Pondering Pie Crust

 

I have a tendency to think while I'm cooking. My body is busy, but my mind is not that occupied by food preparation. Today I ended up thinking about pie crust. Not that unusual as I was assembling a pie at the time.

I grew up with an almost mystical attitude towards pie crust. It took magic or maybe a miracle to make one right. That's what I used to think anyway.

But I don't remember the last time that I felt like making a pie crust was a big deal doing it myself. Obviously take some time and I have to make DH get the machine out but I don't usually fail. I think I only had trouble the first time I tried. I'm not saying it's been equally easy every time. Sometimes it's a little harder to handle or I need to add some water or flour. But it works and it's edible.

Okay, I admit it. I cheat. I use Joy of Cooking's pie crust recipe, but I make it in the food processor. I use the regular recipe not the one made for food processor. I also use margarine. I know, you are not supposed to use margarine for pie crust, but we don't have Crisco in this country. I just can't handle the thought of using lard to make a pie crust for dessert. It feels wrong somehow.

Anyway, I put the margarine flour and salt in food processor and turn it on. A couple quick spins and it's all mixed together. Then I had to 4 tablespoons of water and let it work until the crust is in a big ball. That's that.

When it comes to rolling the dough I am probably spoiled. We have a marble section on our counter. As long as I chill the dough long enough, it's easy to roll on that. I usually make a full bottom and a lattice top.

So why do I think it takes magic to make pie crusts? Pie crust was not exactly my mother's strong suit. I don't remember it being bad, I just remember lots and lots of stress involved in trying to make it. I guess it likes to tease my mother.

Don't get me wrong here. My mother is not a bad cook. She makes cakes that are the envy of anyone who sees them because they are fully edible personalized birthday cakes and often quite an adventure to figure out. She doesn't use a cookbook for most things. Her pancakes only failed once and that was my fault. That was after we found out I was allergic to wheat and milk, so she was experimenting with alternatives and something didn't go well together. But how many people can make pancakes out of potato milk and rice flour?

There are things that she did that I would never want to have to do. She put food on the table for five picky people every day. She made most of our breakfasts and everyone's lunch. She cooks turkeys that are so big they barely fit in the oven. She adjusts meals for family gatherings to serve carnivores, vegetarians, and vegans all the same time.

I have trouble getting dinner on the table for two people every day. DH makes his own lunch, and his own breakfast, and does probably at least a third of the cooking. He also does most of the dishes, something Mom had to tackle on her own.

So, we grow up with attitudes about things based on how our parents felt about them. But we don't necessarily have the same strengths and weaknesses that they had. It doesn't make us better people than they are. We're just different.

So Mom, if I come for Thanksgiving again or Christmas, I'll make the pies. But you have to stick to doing the birthday cakes

What a Week, Part One

Last week was a very busy and hectic week. Between the quantity of material to report and my health state, it is probably going to take me several entries to cover everything.

Edith and friends arrived Monday afternoon. Edith was my original boss when I worked for a company in Germany. She wasn't exactly my boss because I had my own company and worked as a contractor, but she was the closest I had. We ended up really close friends. The other two of our guests were former coworkers. Only one of them still work for the company where we all met.

They rented rooms with the neighbor across the road who has cows. I had baked bread Monday, so they got bread with them for their breakfasts. DH also had a loaf. Monday night I made American pancakes for breakfast. We spent the evening talking and catching up.

The weather forecast for Tuesday was not as promising, although it did end up quite nice. They headed for the aquarium and some museums. DH worked on pouring concrete outside. I spent the day making Bexican style burritos a little at a time. With two vegetarians coming for dinner, I needed to make both a vegetarian and a meat variant. I say, I spent the day doing it, because I did things a little bit at a time. Otherwise I would have been entirely destroyed before they got here for dinner .

DH also got the message that our car was finished on Tuesday. In case I didn't mention the problem earlier, he had gone in the week before for inspection, expecting the brakes to need to be changed. The mechanic crawled under the car to work on the brakes and put his hand through a metal panel that was rusted through. So we had to face the expensive prospect of replacing lots of that stuff. But fortunately the mechanic is letting us pay in installments and this past Tuesday we got it back, newly inspected.

The burritos went over very well. We shared a couple of bottles of red wine with dinner. Then we headed to the beach. Because I couldn't walk very much, DH drove me and the girls down the gravel road towards the beach. That way, I only had to walk a short way. We were a bit too early for sunset, but the clouds weren't really right for a nice sunset anyway.

We enjoyed ourselves in any case.

An Overdue Update

To my one reader who answered my poll, sorry for the delay updating. Also sorry to my grandmother who gets my posts by e-mail every time I publish.

I have been struggling with a migraine since we got home from last weekend's outing. It has finally been lifting for the past few days. DH has been off work since he got home Wednesday and will be until May. So that has kept me busy the past day and a half.

With the migraine, I haven't been doing much of anything. The girls have been getting any training and I've barely been making food. Mostly I just play my horse game and do nothing.

Wednesday we had pancakes for dinner. Last night we had more pancakes and bacon and eggs. Tonight I'm going to make a calzone with ham, cheese, and fresh tomatoes. I made the dough a while ago. Since DH doesn't have to work I decided go ahead and put garlic in the dough.

Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Yesterday DH help me settle up and I got to ride for a couple hours. It might have been closer to three. Because of the wind, I rode in the woods. Today DH is hard at work in the horse house. We're trying to make a box in the end of the house so that we have somewhere to put a mare and foal whenever necessary. Queenie, the one Shetland mare, is due to foal any day now. We are not sure how Tonya will react, so are afraid we'll need to take Queenie away from the others.

Last weekend's outing was rather successful. We were able to get a weed whacker and a lawnmower. DH has already made extensive use of the weed whacker. He has also started with the lawnmower.

I'm sure there's more I should have written but my brain is little fuzzy. I need to go cut up the tomatoes and onion for the calzone.

Today

There isn't anything very exciting going on today. The sun is shining. The weather actually looks really nice out. I wish I could ride, but it's too dangerous when it's windy like it is today---at least for when DH is not home. The girls are out in their fence right now to enjoy the sun. I also opened the windows in the bedroom to air out.

My friend from down the road came by for tea today. It was a nice visit. She is in between jobs at the moment, but at least can keep busy with her mother who just got moved into a different retirement home.

My hands are aching a lot. I have used them too much lately, probably mostly with trying to type in Danish. Dragon NaturallySpeaking can only do English of my languages. But at least I will be getting to keep it. I got the official final paperwork from the government today. They are definitely paying for it and letting me keep it.

The only news other than that is that I'm making pancakes for dinner and I'm working on doing the dishes.

Two old friends from work are hopefully coming to visit at the end of April. I am getting excited and impatient to see them already.