Stuff...

So it's the day before Thanksgiving, which at our house is Pie Day, in order to save my sanity. Tomorrow is reserved for the main event itself.

 

This year we decided to go with just a pumpkin pie. My deep-dish pie plate is an ungodly ugly thing, but important in one respect--with shallower pans you get that annoying, full-to-the-top thing when you add the pumpkin pie filling...then without spilling any, have to shuffle over to get it into the oven with all the intense care of a bomb disposal worker.

 

I also get a giggle out of the recipe for apple pie it has...that gets covered up the minute you place your pie crust in it. Better hope you copied it down first!

 

 

My fancy laminated wood rolling pin I love unashamedly, it's beautiful AND awesome, with a nice heft to it. Sadly, the man who made it retired from woodworking a few years back.

 

The pie crust bag seemed kind of a silly thing when I got it, but has proven to be another sanity-saver. You unzip it, dust the inside with flour, add your lump o' dough, zip it shut and then roll out your dough. No muss, no fuss, NO FLOUR EVERYWHERE, and you can roll your dough until it's the perfect size and shape. Even cleaning the thing afterwards isn't too awful, and the dough doesn't clog up the zipper teeth.

 

Elsewhere, I'm finally sitting down and scanning my older dulcimer sheet music into my computer--Most of it came from a beginning dulcimer class I took at the Folk Music Center in Claremont, CA back in the 1980's, at the time taught by the owner, Dorothy Chase. I also took a beginning banjo class from her, and after hanging around there so much got recruited to work their annual Folk Music Festival (which I did for a few years, and always had a blast!). 

The rest of my old dulcimer music I collected at various folk music festivals. There were a few sheet music for dulcimer books for sale, but overall dulcimer was, and still is to a certain extent, scarce as hen's teeth.

 

But lots of the people giving classes at the festivals used the old thermal copiers...which means that storing the music in sheet protectors was problematic, as the copies would leave ghosts of themselves forever imprinted onto the clear plastic. Taking the music out of the protector got me this:

And once the paper was out, got me this:

 

So after I scanned the music, the originals got all-new sheet protectors. I don't know that the same thing won't happen again, but at least for now the headache-inducing ghosts are gone!

 

New Origami!

A few new models, first some turkeys all decked out with little bows for Thanksgiving.

And a new fold for me, what I call a Compass Rose design.

Some double-layered four pointed stars...

And some spirals and single four pointed stars.

Doily doves!

Most of these were made as little door prize donations for my mom's Lion Club big annual BBQ shinding they hold every year, I made up a few bags of 5 assorted models each.

Adventures With Baking...

So today I'm making two pies for Thanksgiving, pumpkin and pecan. I get out all my implements of kitchen destruction and have at it, starting with the pie crust. Now, I've always been able to knock pie crusts right out with no problem. Today? Here at nearly 5000 feet? With an extra-dry, no humidity day?

Problem!

My very first batch of good ol' shortening pie crust dough went together OK until I'd mixed it all and was forming it into a ball. Then it suddenly seized.

Hard.

I tell you, I've dug stones outta my goddamned back yard that were softer. The thing was an instarock. Now I'm stubborn, so I tried rewetting it a bit to try and save doughrock.

No soap. It's now just a slimey rock. Oh, well, into the trash can it went with a resounding 'thud'.

I know better than to try the same thing, expecting different results. Off to the Internet I fly for advice, where I decide to switch up my pie crust fats a bit and go with a half butter/half shortening recipe, which I have never tried. But desperate times and all that stuff...

I follow the directions, which since they were on a forum thread were offhanded at best. Gonna try using my big ol' honkin Cuisinart food processor to mix the fats and let it earn it's keep a bit. Now...I've had the thing long enough to know that centrifugal force is a scientific fact and stuff sticks to the bowl but heck, all these other people are doing it, so it must work. Right?

Wrong.

I cut the chilled butter into small bits and toss it in, then hit the 'pulse' button. Haha, they do as I suspect and instantly fling themselves against the sides of the processor bowl, clinging like barnacles. I twist the top off and smoosh the butter back down with a spatula, and try again.

Same result.

OK. Maybe if I put the shortening in and try to mix them, some kind of wonderful baking-chemical-science-y magic thing will happen to prevent the stuff from sticking to the damned bowl...

No. Same result. OK.

