The Perfect Pie Crust: Revisited

I wrote two years ago about my search for a really good pie crust recipe.  I hate to say it, but the search goes on...

About once a year, I settle on a new recipe for my pie crusts.  I've just started using yet another recipe.  But I'm still not satisfied.  I still don't feel like I've found the perfect one. 

The key factor in pie crusts seems to be what sort of fat you use: butter, shortening, or lard.  I've also heard good things about recipes that incorporate vodka (which, as it evaporates during cooking, produces a nice flaky texture). 

I've had success with shortening recipes.  They're typically easy to work with and reliable.  Most just don't seem to have a really memorable flavor. 

Some people swear by all-butter crusts.  The difficult thing with them, though, is that you have to keep the butter and all the implements you are using very very cold.  Many of the pies I bake are during the summertime (when fruits are ripe), and since we don't have air conditioning, keeping things cold is impossible.

Here's what our usually-solid coconut oil looked like today, when the temperature was in the high 80's: total liquid.

[note that it's still unopened.  I've never used actually coconut oil before, but I know a lot of people love it, and it was a great price.  So what should I do with it?]

My cousin shared her secret for great butter crusts: she keeps her butter in the freezer.  Sounds like a smart idea. If anyone has a great all-butter crust recipe, please share it!  I'll try it out when the weather cools off.


***

The last couple times I baked a pie, I tried out a new lard-based recipe (lard is totally not as gross as it sounds.  I cook with it often, and it's very versatile) from my ever-reliable 1969 Betty Crocker's Cookbook. 

8- or 9-inch Two-crust Pie
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. lard
4-5 T. cold water

Mix flour and salt in bowl.  Cut in lard.  Sprinkle in water, and mix until dough almost cleans sides of bowl.  Shape into two balls and roll out on floured surface.

Tom loves this crust, and my Dad thought highly of it as well.  I will say, the texture is pleasantly crispy and flaky.  But I still think it could be better!

***

Not matter what recipe I use, there are a few tools I've found indispensable for making a good crust: a cloth to roll the dough on, a stockinet cover for the rolling pin, and a pie crust shield for baking.

Allow me to step you through my process....

I use a clean linen dish towel as my rolling surface, floured generously.  The dough does not stick at all.  Try it sometime!  And the rolling pin covers are really cheap.  You can usually find them at gourmet-type stores (or online, of course).

Always pat the dough into a flat circle with your hands before rolling.  This gives you a much more evenly-shaped crust.

As you pick up the crust, roll it over the rolling pin to transfer it to your pie pan.

 

And then fill the bottom crust with whatever.  Today I made a beef stew pie with my leftovers from last week. 

 

Have you ever done this?  I purposely make a lot of beef stew so that we will have leftovers and I can make this pie.  Beef stew always tastes better a few days later, because the flavors have had time to mingle.

A rough recipe for beef stew pie:  

Scoop just the "chunks" (the beef and veggies) into the pie crust.  

Reserve the sauce to heat and pour on at the table as gravy (you may have to stir in some cold water+ flour while it heats, if it's too thin).  

Put the top crust on, and bake at 450° for 35-40 minutes (cover the crusts until the last 15 minutes).

After you roll out and crimp the top crust, use the leftover dough to create fun decorations (or allow an eager child to help).

 I just use a fork to crimp the edge, cut a few vent-holes in the top, and let Sly place the decorations.

Then comes the ever-important pie crust shield (which I remove 15 minutes before cooking time is over) to keep the edges from burning.

 And it's ready to serve!  (al fresco tonight, since having the oven at 450° really warmed up the house).

Yum!

Do you have any pie crust tips or secrets to share?

Life in the Tunnel

I've been feeling somewhat bogged down recently with motherly and housekeeping tasks.  I'm sure some of the cause is actually just the oppressively hot weather sapping a lot of my energy.  And surely a part of it is the fact that Stella has become a lot more demanding recently.  She's turning one (!) next week.  She's no longer content to just sit in my lap while I read to Sly, or lie in her baby gym batting at toys while I clean the house or cook dinner.  She wants to be entertained and played with all the time.  She's explored every inch of the house, and is totally bored with it now.  She demands new stimuli all the time, causing me to dig through junk drawers and closets to find anything new and novel to let her play with for a little while (my nail polish collection kept her happily busy for a half hour yesterday). She eats real food, and makes real big messes while she's at it.  Some days, it feels like almost my entire day was spent preparing, serving, eating, and cleaning up from meals.

