Epistolary Novels #3 Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society served with Potato Pie

 

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows served with Potato Pie. 

Pretty sure I've written about my love for this book previously but i'm doing it again!  This is a comfort read for me.  You know how when you are flipping around the TV and you see one of your favorite movies is on and even though you've seen it a dozen times, you still watch it?  that how this book is.  I've read it almost yearly since I discovered it with my book group into 2009.   I picked it up this past week because life feels hard right now.  I'll admit that i didn't reread the entire thing but started it and will finish it this week.  

Since many folks have read it, I won't bore you with the details but it s a series of letters between a young author and the folks who live on Guernsey.  This is at the end of WW2 and Guernsey was help captive by the nazi's.  They were cut off from all of London, had very little food and lived in fear.  The war is now over and Juliet Ashton is trying to figure the subject for her next book.  The Society is the perfect topic.   

The letters are fun and lovely.  We meet all of the characters on Guernsey and members of the society and it is easy to fall in love with them.  We, the reader, know all along that Juliet's current boyfriend is not right for her and that there is a pig farmer on the island who is her soul mate.  This is the book I pick up when in  reading slump or feeling sad.  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

just to touch on the movie quickly.  I like the Netflix movie and thought they captured the feeling of the book.  But as often happens, they just aren't able to capture all of the characters and details.  I felt like they cut a couple of small side stories that were okay to cut but i do wish they had gone a bit more with Sydney's story (Sydney and Isola have a lovely friendship in the book) 

I decided to make a Potato Pie.  And yes, I left the peels on them.  I couldn't find a perfect recipe so i used a bit of a combination.  I had 2 leeks in the fridge so I started there.  I sautéed them in some butter and sliced up 2 potatoes.  I used my mandolin and sliced them pretty thin.  From there I used a frozen deep dish pie shell.  I started with a layer of leeks and then a layer of potatoes.  I then added a layer of cheese.  I used cheddar and mozzarella.  Then another layer of leeks, potatoes , cheese ended with potatoes.  I couldn't fit all of the potatoes so it was probably 1.5 potatoes total. I also did salt and pepper on each layer.   I topped with more cheese a layer of pie crust.   From there I poured some chicken broth over the entire thing.  I was about 1.5 cups in total.   I put it on a cookie tray and in at 400 degree oven.  It baked for 50 minutes.  I put a pie crust cover over it for the first 30 so the crust wouldn't burn.   It turned out good.  I think next time i might try some different cheeses.  Maybe something a bit stronger.   enjoy