hand pies

I made these for my grampa (Papa)'s birthday party on Sunday.

I've always thought hand pies were just too cute,

and had to give them a try.

I made them with cherries that I had canned, last year, from our own tree!

I just get a kick out of making things as "from scratch" as possible.

*Home canned cherries & my chicken's eggs*

To roll the crust out to the required dimensions I used a ruler & marker on the underneath of the parchment I rolled the dough out on. 

 I found the recipe in the September issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Their recipe called for fresh berries. I think they may not have oozed out so bad if the cherries I used had been fresh. The crust recipe they suggested I did use, but I would not use it again. It was a butter crust, which I do like, but I have a tried and true pie crust recipe that my Grandma gave me. It uses lard. I know most people would shudder at the thought of using something they would see as so bad for you. But honestly it's natural, I could make it myself, in my own kitchen, no laboratory required. Unlike vegetable shortening with its partially hydrogenated blah blah blah.

I want to try making some meat pies in this way rather like Cornish pasties. It seems to me that it would be very practical picnic food. :)

If you're interested you can find the recipe for Grandma Linda's Lard Pie Crust on my old blog.

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