And the kids are on completely opposite nap schedules, and it's driving me a little crazy.  By the time we're all finally dressed, washed, and fed for the morning, Stella goes down for her first nap.  She wakes up, we eat lunch, and then it's Sly's nap time.  Then Stella goes for a second nap a couple hours later, and I often just...tell Sly he has to stay in his room a little longer, even if he's awake, because I really need the time to get things done!  I used to be able to get chores out of the way when I just had Stella with me, but now she just screams and crawls after me the whole time, grabbing at my skirt.  Sigh.  So it's slow-going.  If we go anywhere during the day - the supermarket, a playdate, etc. - someone is going to miss a nap, and it just makes the rest of their day (and mine too) a bit less pleasant.

And I think to myself, "oh my gosh, I only have two of them!"  What will happen when we have more?  And how on earth will I ever fit homeschooling into our day, when I find it hard just to keep up with caring for the kids and the house?" 

But this is a recent thing, this feeling of not being able to keep up.  So I'm pretty sure that means it's mostly a phase, and things will ease in some ways down the road.  For the first time, I think I'm really starting to feel what is described as The Tunnel of Parenthood.

 ***

But I have stumbled upon a few realizations that have helped a bit.

I read somewhere recently that a lot of housekeeping tasks are "never ending" and that if you try to think of them in terms of something to complete and check off your list, then you'll never be satisfied.  Take laundry, for example.  Seriously, does it ever get done?  Almost as soon as a load is started, some new item has been made dirty and added to the pile (especially at our house, where we use cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, etc.).  And once the clothes are all cleaned and dried, you still have to fold things, iron (some) things, and put everything away.  If you look at it just as an ongoing task which you should work at a bit each day, it's easier to deal with.  I've been doing pretty well staying on top of things by throwing in a load or two first thing each morning, folding during Sly's naptime, ironing (once or twice a week) during Stella's second naptime, and putting the folded items away anytime I'm up in the bedrooms.

I also realized that I'm taking the wrong approach to how I tidy the house  Every day, I come downstairs in the morning to a stack of dishes from the evening before, waiting piles of laundry, and various toys and items strewn all around, and it sets off something in my brain.  I spend the first hour of the morning trying to blitz the whole house and get it in order.  It's hard for me to relax until order is mostly restored.  I love how our house looks on the days when I clean right before company comes.  I wish it could look like that everyday.  But I've finally realized that at least at this point in my life, that's not realistic.  Not unless I want to feel as stressed out as I feel the day company is coming every day of my life.  Oh boy.  I don't want that, and my husband definitely does not want that (heh).  So I've been trying to cut myself a little slack.  Not so much by lowering my standards for cleanliness, but mostly by giving myself more time to get it all done.  Why does the house need to be spic-and-span first thing in the morning?  So I've been trying to tackle things a bit at a time throughout the day.  By the time Tom gets home, things are fairly tidy.  Not as tidy, of course, as I would make it when we were expecting guests.  But definitely good enough that I wouldn't be embarrassed due to any surprise visitors (which, unfortunately, we never actually get.  No one just drops by on friends anymore.)

And on a related note, since it would be something to potentially lift my spirits and give me some needed support, I bring up one final good idea.  Kendra mentioned the idea of establishing "standing playdates" on her blog recently.  That idea really struck me.  Almost all of my close female friends have moved out of town in the past few years, and I've been longing to develop a closer friendship with some of my just-acquaintances.  I feel like it's always such a huge production, though, trying to coordinate schedules with people, and get together.  I feel as if I'm just bugging people sometimes, since I'm always the one to call or e-mail and say, "hey - let's get together sometime!"  I am going to propose the idea of a once- or twice-a-month regular hangout to a few friends, and see what happens.

The Isolation of the Modern Housewife and Mother Part II

Read Part I here.