Scrape goop down again, putting it well into the blades. Hit pulse. Stuff joyously leaps for the sides of the bowl and stays there. It's happening so quickly it boggles the mind, it seems preternatural.

Open lid. Scrape. Replace lid. Hit pulse. Lather, rinse, repeat. Ok, ok, OKAY!

Now, after about 10 tries I started to suspect that all these people online were crazed maniacs who posted maliciously in pie crust forums, and broke out all my $2 cuss words in a muttered, running, free-association rant. Some of it not so 'muttered'. I finally give up on the dumb Cuisinart and finish mixing the fats in a bowl with a pastry cutter, like normal humans do. Works great and I'm happy. In goes the flour, mix with the pastry cutter, add water, mix. Hallelujah, we have pie crust dough! Into the fridge it goes to chill.

Right about then my daughter sticks her head into the kitchen, looking a bit wary. She asks, "What was all the bad language for?"

Oops. Sorry kid.

I apologize and explain about the pie crust. Eventually the stuff is properly chilled, rolled out and made into pies with no further disasters. Won't know how it tastes until the whole family gets to eat it, yikes. Here's hoping the pie crust gods smile upon me.

I've suffered enough today.

Did I Forget Anything?!

I can never escape that 'I've forgotten something SO basic, people will laugh at me' feeling when gearing up for Thanksgiving.

Today I'm making two pies, one pecan and one pumpkin.

Tomorrow I'm making:
Roast turkey with sausage/walnut stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Green bean/mushroom casserole
Gravy
Rolls
Cranberry sauce (THAT'S what I forgot! Back to the store...)
Relish tray: pickles, black olives, green olives

The nuts & Applets & Cotlets will be for us to snack on, I'm also making some blanched & toasted almonds tonight. I'm thinking or getting a port wine/nut cheese ball & crackers to set out too, along with some cut-up apples to keep people out of the kitchen and the Hell out from under foot.

Just for fun, I loaded all of tomorrow's food on the kitchen island for a photo op:

Holy cats, what a mountain of food! Birdzilla weighs in at a little over 15 pounds. They had some truly gigantic turkeys at the store, but I didn't need some 25 pound monster squatting in my oven and bending the rack. This one will likely take 4-5 hours to cook as it is.

Breakfast goodies, including lovely fresh eggs from our girls.

J. requested some mixed nuts to snack on, not ALL of these will be used in the stuffing, which will be a sausage/walnut type. The gravy I got to augment the REAL gravy I'll make from the pan drippings, we all love giblet gravy so I want to be sure there is plenty.

Pie makin's! One pecan (my mom's recipe) and one pumpkin, with homemade whipped cream.

I'm a big believer in Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners being special--as homemade & from scratch, made with the best ingredients, as I can get it. This will be the kid's first time helping me stuff & roast a turkey, she's all excited...we'll see what she thinks when I tell her to grab a big ol' handfull of moist bread and ram it up a dead turkey's nether region. :)

Ah, new life experiences--!

This Weeks' Chapter In The Car Saga...

Ever had one of those days?

Here was yesterday for my husband J.:

Thankfully, other than being banged up and sore, he seems OK so far. The truck, on the other hand, seems totaled. We'll know more when they drag the poor thing off to the repair shop. This is what happened when some guy driving in the far right lane suddenly realizes that he's going to miss the left hand turn lane he needs, and cuts off people in order to get there, rather than continue on past it and turn around. I swear some people think the road only runs in one direction. So after this guy--who was, by the way, driving a transport service van full of handicapped kids--cut off my husband, my husband broadsided a woman in a car. He blacked out for a moment and came to with an airbag in his face. That's all he knows right now, but the woman unfortunately had to go to the hospital. We'll have to try and find out what her condition is, if she is in the hospital I would very much like to send her some flowers...being in there at all is bad, being in there for Thanksgiving is gonna suck.

The truck has a nice 'S' wave to it when you look at it head-on, but heck, at least the diamond-plate toolbox in the back still closes...of course, the capper is that the truck didn't have a dent or ding on it, and we'd just gotten it paid off. I had to prepare N. a bit before we got home from school yesterday, she was very sad that the truck was ruined (but very glad her daddy was OK) and seemed to gain a bit of appreciation for how much damage cars can do.

As I look across the dinner table this Thursday at my family safe and sound, I know what I'LL be thankful for.