Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Pies that Bind




Images from TG at Monty and Emilio's. Pies not pictured. Thanks for the shots, E!

On Thursday morning, after a little bit of a sleep-in, coffee, reading and breakfast, I started my pumpkin pies. Friends of ours host a gorgeous (see above) and mind-blowingly delicious holiday dinner, and this year I was allowed to bring the pumpkin pie, which I very much looked forward to doing. But I would have made the pie anyway.

My mother's pumpkin pie is a Thanksgiving must-have. Mom's pie was one of the few things that I ever remember my grandmother praising about her cooking. Creamy and light, sweet, but not too sweet, with a flaky, savory crust that contrasts with the smooth center. (I took a pumpkin pie made earlier in the week up to my grandparents on Tuesday, only to find that their freezer had been stocked up with homemade apple pies by one of their caregivers. Pie for weeks!)

There have been many things I have gone without from one Thanksgiving to the next, but Mom's pie is never one of them. The secret to her "secret" pie recipe is the very hot water added to the pie filling just before pouring into the crust, which makes the pie light as it steams away during baking.

I thought of my mother as I spun the flour, salt, shortening and butter in the food processor. (Which she always did by hand, but I had six crusts to make.) I thought of her as I rolled out the dough with her rolling pin, one of a handful of things I took with me when I left home. I thought of her especially as I shaped the edges of the pie with my fingers and thumb, about the way her thumbs bend back a little bit more than the average person's, making a little flourish to her gestures and her crusts, and how she always manages to execute a smooth and perfectly fluted pie edge.

Contact with Mom has been sparse lately. She has her hands full with family in Modesto. But the current was running strong between us Thursday morning, whether she knew it or not.

Just before I took the dogs out for their walks mid-day, I checked my email and found a sweet note from my friend Kristin in Eugene, Oregon, letting me know she was thinking of me, too, as her pumpkin pie, made from Mom's "secret" recipe, was baking, filling their house with cinnamon and spice. It made me smile to think of us smelling the same things, sitting in our kitchens, so many miles away.

All of my Thanksgiving recipes can be found at this link. And here are several pie crust variations: Butter Crust, The Very Best Crust, and Mom's Classic Crust. I recommend the classic for pumpkin pie because there is no sugar and it doesn't over-brown. The Very Best is good for everything else. I'll be using that for an apple pie on Sunday with the just-picked Granny Smiths Grandma gave me. The All Butter, minus the sugar, makes a decadent turkey pot pie for the weekend after the holiday. Don't forget the frozen peas.

Love,
Tam

PS- the lack of photos and posts lately has been largely due to the fact that Hughes satellite service has dragged to a creeping, dial-up style halt. If you can avoid Hughes, I recommend that you do so. Their customer service is so pathetic, and so very, very far away, that it is easier to bring a magazine to the desk to read while waiting for pictures to upload than to spend four hours on the phone in order to complain about it. But it has started to cramp my style.

They are the only game in my little wooded valley, so until someone runs a line or puts up a new tower, I'm stuck with them. Should be upgrading to their second satellite soon. I know that I've promised some of you that I would get kid pictures out there for you to print, but I'm going to have to give you a disk instead, because it just isn't going to happen through Hughes.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Pixie's Big Adventure

Pixie and I went on a trial visit up to Lake Tahoe to see my grandparents this week. We stayed at the dog-friendly Montbleu Casino, (formerly Caesar's Tahoe). Pluses: jacuzzi tub, tons of down pillows, dogs, cats and birds welcome. Minuses: 8th floor pet wing rather far from semi-dark doggie park area, maids vacuuming and having a conversation down the hall at 11 pm, $35 extra pet fee.

Pixie still had a terrific time, especially sleeping on the bed and sitting in Grandpa's lap. I think next time Mike and I will go up and scout the location first to make sure there isn't a semi-dark midnight hike involved, and then Pixie will get to go up again for a visit. Tugboat's legs aren't up to the drive, but luckily, he loves his doggie hotels here in town.