I've been reading a book for a couple weeks now which I find utterly fascinating.  It's called Never Done: A History of American Housework, written by Susan Strasser.  The book goes through the history of women's work in the US.  The predominant trend is that jobs which were once done through much manual labor and products which were made at home from scratch have been one-by-one taken up by industry, and turned into consumer products, which must be purchased.  With the obvious benefits this has brought in some ways (hey, no one ever complained about doing less work!), it has also meant an increased isolation and loss of a sense of purpose for many women who stay home.  Women used to be personally responsible for so many of the necessities of life.  Just washing the clothes (at a time when people wore many fewer than today) took an entire day of heavy labor.  Ironing took another whole day.  Food was often grown at home, or at least prepared and cooked from scratch three times a day - over an open fire which took constant tending.  Water had to be carted in and out of the house 8-10 times per day (more if it was laundry or bath day).  Fiber was spun and woven into cloth, which was then cut and sewn into clothing that women often designed themselves.  There were no idle hands.  When women got together, it was for sewing circles or quilting bees.  And so much more.  It's really made me think twice before complaining about all the work I have to do around the house.

I've been pondering so many of the facts and trends I've been reading about, and talked Tom's ear off incessantly with my "revelations."  I am tempted to quote about half the book, but I'm going to restrain myself.  I'll leave you with just this one for now.


"...as women joined the organized labor market during the decades before the Depression, the differences between motherhood and paid labor developed into problems.  Mothering produced nothing tangible, whereas even sales workers - obviously not "productive" in the old sense - brought home paychecks.  Full-time paid workers came home to recover from their jobs and to provide themselves with the essentials of survival, welcoming the products that freed them from the arduous labor of producing those essentials.  As adulthood came to be identified with the economic independence that paid work offered and that gave people the means to buy things, mothers came to be excluded from the activities of other adults.  They met each other in groups organized around their children's activities, not around their own adult work, as the sewing circle had been.  Social life organized around spending money at movies and restaurants offered no place for small children, thereby excluding and isolating mothers even further." (pg. 239)


If you have an interest in history, non-fiction, or understanding what it means to be a housewife, I would heartily recommend the book.

Fine China and Elevating the Daily Family Dinner

 

A couple Sundays ago, we were on our way home from Mass and noticed a sign in our neighborhood saying "Vintage Sale."  We excitedly followed the arrows, hoping that the signs weren't just leftovers from a sale that had already taken place the day before.  We finally found it.  We knew it by the stacks of boxes overflowing with glassware and china on a little back patio of a tiny Pittsburgh house.  We made it just in time, it seemed, as the guy was in the process of packing everything up.  He told us that the sale had been going on the day before as well, but he'd hardly had any customers.  He was ready to give up and call it a day.

Most of what he was selling was dishes, glasses, and old china sets.  He explained that his wife had always hoped to start a business selling vintage items, so had collected the pieces for years.  For some reason, the business had not panned out.  He was happy to finally be getting rid of all the boxes that had been cluttering up the basement.

 Justin - that was his name, I just remembered - remarked that all this stuff would have sold immediately in New York, and for a lot more money.  We asked what he meant, and he explained that they had lived there previously, and only moved to Pittsburgh a year or two ago.  It made me feel bad to hear that people in my hometown doesn't appreciate nice things or antiques as much.  Although...I guess I'm thankful in a way too, since it means I've been able to find so many great things at real bargains over the years.

I love vintage housewares, and there were lots of nice things.  But I'm trying not to bring excessive clutter into the house, so I have to be pretty picky about my dishes these days.  There was one set of nice china that kept catching my eye.  I found myself walking back over to its box, and peering in, picking up pieces to look at more closely.  It was calling to me...but I already have a set of nice china, plus my everyday Pfalzgraff dishes.  I really did not have a use for it.

White with pale green and grey floral pattern

I said to Tom, who was kid-wrangling on the other side of the pile of boxes, "I think I really like these dishes...but I can't justify buying them."  Tom agreed that we did not need them, and gave me the "are you done yet?" look. Then Justin whispered to me, "what if they were free?".  My eyes lit up.  "Hey Tom!...what if they were free?"  And Justin echoed - much to my amusement, -"Yeah, Tom.  What if they were free, huh?"  haha.  Well, we were sold.

I mused about possibly just making this second set of china into our new "everyday dishes", and packing away the Pfalzgraff ones.  Justin told us that his grandmother used to do that as well.  She would even bring her nice china with her for picnics.  All her friends were shocked, and asked why she wasn't worried about breaking it.  She would tell them, "Well, who am I saving them for?  The next wife?"

I like that attitude.

So the next day, I unpacked all the new china, washed it off, and went about replacing my regular dishes in the cabinets.  There's nothing wrong with my Pfalzgraff dishes.  I did pick them out originally, when my mother insisted that I should have a set of them for a wedding gift.  But I don't know.  Maybe I've just become sick of them.  The colors don't actually match the color scheme of my kitchen or dining room, though.  And I feel like the pattern is just a bit childish and whimsical.

