I cooked up a bunch of navy beans yesterday and took a pound of ground pork out of the freezer. I didn’t have a real plan, but I had an idea. But after a yummy birthday lunch none of us were in a dinner mood.

Today, I had a bunch of cooked navy beans and thawed ground pork. I needed an idea.

My sister had made a comment about adding vodka to pie crust a few days ago, and while I knew the science behind it, I had never made a crust with vodka, before – so… I decided a pork pie with a vodka crust was in order. And bean soup.

I have been making the same pie crust for years – using the food processor. It is pretty no-fail and makes a perfect 2-crust pie. I decided to tweak it a bit with some vodka. The results were stellar. I think I shall be adding a couple of tablespoons of vodka in my crusts from now on!

Pie Dough

for a double crust:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup cake flour
• 1/2 lb butter, frozen
• pinch salt
• 3 tbsp ice water
• 3 tbsp cold vodka

Using a food processor, add flour and salt. Pulse to mix.

Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.

Slowly add ice water and vodka. Pulse until mixed.

Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into 2 disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.

Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.

For a sweet crust add 2 tbsp sugar.

That’s the basic.

For the pork pie, I used one crust for three pies and the other for a tart that I froze for Thanksgiving. This should actually be good for 6 pies.

Pork Pie

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 3 tbsp parsley, minced
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sage
• Pie dough

Preheat oven to 375°.

Grease a jumbo muffin tin with butter.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients.

Roll out the dough and cut out 6 8″ circles.

Center the rounds in the tins. Divide the filling evenly among the cups and fold the excess dough over the tops, leaving a vent hole in the center.

Bake until the tops are browned and puffed slightly, about 45 minutes.

Serve warm.

For the soup, I sauteed celery, carrots and onion in a bit of bacon grease and then added the beans and a couple cups of turkey broth. I let it all simmer and then hit it with an immersion blender to make it creamy. I added S&P – no other spices. It didn’t need anything…

Victor thought the pork pie could have used a cream sauce. I think he’s right. Maybe a creamy green peppercorn sauce or something along that line…

I’ll figure something out by Thanksgiving…