Gosling beaks and sugar peaks

 
Have I been outside in the past week?  Not very much!  It is hot, humid, and unpleasant.  I'm mainly working indoors until...well, it might be a while before it cools off here!  I *do* go outside if I've got a good reason...like hanging out with our "goz."  I love their sweet faces.

The one we call "Flipper" because of his floppy wings is always the first out of the water.  I'm nearly certain that his wing condition is the result of a birth defect.  If you look closely at his wings, you'll see that the feathers just stopped growing.

He's still fat and sleek like the others, but we'll definitely be keeping an eye on him.  I also enjoy our visiting strays, like Clotilde.

I'm done planting flowers for the year, but I'm amazed at the self-seeding that goes on now that we have massive amounts of sun.  I bought ONE vinca plant two years ago.  From that single plant came a million seeds.  Now we have vincas completely lining one portion of the driveway on both sides. This year, I spent weeks thinning out the seedlings and painstakingly replanting them, interspersing them in the front beds and along our side slope.  They've really filled in!  It's hard to tell from these pictures, but maybe if you blow them up...

Anyway, the high humidity has mainly kept me inside.  Todd built a small "extension table" that lines up with my sewing table and has a recessed compartment for my sewing machine to fit into.  Now the table surface is even with the needle plate, and I can't tell you how much easier it has made sewing.

I started on a new quilt, the Wallflower Quilt from Craftsy.  I expected a queen-size quilt to take many months to make, but after spending one day cutting fabric and a few days putting together huge 18" blocks, I realized that I was HALFWAY DONE with the top!  It's because the fabric pieces are so big.

Fabric pieces:

A block, laid out:

Several blocks, sewn together:

They're going to alternate with star blocks, but you get the idea.  It takes about 15 - 20 minutes to sew one block, and in four days I've already got a quilt top that, although unfinished, is larger than any quilt I've made before.  Talk about instant gratification!  I've got a ton of fabric left over, too, for future scrappy quilts.  Heck, I might have this whole quilt completely done by August!

I've been baking a lot too.  A friend had something to celebrate, so I made cookies.

Although I don't particularly enjoy working with royal icing (that hardens), making the roses was easy, and the piping was surprisingly easy, too.  I made way too many for just one person who actually doesn't have much of a sweet tooth...

...so I decided to mail one or two to anyone I knew that had something to celebrate.  It was so fun!  I used my go-to no-fridge sugar cookie recipe that never lets me down.

I also made patriotic cookie cups for Todd's office.  I couldn't find a cookie cup recipe that I liked, and wondered if ANY cookie recipe could make cookie cups.  Apparently so.  I took a chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, rolled the dough into large balls, and dropped the balls into greased muffin tins. I baked at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes.  The cookies had a natural depression in the middle, which I increased by pressing down with a small glass.

I tried a new frosting method.  I made a standard buttercream and separated the batch into three bowls.  One bowl I dyed burgundy (out of red, argh!), one batch blue, and one I left white.  I took my piping bag and smeared a generous stripe of burgundy on one side, blue on the opposite side, and then stuffed white in the center.  Voila!  A patriotic swirl!

And SO delicious.  Cookie cups, where have you been all my life??

The baking is not done for the week, either!  Today is "Fourth of July Eve" and therefore I decided to make a patriotic flag pie.  Recommended fillings online were blueberry on one side, strawberry or cherry on the other, but that was just too fussy for me.  I made my favorite three berry pie (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry) with a simple all-butter crust.  I used a cookie cutter to cut out stars for the flag.

It is NO FAIL and so simple that I don't even need to pull out my recipe binder.  Six cups of fruit...3/4 cup sugar...1/4 cup cornstarch.  It's not too sweet and the filling is delightfully thick, which is important to those of us who can't stand runny pies.

After this week of treats, I'm going to be ready for a major sugar detox!

Have a great week!

The Day of SIX Pies

I was going to title this post "The Day the Music Pie-d", but figured that was too ridiculous, even for me.  Whichever heading you like, it's still going to be all...about...the...pies.  (All photos courtesy of my husband's terrible camera.  I really need a new lens for mine!)

It all started when I bought a mini pie pan.  I don't mind a cluttered cabinet and I can never have too many random kitchen gadgets.  I have all sorts of molds and pans that rarely get used, but I keep them - just in case.  Besides, I had plans for the mini pie pan.  Could I not also bake cake rounds and make a tiny 6-layer cake?  What about giant cookies for ice cream sandwiches?  Clearly, this item was an absolute kitchen necessity.