My former everyday dishes

It's been nice having some pretty china to eat off of every day.  I feel like it helps to elevate a casual family meal to something a little more special.  Which really, it is.   

Another thing I've been trying to do more often is put food into nice serving dishes for the table.  I'm not to the point of putting condiments or dressing into special little bowls or anything - they can stay in their original store-bought bottles! 

Some of my pretty serving bowls

But instead of bringing the whole pot or pan straight from the stove or oven and setting it on a trivet at the dinner table, it's nice to scoop the contents first into a pretty bowl or plate.  I find that when I do this, dinner is just more pleasant somehow.  It seems less rushed.  It becomes less utilitarian - just a time during which to get food into our bodies - and more about the experience of enjoying the meal in the company of family.

But Sly still gets a plastic Peter Rabbit plate, because I'm not completely reckless with my china!

Also, it's easy to remember to bring out the nice china when guests are over, if that's all that's in the cabinet to begin with ;-)

How To Be a Gracious Hostess

 Let me say this upfront: I am a bad hostess.  But I'm learning.

So often when we've had guests over in the past (whether for dinner, a party, or to spend the night), I find myself getting stressed out over very selfish things: they're making a wreck of my house!  They're eating all my food!  They're taking forever in the bathroom and I really really want a shower now!


Slowly, I am starting to learn what true hospitality means.  It's much more than just allowing people into your home.  It means learning to generously share your home and your possessions.  There's a skill to it.  You need to show your guests how welcome they are, and how happy you are to have them.

Here are the two biggest tips that I've discovered:

1. RELAX, and let your guests treat your house like their home.
Before guests arrive, I spend the day making sure the house is cleaned and tidied, all the laundry is done, and the pantry is stocked.  In other words, I bring my house to an artificially high standard of cleanliness, and then unrealistically desire it to stay that way the entire time friends are visiting.  I've found myself literally following guests around with a broom and dustpan, cleaning up crumbs as they make them; or washing every dish the second it's done being used.  [Some of you reading this may have first hand experience with this, and I want to offer an apology.  How extremely rude and unwelcoming I was!]

If I'm trying to impress people with how clean it is....well, that's silly.  They're either friends or family, so it doesn't really matter to them - they won't be judging me by my abilities as a housekeeper.  Guests feel more welcome in a messy home with a generous hostess than in an immaculate one ruled over by someone behaving neurotically.

Anytime people are relaxed and enjoying themselves, some mess is expected.  It's ok.

2. "Bring out the good china"
I mean this both literally and figuratively. 

We've only had an actual set of matching china for a short time (purchased cheaply on Craigslist, mostly so I had something to fill the new china cabinet), but when we got it I resolved that I would actually use it.  Nice serving pieces don't do anyone any good if all they do is sit in the cabinet looking pretty and gathering dust. 

It's easy to fall into the trap of saving these things for a "special occasion" or for "really important guests."  But who's more important to us than our close family or our most intimate friends?  I know we don't need to impress these people.  But that really isn't the purpose of our nice things - aren't they meant to be used to show people that you respect and care for them?  The people who are our most frequent guests are probably the people who mean the most to us - shouldn't any meal you invite them to be treated as a "special occasion"?  So break out the good plates, the nice cloth napkins and tableclothes!  Guests will appreciate the effort you make for them. 

I just thought of this, but when I offer friends coffee or tea, I really ought to serve them in one of my many fancy teacups, instead of just the chipped everyday mugs from the cabinet.

About four years ago, I bought a bottle of mulled wine at a winery.  It was summertime, so I decided to save it for a nice winter night when I could warm it up and share it with friends...but not too many friends, because a bottle of wine is really only enough for three or four people...and it would have to be just the right grouping of close friends...and it would have to be snowy and cold out when we drank it...and so on and so on.  I came up with such unobtainable plans for this stupid bottle of wine, that it ended up sitting on the wine rack on top of the fridge for years.  The label peeled off, and the thing was covered with dust that was glued in place by cooking-oil-laden kitchen air.  Tom kept pressuring me to just drink the dang thing and get it out of the house.  Finally, some friends invited us to dinner, and asked us to bring a "wintery drink."  It wasn't exactly the scenario I had dreamed up, but I brought the wine with me.  And guess what? It didn't taste very good anymore.  Despite that, the four of us still had a good time just observing the ritual of sharing a bottle of warm mulled wine on a chilly day.  I definitely learned a lesson from this, and have since tried to put it in practice. 

