Svacina Project

I did not grow up eating buttermilk pie, but have seen it consistently ( always passed up until now)  at school bake sales and on family reunion dessert tables or as one of many different gifted pies to teachers at my son's school around Thanksgiving. It is one of those classic Southe rn dishes that Texas Czechs have embraced and recipes for it are included in many community cookbooks. I have actually seen old recipes written by Czech-speaking ladies that spelled the word pie phonetically (in Czech) as paj.  From TasteAtlas.com, I read " The origins of this pie date back to the Depression and WWII, when women used pantry staples and what they had on hand." Of course, living in an apartment in suburban Austin, I never have buttermilk "on hand", but I do use it for some dishes (biscuits, pancakes, marinating fried chicken) after which I may have some leftover. What to do with extra buttermilk? Make pie.  The recipe I used is from Mrs. Joe F. Blinka, Jr. included i

My gorgeous sister holding Easter court in her gorgeous dining room, 2022.   Holiday meals at my sister's house yield ample leftovers to experiment with and our gathering for Easter last Sunday was no exception. We devour the plentiful appetizers, eat meager lunch plates, and then I fill up multiple Tupperware dishes of leftovers. Though there were 11 adults and five teenagers, I came home with ham and the ham hock, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, boiled eggs, most of the mascarpone torta appetizer I made, and most of the strawberry tartlets I made. We were all too stuffed from lunch to eat the three desserts that were there.  My mom's recipe for Strawberry Devonshire Tart prepared as individual tartlets.  I love turning leftovers into other dishes, stretching the work I did into another meal while stretching my culinary creativity muscles so we don't eat the same dish over and over. Like so many other people this week, I will make egg salad or deviled eggs from the Easter e