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Month: November 2021

in which i try a new pie technique

in which i try a new pie technique

whenever i go to the little bakery (flour and flower) in st joe and get a piece of pie, i go to culinary bliss for a bit while i eat the crust she makes. i’m not sure what she does, but goodness gracious is it delicious. it’s almost phyllo dough-esque. so i’ve been on a mission to make my pie dough better. last year i tried a couple new techniques, and today i tried something else.

lamination!

instead of making pea-sized pieces of fat/flour and then adding liquid, you just squash pieces of butter into the flour once, throw in some water, and after mixing it loosely with a spatula, throw it on the counter to start rolling/folding.

this was familiar. i do this with my squash galette.

so i tried it out.

  1. i used some apple pie vodka as a replacement for some of the water
  2. i used all butter. i thought about some lard, but since this is lamination, butter seemed like the better option

the recipe actually says “don’t give up on this. keep going.” for the rolling out. because i sure did feel like this was not going to work. i think i folded/rolled maybe 8 times. but it worked!

i threw that sucker in the fridge for about 6 hours, then it was time to roll out. (roll out.. roll out..)

wherever i learned the “chill dough before rolling” trick deserves a medal. rolling pie dough is so much easier when it’s cool.

i made some triple berry filling then had another hand at a lattice crust. then i kicked myself !!! i needed a control-Z for life.

a cold crust is critical for going in the oven. and the recipe i was using for the berry filling actually said “cool filling.”

and yet i didn’t think about it. i pulled my crust out of the freezer* and started dumping boiling berries into the crust.

ACK.

well, no time to lose. my oven was cranked to 500º**. my lattices were cut. i stuck those babies on and got the pie into the oven right quick.

i had some leftover pie filling berry goo, so i poured that in a jar, and once those little crusties on the bottom rack are done, i’m gonna have me a snack.

after we try the pie tomorrow, i’ll let you know if a laminated crust is worth the effort. (probably, based on how the galette crust is.)

*another trick: put your crust in the freeze while you’re preparing your filling.

**and then preheat your oven to 500º so the heat shocks the liquid in the crust into evaporating, creating a flaky, not soggy-bottom crust. (after you put the pie in, turn it down to the temp it should be at.)

another saturday

another saturday

well well, already i’ve fallen down on the “blog every day” train. blame my job. i come home from work and pass out for 3 hours until it’s time to go to bed.

today it was warm and tomorrow is slated to also be warm. it’ll probably be the last hurrah from the weather til march, so i took advantage of it and took off for a run this afternoon around 3:30. i was like, eh, let’s go for just 3, maybe 4 miles and call it good. except my legs were having a grand old time, so i ended up going for a 10 mile run! i’ll take that. no one is ever having a good enough leg day to run 10 miles on a treadmill.

when i came back, my christmas lights were on.

i had take down the halloween lights and plugged in the christmas lights but the timer was already set to go on at dusk.

anyway, turned those off right quick. it’s still fall! plus one more day of 60º!

daylight saving ends tonight, which means i will leave for work in the dark and come home in the dark now. that’s always fun. but soon enough it’ll be spring and time keeps on tickin.

tomorrow i make a pie. maybe i’ll try to get a pic or video. we’ll see how it goes!

word wednesday: collective nouns

word wednesday: collective nouns

some of the names of groups of animals are quite fun, when you think about it.

a murder of crows?

an asylum of loons?

a clowder of cats?

a kindle of kittens?

a group of wild cats is called a DESTRUCTION

a business of ferrets

a skulk of foxes

PARLIAMENT of owls

a stench of skunks!

a prickle of porcupines

who comes up with these? well, julia berners published a book in 1486 called “the book of hawking,  hunting, and blasing of arms”. not only did she come up with some awesome names, but she was one of the first women authors writing in the english language.

i guess she also names collective nouns for professions as well, including the mildly offensive gaggle of women. blast of hunters is pretty good though. and melody of harpists.

james lipton wrote “an exaltation of larks”, an illustrated book on the subject. i might pick it up!

review tuesday: birk slippers

review tuesday: birk slippers

let’s talk about slippers for a minute. i like to have warm feet during the winter, and most of my floors are pretty much carpet on concrete, so i also need some degree of cushion between me and the floor. so while i would love to just wear cozy wool socks, i need something a little more robust.

i’ve tried the basic $10 slippers from walmart, which go flat in about 2 weeks.

i’ve tried slippers with a rugged bottom from lands end/ll bean, which are pretty good, but there isn’t much support there.

so when i got a pair of birkenstocks a few years ago, i took to wearing them around the house during the winter, which definitely helped on the support and keeping some cushion between me and the (cold) floor. but it had a toe loop, which meant i had bare feet.

last year i got a cheapo pair of birkenstock knockoffs with two straps so i could wear socks, and they had faux fur on the interior.

i will admit. these worked pretty well. i wore them with socks they held up reasonably well. but i knew that real birkenstocks use real wool and shearling in their slippers. so i checked out these bad boys:

the birkenstock zermatts.

wool felt, shearling insert, and the regular birkenstock cork support. oh man, they’re like slipping my feet into a fluffy warm cloud of support.

they aren’t cheap, but i was able to get a discounted pair from poshmark. plus, they’ll last forever. i did read some reviews that the bottoms of the slippers crack, but i haven’t run into that yet. i have only had them for about a month, so it could still happen, but i’m holding out that these will hold up.

so far, i give these slippers 5 stars. (out of 5.)

kablpomo 2021: probably not but gonna try

kablpomo 2021: probably not but gonna try

oh hello, and welcome to kablpomo (kablamo!), where i attempt to blog every day. i’m not sure i’ll be ambitious this year, but i’ll give it a go.

that said, if you have anything you’d like me to blog about, let me know. things you want to know more about but don’t have the time to look it up, etymology lessons, info on running or yoga, etc. drop a comment.

today on my drive home from work, it’s sneeted/snowed for about 5 minutes, very lightly, but enough so that i saw a flake on my windshield. ugh; so it begins.

i wouldn’t mind being a snowbird, that’s for sure.

so then of course, liz took it upon herself to let me know it was time for winter decor, and just, no.

it’s still fall.

it’s still meteorological fall.

it’s still 4 weeks til thanksgiving?

there’s still color in the leaves on the trees (extended fall this year!)

halloween was yesterday!!

keep winter at bay as long as possible!

speaking of winter, i’m in the middle of transitioning to treadmill running, and ho boy is that a slog. it uses different muscles and is more work for me than outdoor running. plus ambition to run while staring at a wall while i wallow in my sweat with a mediocre fan is no fun.

i’ve been recommended to use zwift, which is sort of an immersive app that you use to run through landscapes. i think peloton uses the same concept?? anyway, i’d need to buy a $48 thing to clip on my shoe to track the running, which kind of sucks. but if it’s going to keep the boringness of a treadmill run at bay, maybe it’s worth it?