Don't save things, waiting for the perfect occasion.  If you have a good friend over, pull out the cookies saved in your freezer, the bottle of nice whiskey...whatever it is you're tempted to save or hoard, because this is the occasion you've been saving them for!  I guarantee you will have more fun sharing it with friends than consuming it all alone in front of the television.


So there's my bit of wisdom, only learned very recently.  I'm still not a very good hostess, but I'm trying.  Does anyone else have stories or tips about showing hospitality?

The Domestic Goddess

"The Domestic Goddess honors her position in the home.  She looks upon her career in the home as the most important career in the world.  Creating a happy marriage and family life and raising honorable children are the greatest contributions she can make to the well-being of society.  Even though she does nothing more than live her daily life, if she does it well it is of immeasurable value.  No success compares to the success in the home; no failure a worse failure."

~ from Fascinating Womanhood, by Helen Andelin

A Lesson in Canning Peaches

 I've been wanting to learn to can/preserve food for a while now.  It seems like a useful and somewhat lost skill to have.  I was intimidated, though, by what seemed like a too-complicated process, and by the need for special equipment.  But today, I had the opportunity to join my friend Rosemary and her mother for a first lesson in canning.

It wasn't as difficult as I imagined.  The process does take a fair amount of time, though, because you have to wait for so many things to boil.  If you decide to take up canning, plan to set aside about half the day to get it all done!

I actually documented most of the steps with photographs (which I never remember to do!) so I could share the experience here, and also to create a record for myself.  This isn't intended to be an exact recipe or set of procedures (so if you decide to can peaches, please look for a full set of instructions!).  But I'm sure there are other people like me who have been curious about canning, and wondering what the process really entails...I hope you will enjoy this attempt to recount what we did.

We used quart-sized canning jars.  You have to separate the jars from the lids, and sterilize them.  If you have access to a dishwasher (which, thankfully, we did) , all you need to do is run them on hot.  If not, wash them out by hand, and then pour boiling water over them.

 You should use the freshest peaches possible - they will be a bit soft when squeezed.  "Free stone" peaches are best.  I love those beautiful colors!

 We bought a half bushel from a local farmer's market, but we should have picked up an extra peck or so.  We only ended up with nine quart-jars, instead of using all twelve.

Fill up a couple large pots with water

 And put them on the stove to boil

 

Dump the peaches into the sink

 

 When your water is boiled, pour it all over the peaches.  This will help to loosen the skin and make them easy to peel.

 We let them sit for awhile....maybe 20 or 30 minutes?

 You can use a knife to help get the peeling started, but most of the skins should just come off in your hands.  Cut the peaches in half along the natural seam, and pull out the pit.  Put them back into the pots.

 Now the peaches go on the stove to boil.

Apparently, most recipes have you make the syrup in a separate pot.  We just made it all at the same time by adding a cup of sugar to each of the peach pots while they cooked.

 

Give it a stir...

 Meanwhile, you need to sterilize the lids by (you guessed it) boiling them in water on the stove.

 After some time, the peaches start to rise up and foam.  Now they're ready for canning.

 Carefully scoop them up with a slotted spoon, and add them to the jar, with the concave side facing down.

 You want to layer them in nicely without leaving much air.

Ladle in some syrup until it reaches the bottom rim.

 Now you need to get as much air out as possible.  Sliding this little plastic tool around the outside helps bring up air bubbles.  Also, you can press the peaches from the top using a spoon.  Add a bit more syrup so that it's about a half inch from the top of the jar.

 Using a damp towel, wipe off any sticky stuff from the rim, and screw on a lid, tightly.

 Add the jar to the waiting canning bath (oh yeah - that's another thing that's been boiling this whole time)

 Once the rack is full, lower it into the pot.  If necessary, add more water to cover about an inch above the lids.  Put the top on, and bring to a boil.  Let this boil for half an hour.

Then you pull out your jars, and set them to cool.  Soon, you should hear the little 'pops' as the lids seal themselves.  And you're ready to store them for delicious eating later on!

