Energy Saving: An Old-Fashioned Idea...aka Pie for Breakfast

Pie for Breakfast, not just an after Thanksgiving Treat.  Hey, don't give me that look. We all do it even if we don't talk about it in mixed company.  It's fruit, it's carb, it's yummy with coffee, sounds like a nutritious breakfast to me.

Yeah, I know wrong time of year for post Thanksgiving pie for breakfast treat, so let me back track.  We are trying to save energy for financial and environmental reasons. A gas oven is a big user of resources, so I am using an age old concept of making full use of it by doing a lot of baking at once to not waste the preheat. This recalls a great book I read recently, Going with the Grain, and her descriptions of the clay ovens used by the Taos Native Americans.  When in use for baking and not just beauties of the landscape, the ovens provide many hours of heat but at differing temperatures.  So the "baker" makes full use by preparing bread, pie, cookies, roasted vegetables, meats, you name it, to make sure they use it to its full extent.  Here are a few weblinks I found that you might like
http://oceansnsunsets.hubpages.com/hub/Baking-in-clay-ovens

and

http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/slideshow-photo/kiva-ladders-and-clay-ovens-by-travelpod-member-thetraveller88-taos-united-states.html?sid=14192602&fid=tp-2

My husband, D, has been wanting to make peach pie this week and waited for a big bread baking Friday night. So during the preheat, I roasted onions, eggplant, patty pan squash (quartered), onions, garlic, and smoked compressed tofu while the bread stones heated.  I baked the first loaves of bread while we ate and a few more during Mr B's playtime and bathtime.  While he rocked to sleep, D baked the pie. So this morning when neither of us wanted to fix breakfast, a fresh baked pie was too tempting (and I had a little guilt that I talked him out of cutting into it last night so it could cool properly)....long story short...it was D's idea (yep, throwing him under the bus...that's how I roll today)

The Compromise:  Bake many things all at once to save energy and money and time.

The Sweet Reward:  Peach Pie for breakfast (btw, we D tried a new crust for the fun of it because I used all the shortening, didn't replace it and didn't tell him...I am thoughtful like that...maybe more on a great new pie crust later)

Yep, I learned my lesson about the importance of saving money and energy...Being green isn't so hard Kermit. ;)

Tracy...pie eater extraordinaire