I am Nero, baking while Rome burns
Pie day was overly ambitious. I should have done this morning's big shopping run late last night, but still. Yum!
Material in need of processing, Apples. Apples apples apples. Apples.
Goal, 11 pies.
Deployment strategy: One for my mother, 4 for neighbor families with whom I am cultivating friendships, one each for my suppliers of apples, two for Rosh Hashana dinner at internebbish's lovely parents' place tomorrow night, plus a couple for wallowing in the sin of gluttony this evening. I completed five out of eleven pies today, and had friends tongodeon, matrushkaka, and Kent over to help me tackle the important gluttony goal, but I have not finished the project in one mad dash of a day. I'm getting old. OLD OLD OLD, I tell you. Remind me to leave extra cooking days next time I throw a party. And get off of my lawn, ya danged kids.
On the bright side, I do not have to shop tomorrow, and I have enough difficult-to-make, flaky pie-pastry dough in the freezer to finish the job, maybe even enough to keep a recipe on hand for emergency fruit harvests. The figs outside Miranda's school are looking attractive, (perhaps marinated in agra dolce vinegar, sprinkled with brown sugar, and crackle-glazed with the kitchen torch I finally found after moving in a year ago, but I digress.) Anyway, the task of proper dough making, one recipe at a time since it doesn't scale up well, took me three hours today, but the dough is ready to roll for tomorrow.
I got a couple of huge bags of organic^H^H^H neglected apples from friends and neighbors who know I bake. Proper organic gardening doesn't just mean leaving your plants to fend for themselves, but tending them, protecting them with earth and health friendly alternatives to toxic pesticides. My swell friends are not organic gardeners, just people who have trees. They couldn't be bothered with spraying at all, never mind fancy pants organic rosemary and chili insect repellents, so though the apples are organic by default, pretty much every apple had to be cut up carefully to cut out the insect trails and critters. What was left was about two thirds of any given apple, still though, with dozens and dozens of apples, that's a huge amounts of fruit. I spent a couple of hours refusing to let the sight of bugs squick me while enjoying fabulous tree ripened aroma.
I'm making two kinds, caramel apple pie (shortcut: flavor with caramel dipping sauce--found in supermarkets next to apple displays--thinned with a bit of milk.) and chai-spices apple pie. I purchased the spices individually at Milan, the Indian market on University Ave. in Berkeley where you can buy fresh spices, whole and ready to grind by the pound instead of the half ounce. Your mileage may vary, but I think Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, ground ginger, cardamom, and a touch of black pepper make a chai-spice mix that can't be beat.
I had to go get Miranda from school and matrushkaka at BART, and the pies weren't even in the oven yet. AUGH! She saw that I was in too deep, and took my jars of sauce, piles of sausage, veggies, and dry pasta, figured out my kitchen and all my organizational quirks in a matter of minutes, and made dinner! God, what a friend. I shall officially count her when I count blessings.
After dinner and wine, Miranda was starting to fray at the edges. She needed more attention, and she needed pie on pie-day to feel complete. Luckily dinner took just long enough for the pies to bake! Kent had brought the vanilla bean ice cream with him, and voila, pie a la mode for everyone!
tongodeon regaled tritone and Kent and I with excellent stories about Santarchy with supporting photos on his laptop, and I made tired matrushkaka smile beatifically with a nice-smelling moisturizer footrub. You should make her happy too. Visit http://www.thekitchn.com/ where she's an editor.
Tomorrow after school when I've achieved satisfactory pie build-up for full deployment, I'll get Miranda from school, help her dress up in a fairy costume (wings and wand de riguer) and take her to the different houses of my fave neighbors so she can play "Pie Fairy" and "Share the Magic of Pie". Hopefully deployment will result in raised goodwill, and I will enjoy their company more often and also receive the benefit of the doubt if I do something thoughtless like let my workers start too early in the morning when the major backyard landscaping begins. I'm confident. I think that despite my landscaping, Miranda and I will be received as liberators!
Then, on to Rosh Hashana dinner. I even figured out how to work kosher! Get this. Sure, it's trivial to lay some foil down on the kneading surface and to buy a couple of disposable pie tins and a cheep new knife at safeway, but wow, the cuisineart that I got last winter came with an extra bowl and an extra blade I've never used, still sealed in original plastic bag! The cuisinart bowl that I use to grind up suckling piglet meat marinated in its mother's milk will NEVER have to touch Rosh Hashana pastry dough.