All-in-all, it was an involved process, but not as daunting as I expected.  There are a few pieces of equipment (like the canning pot with the special rack) I'd want to own if I was going to do this myself at some point.  I'm not convinced that it necessarily saves any money unless you grow all the food yourself (which, given our complete lack of yard, isn't a possibility for us now).  

I hope this gave some of you a better idea of what canning involves, and perhaps inspires you to give it a try!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 15)

1. Back in January, we were out of laundry detergent.  I picked up a MEGAhuge container of generic brand detergent at Family Dollar for $6 [as an aside, what's the deal with all these places that call themselves "dollar stores", but sell most items for more than that?  One of the only true dollar stores left is Dollar Tree.]  Seven months later, and I still have about a third of the container left.

Anyways, I've been noticing recently that so much of our clothing is just....dingy.  Stains aren't coming out the way I expect.  And things never smell truly "clean" upon coming out of the wash.  I didn't really think much about it.  I guess I assumed that this is the way it goes when you haven't been able to afford any new clothes for several years (a situation I had never had the experience of before).  But I finally made the connection:  It was that cheap-o detergent!

So I checked the circulars on Sunday, and found a sale on Tide.  And oh my.  What a difference already!  Things smell so much better (and it's not just the scent of the Tide.  Like, they actually smell "clean" for the first time in months), and have been coming out looking a lot brighter.  Man.  Tide's not cheap, though.  So if anyone has recommendations for another good laundry detergent (and I might be willing to make it myself, too), please comment!

2.  The other day, I stupidly left out my shoebox full of nail polishes (I had been making my toes pretty and beach-ready!).  Sly found it.  Of course.  Inside was a long-forgotton little bottle of "pixie sparkles."  This picture shows only the concentrated area of the mess.  The rest of it is now ingrained into the carpet all up and down the stairs, and I've been finding little particles of it on everything in the house.

3. Our health insurance company has a special maternity program you can enroll in.  If you meet the criteria for going to your pre-natal appointments, etc., you get a free gift.  We had our choice of either an infant car seat or a Pack n' Play.  Since we already have both those things, I figured I'd just pick one and we could sell it on Craigslist for a bit of cash.  I thought the Pack n' Play (since it was a known brandname) would have the best resale value.  Well, I'm kinda regretting it now.  I've had the post up for over a week now, and have slowly dropped the price...but no true bites yet.  I guess Pack n' Plays must just be a dime a dozen.  There are so many of them on there for sale.  I thought the fact that ours is brand-new in the box might make it more attractive, but apparently not.  A couple people have offered to pay $35 or $40 for it.  But at that price, I think we might be best off just hanging onto it, and giving some friend a really nice baby shower gift someday...

4.  Sorry to talk about sports, because I mostly think they're a big yawn.  But um, have you seen how the Pirates are doing lately?!  It's pretty awesome.  They went from being basically the worst team in the league for years to being number one.  Unfortunately, Tom and I haven't been able to make it to a game since this winning streak started.  We've had a lot going on, but also, tickets keep selling out for all the games (which is really rare for the Pirates).  It makes me pretty mad, sometimes...thinking about all those fair-weather fans  stopping us from seeing a team that we have legitimately supported through thick and thin!  I'm someone who really doesn't care about sports at all, but the Pirates have always had my support.  Baseball is the one sport for which I actually understand *most* of the rules (having played softball for a number of years in my youth).  And baseball games are just so chill and low-key.  You can't beat the experience of sitting back in the beautiful park, munching peanuts and licking ice cream, and just having nice casual conversation with friends!

5.  Sly's not quite two now, and I know I probably have no business letting him watch tv...but about once or twice a week, I put on Sesame Street for him.  As far as I can tell, it's the only children's show these days that isn't completely inane and painful to watch.  And it's nice, because it affords me some time to get in some mid-morning cleaning or laundry without distraction.  Like all kids these days, Sly has become obsessed with Elmo.  I don't know what it is.  I can't even remember Elmo being on the show in my early Sesame Street-watching days (though according to Wikipedia, he's been around since the early 70's - who knew??).

Anyways, the other day, I decided to give Sly a treat (and myself a needed respite from a whiny and clingy toddler...don't judge!), and put on the classic movie Follow That Bird.  This was made in the pre-Elmo days.  The ENTIRE movie, all Sly did was ask for Elmo.  I felt a little bad.  I tried to explain that Elmo "wasn't born yet", but I don't think he quite grasped the concept...

