos Park. I discovered the place quite by accident, visiting a customer who lives there. A good old fashioned ice cream parlor with tons of flavors and very friendly service, it's hard to go wrong. They've been there a long time.

I live in the northwest suburbs and love Greg's Frozen Custard in Mundelein, on Lake St. (Rt. 45) just north of Rt. 60. The place is amazing! I understand the guy who owns the place used to work at Leon's in Milwaukee (one of the most famous places around) and copied their recipes. A customer of mine from Milwaukee who goes to Leon's all the time had nothing but great things to say, that it was every bit as good as Leon's. Check Greg's out! They post their daily flavors on custardlist.com

I agree that a higher crust-to-fruit ratio is preferable with fruit pies. The filling is often too sweet and I like a good thick crust to balance it.

Not particularly but my husband loves, loves, loves pie crust by itself.

I totally ignore the fruit - especially when its way too gooey. I'm a crust eater all the way.

When you told her, your mother was suprised that people like to eat filling and crust together?!? :-| Shouldn't an artifice at least serve a purpose and be a little less obviously contrived?

Oh I have been doing this for years! I used to joke that I performed "stealth surgery" on pies because I could hit the dessert table at family Christmases or Thanksgivings and remove 2 slices worth of crust, leaving behind most of the filling, and no one realized what I was doing:)
If fillings are made with good, fresh fruit and not loaded w/ sugar, I'll eat them. But all too often, I'd take a bite and realize the apple or cherry filling was canned. Not wasting calories on that, thanks!