Happy new year, everyone. Peace unto you. Shana Tovah Tikkateyvu va Tihataymu.
Material in need of processing, Apples. Apples apples apples. Apples.
Goal, 11 pies.
Deployment strategy: One for my mother, 4 for neighbor families with whom I am cultivating friendships, one each for my suppliers of apples, two for Rosh Hashana dinner at internebbish's lovely parents' place tomorrow night, plus a couple for wallowing in the sin of gluttony this evening. I completed five out of eleven pies today, and had friends tongodeon, matrushkaka, and Kent over to help me tackle the important gluttony goal, but I have not finished the project in one mad dash of a day. I'm getting old. OLD OLD OLD, I tell you. Remind me to leave extra cooking days next time I throw a party. And get off of my lawn, ya danged kids.
On the bright side, I do not have to shop tomorrow, and I have enough difficult-to-make, flaky pie-pastry dough in the freezer to finish the job, maybe even enough to keep a recipe on hand for emergency fruit harvests. The figs outside Miranda's school are looking attractive, (perhaps marinated in agra dolce vinegar, sprinkled with brown sugar, and crackle-glazed with the kitchen torch I finally found after moving in a year ago, but I digress.) Anyway, the task of proper dough making, one recipe at a time since it doesn't scale up well, took me three hours today, but the dough is ready to roll for tomorrow.
I got a couple of huge bags of organic^H^H^H neglected apples from friends and neighbors who know I bake. Proper organic gardening doesn't just mean leaving your plants to fend for themselves, but tending them, protecting them with earth and health friendly alternatives to toxic pesticides. My swell friends are not organic gardeners, just people who have trees. They couldn't be bothered with spraying at all, never mind fancy pants organic rosemary and chili insect repellents, so though the apples are organic by default, pretty much every apple had to be cut up carefully to cut out the insect trails and critters. What was left was about two thirds of any given apple, still though, with dozens and dozens of apples, that's a huge amounts of fruit. I spent a couple of hours refusing to let the sight of bugs squick me while enjoying fabulous tree ripened aroma.
I'm making two kinds, caramel apple pie (shortcut: flavor with caramel dipping sauce--found in supermarkets next to apple displays--thinned with a bit of milk.) and chai-spices apple pie. I purchased the spices individually at Milan, the Indian market on University Ave. in Berkeley where you can buy fresh spices, whole and ready to grind by the pound instead of the half ounce. Your mileage may vary, but I think Saigon cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, ground ginger, cardamom, and a touch of black pepper make a chai-spice mix that can't be beat.
I had to go get Miranda from school and matrushkaka at BART, and the pies weren't even in the oven yet. AUGH! She saw that I was in too deep, and took my jars of sauce, piles of sausage, veggies, and dry pasta, figured out my kitchen and all my organizational quirks in a matter of minutes, and made dinner! God, what a friend. I shall officially count her when I count blessings.
After dinner and wine, Miranda was starting to fray at the edges. She needed more attention, and she needed pie on pie-day to feel complete. Luckily dinner took just long enough for the pies to bake! Kent had brought the vanilla bean ice cream with him, and voila, pie a la mode for everyone!
tongodeon regaled tritone and Kent and I with excellent stories about Santarchy with supporting photos on his laptop, and I made tired matrushkaka smile beatifically with a nice-smelling moisturizer footrub. You should make her happy too. Visit http://www.thekitchn.com/ where she's an editor.
Tomorrow after school when I've achieved satisfactory pie build-up for full deployment, I'll get Miranda from school, help her dress up in a fairy costume (wings and wand de riguer) and take her to the different houses of my fave neighbors so she can play "Pie Fairy" and "Share the Magic of Pie". Hopefully deployment will result in raised goodwill, and I will enjoy their company more often and also receive the benefit of the doubt if I do something thoughtless like let my workers start too early in the morning when the major backyard landscaping begins. I'm confident. I think that despite my landscaping, Miranda and I will be received as liberators!
Then, on to Rosh Hashana dinner. I even figured out how to work kosher! Get this. Sure, it's trivial to lay some foil down on the kneading surface and to buy a couple of disposable pie tins and a cheep new knife at safeway, but wow, the cuisineart that I got last winter came with an extra bowl and an extra blade I've never used, still sealed in original plastic bag! The cuisinart bowl that I use to grind up suckling piglet meat marinated in its mother's milk will NEVER have to touch Rosh Hashana pastry dough.
Happy new year, everyone. Peace unto you. Shana Tovah Tikkateyvu va Tihataymu.