6.  Speaking of the unborn...I'm 36 weeks pregnant now.  Amazingly, still no swelling in my feet!!  I can't believe it.  It's been so hot.  With my first pregnancy, they were ridiculously huge well before this time.

TheBump.com tells me baby is the size of a honeydew melon.  I like having something to compare the size to.  But I definitely have a beef with their size comparison chart.  For example, just last week, it said baby was the size of a coconut.  Coconuts aren't really that large.  And I KNOW there is something bigger than a coconut inside of me!  Week 31 is "pineapple."  Week 24 is "cantaloupe."  Those fruits are both definitely bigger than coconuts!


7. We're heading off this weekend for what is always my favorite week of the whole year - "Family Week" up at our cottage on Lake Erie.  My large extended family will all be up there.  We will actually have to squeeze ourselves into four separate cottages, because there's no way in heck for us to all fit in the main one (pictured below).  It's just a lovely time - so peaceful and relaxing...catching up with family, swimming in the Lake, bonfires at night, sharing our traditions with the next generation...

I'm just praying that the baby does NOT decide to come until we get back to Pittsburgh!!!  The midwives gave me a copy of my pre-natal records, and told me to map out all the hospitals along the way....yikes!

Quick Takes is hosted at Conversion Diary

The Isolation of the Modern Housewife and Mother

I just read Jennifer Fulwiler's recent article at The National Catholic Register, and this really resonated with me:

There are some advantages to moms blogging about their kids. The isolation issues that many stay-at-home moms face is no joke. As we've discussed before, it's unnatural for people to live utterly cut off from any real community, as is the case with moms who are outside of the workforce. Blogs give women in these situations a way to share stories and feel close to one another

There was a link within that sentence to an older article of hers, and there I found this second gem:

When I studied anthropology in college, one of the things that stood out to me the most was the element of community: In pretty much every time and place outside of modern Western culture, people lived around family all their lives. The average person was surrounded by brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. For women, the work of raising children was not done alone: Younger nieces and cousins would help with the little kids, the women would socialize as they gathered water or washed clothes, all the children playing together around them. This is the kind of life we were designed for.

In contrast, the average modern woman who is out of the workforce lives her life on a suburban desert island. The nearest family member lives miles (if not thousands of miles) away. She doesn’t know all the people on her street, and not many of them have kids anyway. If she’s like many Americans, she’s moved within the past few years, losing any sense of community she’d built in the last place she lived. Any opportunities for socializing with other women involve the herculean effort of packing up all the kids in the car to drive somewhere. She doesn’t even have the age-old mother’s release valve of banishing the kids outside and telling them to come back at mealtime, since safety concerns mean she has to keep them within sight at all times.

This is an incredibly unnatural way to live.

I have to say that I totally agree.  When there are no other stay-at-home moms around you, life can be lonely for the woman trying to go it alone at home all day.  And when there aren't moms home, there aren't going to be kids around for your own kids to play with.  In fact, the whole sense of community and neighborliness is compromised.

Quoting myself from a previous post:

In a neighborhood where all the moms stay home, they get to know each other.  They see each other around.  Their kids play together.  It builds community.  When moms are at work all day, kids are either away at some sort of daycare of after-school program, or under orders to stay in the house.  Kids don't go outside anymore, because there's no one to watch over them if they do.  Kids don't play with other kids on their street.  Moms don't know each other.  So their husbands don't know each other.  Suddenly, everyone's a stranger, and no one feels safe letting their kids out to wander anyways.  So kids stay inside playing video games and watching TV all day, because that's "safe."  Kids work out their strong need for socialization at home with texting, twitter, the internet...which are all poor substitutes for real human contact.

 Also, see the excellent blog Free-Range Kids for more thoughts on this and similar issues.

The Perfect Pie Crust?

I mentioned a while back that I have to bring a peach pie for a friend's wedding next month, but have never made one before.  A few of you were kind enough to share some recipes with me.  I have to admit, though, I still haven't tested any of them out! (peaches aren't exactly in season yet, though, so that will be my excuse...).

Since I've made a few meat pies for dinners, though, I've had the opportunity to at least test out some crust recipes.  My mom always used store-bought crusts, so that's what I grew up with.  But recently, I've been trying to find a tasty and easy crust I can make from scratch.  I tried one last night that I think might be a keeper.

