Meaghan's Blog

So now Mom doesn't have to upload my pictures on to her Flickr. Yay!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46472989@N08/

Dad doesn't laugh hard very often. He usually just chuckles at things or smiles, but you know it's really funny when you hear him laughing. Here's an example from a month or two ago.

(On Mythbusters) And last but not least, Kari will try making diamonds out of coal, a microwave, and peanut butter.
(There's a pause)
Dad bursts out laughing.

I remember when we once took home a frozen pie when my dad still worked out of the house. It was apple, it was mass produced, but we gave it a try.  I didn't have high hopes, so when it came out of the oven with a slightly burnt crust and not smelling as nice as my apple pie, I wasn't surprised. We cut it into slices (Mom, Dad and I) and drifted back to the table to eat it. The inside was literally apple sauce, and the crust was far from flaky (it sort of crumbled like graham cracker crumbs), and like Emma would say, you couldn't taste the love, or anything for that matter. Every time we pass a store-bought pie in the store, we joke about much better homemade ones are. Dad once said, 'Yours is, like, way better.'

I think that too many people think that pie crust is hard to make. Most of the people who buy store-bought pie crusts or pie are either too lazy to make it, too busy, or afraid they'll mess it up. I find pie crust very easy to make, and even when I'm sure I've added too much water or mixed it a tad too much, it still turns out flaky and delicious, and it takes less than 15 minutes.

A few years back, I liked to watch a cooking show, Sugar, and the host was a pastry chef. I learned that you had to keep the ingredients cold and to never over-work it. My mom tells people all the time about my pie, and they say 'Wow!' and give me a very surprised and impressed look, and continue to tell me their pie crusts always turn out too hard, or they can never make it work, and ask me what I do. Well, I'll tell you.

First, I freeze my shortening for a bit to make it nice and chilly, but a lot of the time it stays in for too long, and it's frozen solid. It can still be used that way, but it makes it a lot harder to make unless you use a pastry blender.

Second, I only blend the shortening into the flour until there's a few lumps of shortening left in it. I break apart any really big bits, and I move on to the ice water. I just make the tap water as cold as possible, measure out the highest amount of water for the recipe in a measuring cup,  and add until it makes a ball when I try to form one, blending with a fork. The trend of doing pastry in a food processor isn't one I've tried yet.

I always split it into two, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until I need it (my recipe says 20 minutes or something like that). I plan on making some pumpkin pie, and some apple pie soon.

. . .Not because I want to be a chef.  Everyone seems to think that I want to be one just because  I practiced and learned to be good at it - but I'm good at a lot of things, like doing the dishes on time, making Emma laugh, doing my own laundry, and a long list of others. I like having snacks around the house for me to eat, and I usually don't want anything store-bought, except sometimes. I find any time that I bake for someone specific, aside from family, it doesn't turn out as well as it could.

A few weeks ago I made banana bread. It's easy and delicious, and it uses up bananas that are past their prime.  I think I used frozen bananas once or twice, since they get all gooey and brown after they thaw out.

Now to show you how I made it, using a Company's Coming recipe.

Cream the butter and sugar together.

I like adding vanilla, but it isn't called for in the recipe.

Add the eggs.

Mash the bananas on a plate.

Add bananas.

Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

We ran out of baking soda, and since Baking powder is made out of  corn starch, cream of tartar, and baking soda itself, I just added more baking powder.

Stir until just together. Don't overbeat it.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

Ta-da!

I had to take it out of the oven early because we had to go somewhere, and I baked it for a bit more when I came back. It was fine except for a gooey uncooked spot on the top. In our house, we always put butter on it. Mmm. I'm going to add the recipe soon.