The celebration of American Cuisine is finally here. Casey of Eating, Gardening, & Living in Bulgaria has invited food bloggers to share what they think American Cuisine is. I thought long and hard about this one, I even asked other bloggers for their opinions. Some people seem to think American cuisine doesn’t exist. I disagree, but I think it suffers from multiple personality disorder. The regional differences in cuisine in the states makes it hard to pinpoint one thing that could be called American cuisine. I think what all of these regional cuisines have in common is that are all looking for ways to innovate an incorporate new techniques and ingredients. I guess that’s what makes them american.

So when it came time to choose something to make I went with I feel is a traditional American meal, Thanksgiving dinner. Since it’s the middle of the summer, and I’m just cooking for myself, I made this a little more low-key than your typical Thanksgiving meal. Instead of roasting a whole bird, I just roasted a turkey breast stuffed with caramalized onions, goat cheese and cranberries (what’s Thanksgiving without cranberries and stuffing?). On the side there was sweet potato hash and roasted carrots.

And of course there was pie. I decided to make a pie with seasonal fruit instead of apple or pumpkin, and after Smitten Kitchen’s description of cherry pie as “epic, iconic, and it even has a metal song dedicated to it“, my choice was clear.

I have to say this pie kicked my butt. My original plan was to use this recipe from the New York Times, which calls for a prebaked crust. I got to work making my favourite crust (all butter, of course). At this point I should specify that it was ridiculously hot the day I made the pie, and I never actually read the recipe instructions. It took forever to make the crust, because I kept having to put all the ingredients back in the fridge to cool (cold ingredients make the best pie crusts). I finally got in all done, chilled and rolled. I put it in the oven and got to work on the filling. After about 15 minutes I took a peak at the crust and realized it shrank, like, a lot. So I stopped the oven and started making more pie crust dough. This time I stuck with the traditional soggy bottomed fruit pie technique, and I have to say it was pretty darn tasty (except for the burnt bits). I actually kinda like the soggy bottom in a fruit pie. And because of the crust do-over it wasn’t ready on time to bring to my parents for dinner, so I had to eat the whole thing all by myself.

Cherry Pie

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

1. Blend together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until most of mixture looks rough and crumbly.
2. Sprinkle 3 Tbsp ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until combined
3. Press some of the dough together. If it doesn’t hold together add more water.
4. Form a disk with the dough and chill for at least 4 hours.
5. Roll out the dough and place in pie plate. Chill again for about 20 minutes.
6. Save excess dough for topping pie.

Cherry Filling

• 4 cups pitted cherries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Toss cherries with other ingredients, make sure cherries are well covered.
2. Pour into chilled pastry dough.
3. Cover filling with excess dough.
4. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until cherry filling is bubbling.

All in all, I think my american cuisine meal was quite delicious. Thanks again to Casey for hosting the event. Check out her site on July 4th for the round up of what everyone made!