When we arrived, Grandma was practicing her dexterity exercises, and proudly demonstrated her ability to put on and take off a pair of fitted wool gloves. We all had a very nice meatloaf dinner together, as well as coffee and breakfast the next morning.

He SAID I could get up here.


Kiss, kiss, snorgle, snorgle.


Why don't you go and get us some snacks? I'll be right here.


Hot tub, anyone?

Beats the heck out of the Motel 8!




Sunday, November 9, 2008

Sunday Morning


I realize that this is only the second post since the election. I've been catching up with friends since then, and as I talk with or email each person, I'm sweetly surprised by the reaction to our new president. Still processing. So relieved.

While bloghopping over the weekend, I stopped off at Orangette and somehow wound up in the archives, wrapped around this lovely post about popovers. So this morning, I got up and made some. Here is the recipe I use, from my mother's red-checkered cookbook. Mom used to make these quite often. The ingredients are simple and usually on hand, and the directions are few. These are yummy piping hot out of the oven for breakfast, with Grandma's strawberry jam and scrambled eggs. (Not on the same popover.) 35 to 40 minutes seems like a long time, but if you set a timer and have something else to do, like drink a cup of coffee and read, or catch up on emails while you let someone else sleep in, it's nothing.

Popovers
1 1/2 tsp shortening (try Spectrum Organic vegetable shortening)
2 eggs, beaten
1 c milk
1 T cooking oil (olive is fine)
1 C flour
pinch salt

Tools
Muffin tin or preferably a deep popover tin
Whisk
Bowl

Method
Preheat oven to 450. Grease a muffin tin or popover tin with the shortening. Preheat pan with oven. Beat eggs, add liquids. Sprinkle in flour, beat until smooth.

Divide evenly in muffin or popover tin, no more than 2/3 full.
Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake for 15-20 minutes more
Adding herbs and finely grated parmesan cheese to these makes a tasty, savory accompaniment to breakfast or dinner. The more cheese you add, the less puffy they'll be. The Orangette recipe is a little more involved. PS- All of my popovers were mile-high with great big perfect bubbly hollows inside EXCEPT the one I saved to photograph.

HBTY

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I Voted

No matter which president we wake up with tomorrow, the world always needs a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I looked for one for years, and then tasted the perfect cookie at the restaurant where I worked. Luckily, the young pastry chef was nice enough to share it with me.

This one is truly the best peanut butter cookie you have ever had. The recipe is scaled down for a couple of people plus sharing at work the next day, because most people don't want to make 8 dozen cookies. We refer to it as "Cookies Dammit" because I once sent it to my friend Karen after forgetting to send it for a long time, and that was the title of the email.

I took the picture at the top on my way home from work last night.
V I S U A L I Z E P R E S I D E N T O B A M A

For a refresher course on the Electoral College and how the election process actually works, here is the Wikipedia entry about it. Especially interesting is the the fact that there have only been three times that a candidate has won the popular vote and not received all the votes in the electoral college: twice in the 1800s, and then not again until...2000.
Cookies Dammit- Small Recipe

1 stick butter- room temp if possible
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (use less if you like)
1 egg
1 1/8 cup peanut butter, preferably natural and chunky
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake or AP flour
extra 1/8 cup granulated sugar for marking

Method
Cream butter and sugars in a stand mixer or with a fork and a strong arm. (Definitely warm your butter if you are doing this by hand.)

Mix dry ingredients together in separate bowl.

When sugars are thoroughly blended with butter, add egg and vanilla. When thoroughly blended, add peanut butter.

Mix dry ingredients into bowl, just until combined.

Use two teaspoons to form cookies into roundish lumps on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Use a fork dipped in sugar to mark the classic "waffle-stomper" pattern in the cookies. Bake for ten to twelve minutes at 375 degrees, remove to racks to cool completely before placing on a plate. Best slightly underdone.

Options: Form with a small melon or ice-cream scoop for pretty, evenly round cookies. Leave the lumps as lumps and press a Hershey's kiss in the middle of each cookie. Or press a sugared thumb in the middle of each and add a teaspoon of strawberry jam for peanut-butter-and-jellies.