Samosas and Pie. Mmmm pie.

On Saturday night, we were running kind of low on groceries. Normally when we are running low, dinner centers around tofu, but we were out of that, too. I decided on samosas. Rather than following a recipe, I just sort of made this up as I went along. Unfortunately I didn't write down the ingredients, which is sad because these wound up turning out really well! I was feeling gluttonous, so I fried these. The dough was flour, Spectrum shortening, and either water or plain soymilk...I can't remember which, but I'm leaning towards water. I put the dough in the refrigerator while I made the filling, which was potatoes and green peas and some spices (brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander, garam masala, chana masala (spice mix that came in a box), and salt....I think that's it). I boiled the peeled (and chopped) russet potatoes first for 12 minutes, then cooked everything over medium heat in a couple of tablespoons of oil. Once assembled, I fried the samosas for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. The tamarind chutney I served the samosas with was store-bought. Our health food store had it on closeout. I'm glad we bought it because it turned out to be very good.


This is a bumbleberry pie with an oat crumble topping, which is a test recipe for Julie Hasson. This pie turned out absolutely awesome. I made the crust from scratch per one of her recipes, too, and it was so simple and tasty! I often eat the filling out of pies and leave the crust for my boyfriend, but this time I liked the crust so much that I ate my whole slice. In case you aren't familiar with bumbleberry, it is a mixed berry pie. I used a bag of frozen mixed berries, so this had strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries in it. The filling thickened up so nicely, too. I am so excited to test more pie recipes for Julie!