Today marks Eva’s 10th birthday. Eva is my Jack Russell Terrier in the pictures above.
I don’t typically do anything special for my dog’s birthday, but she turns ten tomorrow so we thought we would get her a few toys and make her some special treats. The first thing I made was Carrot and Carob Pupcakes topped with peanut butter frosting. If you want to try making it for your pup you can get the recipe on Bakingdom.
I was at Whole Foods last week and they were offering up different recipes from local food bloggers using fresh cherries to promote their 5th annual cherry fest. Basically, they were having a giant sale on cherries. I decided to pick out my favorite recipe and make it at home.
The standout recipe to me was the cherry crostini from Over the Top Kid. Once my cherries were ready it was very simple to put together.
Leading up to my trip to Seattle I was offered countless suggestions of where to dine in the foodie paradise that is Seattle. But, one chef’s name kept coming up – Tom Douglas.
By pure happenstance we stumbled upon one of Chef Douglas’ restaurants called Palace Kitchen on our very first night in Seattle. We were hungry, it was late and it was right next to our hotel with a bright neon sign welcoming us toward it in the dark night. The place was beautiful, I only wish I had seen it during the day.
Later in my trip, I decided to go to Serious Pie & Biscuit for breakfast in the South Lake Union area. I ended up ordering the peanut butter, banana and honey biscuit. While it was scrumptious, by the end of my meal it was just too sweet and I couldn’t finish it. 
Pictured above from top left (clockwise): Peanut butter, banana and honey biscuit, it’s smiling at me!; Inside Serious Pie and Biscuit; Palace Kitchen exterior; Cheeseburger from Palace Kitchen
The same dayI went to Serious Pie & Biscuit for breakfast we agreed to meet up with our relatives at Serious Pie. We headed to the location on Virginia to put our name in as they do not take reservations. We were given an estimated wait time of two and half hours! Serious-ly?!
There is no pizza worth that long of a wait so I called the same place I ate breakfast to find out their wait time and we were in luck. The wait time was only fifteen minutes! We just had to walk about fifteen minutes to get there.
After getting seated I ordered a Brasilena. It was on the menu as coffee soda, and yup that is about what it tasted like. Someone dumped the two items together and voila, Brasilena!
The pizzas were outstanding but sadly we ate them all so quickly I simply forgot to take a single photo.
Truthfully though the spotlight stealer of the evening was hands down the coconut pie. I know what you are thinking, “Coconut pie? When has coconut pie ever stolen the spotlight?” Trust me, this pie is amazing. I don’t even like coconut. Just look at this video of the folks of Seattle enjoying the famous pie from Dhalia Bakery.
After tasting this pie gifted to us from heaven I just knew that I had to try making it at home. Luckily for all of us, Chef Tom Douglas is kind enough to share the recipe for this masterpiece recipe with us. You can find the recipe in The Dhalia Bakery Cookbook or many online resources have the recipe.
This was not a simple recipe, but the hours of labor were well worth the effort. Ok, here we go!
Hooray for my Vitamix making pie crust easy!
I’m pretty sure I made a critical mistake in this step. The recipe called for 3 – 5 tablespoons and I went for 3. When it came time to roll out my dough and transfer it to the pie plate it kept breaking apart. I would go for 4 – 5 tablespoons next time.
If I make this pie again (I will) I will chop of the coconut before this step into smaller pieces.
I did the best to salvage my pie crust. Besides picking a pie plate that was too big I didn’t add enough water. I figured since I was going to be covering most of it with whipped cream I didn’t need to worry about the look of the crust too much.
Isn’t she beautiful! My husband claimed it was better than the one that we had at Serious Pie. I find this hard to believe, but it was pretty darn tasty.
The toughest part of this pie might have been getting the shaved white chocolate. I definitely need to work on this technique. This was also my first time toasting coconut. Next time I’ll bake it a little longer to give it a golden color.
Ready to test your pie baking skills on Tom Douglas’ coconut cream pie? Check out the recipe posted by Judy in her Natural Habit: The Kitchen. Happy baking and let me know how your pie turns out!
This Traveler Heart of Mine 