I decided to see how much of a difference blind-baking the crust made to my pumpkin ricotta pie. I made a batch of dough; after a rest in the refrigerator I rolled it out and put it in the pie pan. I lined the crust with foil and weighed it down with my pie beads. I baked it for 20-25 minutes.
While it baked, I mixed the filling: pumpkin, ricotta (filled out with a little yogurt), eggs, freshly ground nutmeg and cinnamon, a little store-bought ground ginger.
The resulting pie took only perhaps five minutes less time to bake---the baked crust made very little difference in baking time. The bottom of the pie was definitely firmer. But overall, blind baking didn't make a huge difference in my enjoyment of the pie.
Luella's is a nouvelle BBQ outfit on the north side of Asheville. It is nestled among the trees in a lovely neighborhood. The restaurant has lots of windows for inside seating and plenty of outside seating. Service was courteous and amazingly fast. This is a combination plate with pork and brisket. Both were very moist and tender. For the pork, I tried both the mild and hot vinegar sauces. To my surprise, I preferred the milder one because it didn't assert itself too much. I enjoyed the spicy tomato sauce for my brisket. The hushpuppies were very good. The fried okra was fresh out of the fryer and excellent. The slaw was of the vinegary variety, which I usually enjoy, but this version is heavy on the white stuff and didn't have quite enough variety in tastes for me.



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