Noodle Salad and Berry Pie- Oh My!

I have been living on this "Glass Noodle Salad" from Nigella. I made it a while ago when I tried the Slow Cooked Salmon as a side dish, but for the past few days it has been dinner. It's spicy, sweet, tart, crunchy and noodley at the same time! I love it! It jst tastes so good! Even better- It's ridiculously easy. The whole thing comes together in 5 minutes. You won't believe how good it is. Some of the ingredients are best found at an Asian market, but you may be able to find it in your regular grocery. I haven't had fresh ginger so I've used ground ginger, and I also add chopped cilantro leaves. Otherwise its pretty much the exact recipe!

Pie Time: Who doesn't like pie? It's a soothing, comfort food no matter the flavor. For a get together with some friends I decided to make a pie using some berries I needed to get rid of- Blackberries and Blueberries. Then I realized I didn't quite have enough filling, so I added some frozen strawberries (thawed). Here's my filling in the dough.
I decided to make it look cute since it was on Valentine's day and made heart cutouts.

Here you can see where I put the heart cutouts on the sides to make it full of hearts. The juicy purple/pink inside gushed out a little and stained the top, but I think it's kind of artistic.

As for the recipe...I put the berries in a bowl, dumped some sugar on top, macerated them slighly to burst the blueberries and blackberries. For pie crusts, I really got my hands dirty and bought the Pillsbury Pie Crusts (In the red box in the biscuit/refrigerated dough section). It's been our "secret family crust recipe" for years. The crust tastes phenomenal, and comes rolled up in flat rounds so you can adapt it to whatever pan you have. It is MUCH better than the dough that comes premade in the aluminum foil pie tins. If you haven't tried it, I highly suggest it. It is a worthwile shortcut. Believe me, if it doesn't taste good, I'm not eating it (or spending money on it). Anyways, back to the recipe, put the bottom crust in the pan, dump the berries inside, cover with top layer of crust. Brush with egg wash, crimp the edges, and bake at 350 for 30 min with foil on top, then another 20 without the foil or until the inside is bubbling. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. Oh My, I LOVE Pie!