It's not that this crust tastes substantially better than others that I've tried.  But I love that the dough is a little moister, and thus MUCH easier to work with and roll out.  I found this recipe on the back of a package of aluminum pie edge-liners I bought (can't remember the brand) - something I would recommend to anyone else who finds it really frustrating to get foil strips to stay in place!

*****

"Perfect Pie Crust"
 3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup cold water
1 Tbsp. white vinegar

Sift flour and salt; cut in shortening until it resembles coarse peas.  Mix remaining ingredients and stir into flour mixture until it forms a ball.  Roll out on floured board or pastry cloth (hint: use a rolling pin cover to prevent sticking).  For a more golden crust, beat an egg white with 1 tsp. sugar and brush the top of the pie lightly with a pastry brush before baking.  Makes one 10" double-crust pie.

*****

The recipe is for a ten-inch pie.  Since all my pans are nine inches, I was worried about the waste.  But I came up with a good use for the extra dough.  I cut out little bunnies, and sprinkled them with sugar and cinnamon, and baked them for about ten minutes.

I've been calling them "cinnabunnies", and Sly LOVES them.  So that's another benefit to using this recipe in the future - I'll always be able to make a little treat for the kids, without really doing any extra work!

Oh, The Things I Deal With...

Several little housewifely annoyances today.

I went to the basement to do some laundry this morning, and saw that the top of the washer and dryer (or is it spelled drier?) were covered with little reddish...things.  They looked like little pieces of dried ground beef.  But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how that would make sense.  Also, there was a large sticky-looking yellow-brown spill all over the basement floor, which had stained one corner of my "laundry carpet".  That carpet is the one nice thing demarcating my own little "clean cozy laundry area" from the rest of the cold and dingy basement.  I wasn't very happy about the intrusion of that inexplicable stain into my little haven.  A little later, when taking some trash to the outside trash can, I saw a whole two-pound package of ground beef sitting in there (and my money-conscious self was shocked at the waste!).  Alright, what the heck? Obviously, Tom had something to do with all this, and had "forgotten" to mention it to me...

I sent him an e-mail at work to ask him about these three strange occurrences.  I titled it "queries"

1. Why did you throw away 2 pounds of ground beef?
2. Was that dried bits of ground beef that I found all over the top of the washer and dryer??
3. What is that big nasty spill down in the basement?  It's brownish-yellow.  It kinda looks like oil.  Is it your beer?  It's staining a corner of my blue carpet.  Can you clean that up tonight?

As I suspected, it all had to do with his attempt to brew homemade beer on Saturday night (when I was, thankfully, out of the house).  He responded:

1. Why did you throw away 2 pounds of ground beef?  It was really nasty after the cats got into it.  I had pulled it out to use the ground beef bags as big ice cubes to cool off the water in the basement sink, and I just put them on top of the washer when I was done.  I went down a little later to finish cleaning up from the brewing, but the cats had torn into the ground beef bags, eaten a bunch of it, and made a huge mess.
2. Was that dried bits of ground beef that I found all over the top of the washer and dryer??   Must be.  I tried to clean it all up but must’ve missed some.
3. What is that big nasty spill down in the basement?  Mostly hops.  It's staining a corner of my blue carpet.  That carpet is gross.  Can you clean that up tonight?  Yeah, I’ll clean it up more thoroughly tonight.

Ugh.  Who uses frozen food as giant ice cubes?  Who leaves FRESH MEAT sitting out right near where the cats have their food dishes? Who knowingly spills hops all over the floor, and leaves it there?  Oh yes...my husband...sighhh.

To make it worse, shortly after the e-mail exchange, the sink into which the waste-water from the washer empties got all backed up while I was washing clothes, and filthy water is now covering the floor (and my rug).  At my kind (and maybe a little desperate) request, Tom will spend the evening in the basement, restoring the area to some sense of cleanliness.

Sweet Tooth

Chocolate chip banana bread

Ok, ok, I know it's Lent and I shouldn't be baking delicious things.

But, in my defense, the bananas were going to go bad if I didn't do something with them right away.  And after finding about ten black, shriveled bananas in the back of the freezer one time (hehehe), Tom has banned me from ever again freezing them.

Also, it's the Thursday between Ember Days!  Come on!  Fasting and partial abstinence yesterday, fasting and total abstinence tomorrow, and fasting and partial abstinence again on Saturday.  I need something to get me through it!   :-)

my lunch today