I was intrigued by its original purpose, though.  Six tiny pies?  What if I could make six different kinds of pies?  Would that take the entire day?  What if I pulled all ingredients and assembly-lined the process?  Did I currently have the ingredients for six different kinds of pies?!?  Yes.  I had bags of frozen cherries and mixed fruit in the freezer, and I'd frozen 3/4 cup pumpkin puree AND sweetened condensed milk, so I wouldn't need to open a can.  I could make homemade chocolate pudding for a pie filling, and I had fresh apples and peaches...and that was it.  Even though I had piles and piles of work to do, I decided to devote the afternoon to pie baking...mini pie baking, that is. 

Time to make the pie dough:  10 minutes
Time to chill pie dough:  1 hour
Time to cut out pie circles with a cereal bowl:  10 minutes

I put the rounds in the basins and refrigerated the pan.

Time to pull out ingredients:  5 minutes
Time to mix ingredients for each pie:  10 minutes

Putting all the ingredients on the counters really sped things up.  After all, the fruit pies all needed the same basic ingredients - corn starch, sugar, salt, and spices.  It only took about 10 minutes to do the entire process!

Then I pulled the chilled pan from the refrigerator and put in the fillings, then crimped 'rustic' tops.

Total time:  7 minutes.

The lower left corner pie was blind-baked.  That is, I baked it with weights inside (rice) to help it keep its shape and then filled it with chocolate pudding later. 

The amount of filling I'd made (1/4 of a full-size pie recipe) was too much for these basins, but that meant I had plenty left over to make more mini pies.  Into the freezer!

Cooking time:  45 minutes

While the pies baked, I made homemade chocolate pudding in the microwave (5 minutes) and cleaned up the kitchen (significantly longer).

The mini pies turned out just as I'd hoped.  There was only one accident...the bottom crust on the peach pie was too thin, so one wall collapsed and leaked filling.  No big deal.

 
The final tally?  One peach, one apple, one three berry, one cherry, one chocolate, and one pumpkin pie.  And oh, so good.  Really, it didn't take long at all.  Not much longer than making one single pie.  And I am completely charmed by these little pies.  Now that I understand the thickness of the dough needed, and the amount of filling that each basin holds (about a cup), I can make these any time!  I quartered the pies for easy sampling that night and made a "pie buffet", which was really fun.  Todd loved the flavors but thought the filling to crust-ratio was a little off, and I agreed.  Next time I'll make lattice tops or leave them open-faced. 

It's nice that my recipes make exactly enough filling for two batches of mini-pies, so the next time I make them will be even easier!  Although it was already pretty easy.  Twenty minutes to mix and shape dough (not counting fridge rest time) and about twenty minutes to pull ingredients, mix, and fill the pies. 

I jotted down the recipes for my personal cookbook, so I'll paste them in here in case anyone is interested in making them.  Hope you give them a try.  Have a great week! 

 Mini Pie Pan PIES

Apple Pie ¼ recipe

2 Granny Smith apples, sliced/diced

1 ½ teaspoons white sugar

1 TB brown sugar

1 teaspoon flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

¾ teaspoon lemon juice

butter to dot top of pie before sealing

Three Berry Pie ¼ recipe

1.5 cups berries

3 TB sugar

1 TB cornstarch

Peach Pie 1/4 recipe

2 peaches, peeled and sliced

3 TB sugar

1 ½ teaspoon flour

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Cherry Pie 1/4 recipe

1.5 cups cherries

1 TB sugar 

pinch salt

pinch cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

drop of almond extract

1 TB cornstarch

Pumpkin Pie 1/4 recipe

3 ounces canned pumpkin

3 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1/2 egg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 - 3 TB brown sugar

Chocolate Pie 1/4 recipe

3 TB sugar

2 TB cocoa

1 ½ TB cornstarch

pinch of salt

1 cup milk

½ teaspoon vanilla

Directions for ALL Pies (except chocolate pie)

Freeze crust for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix all but butter together.  Pour into crust.  Cover with remaining crust and place on baking sheet.  Bake 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake an additional 25 – 30 minutes.

Directions for Chocolate Pie

Combine first 4 ingredients, then stir in milk.  Microwave, uncovered, for 2 minutes.  Stir.  Continue to microwave in one minute increments.  When thick, stir in vanilla and refrigerate. 

Blind bake crust:  Put dough in pie pan with pie beads/weights.  After 20 minutes, remove pie beads.  Bake another 5 or so minutes, until whole crust is golden.

a pie battle cry!

Whoever listed 'moving' on the list of most stressful life experiences, right next to 'death' and 'divorce', was right on the money.  Taking care of 3 pets, running a home business, dealing with late inspectors and churlish buyers and mounds of paperwork, plus keeping track of all the bills and packing up the house and does the dog need to go out again?!?...oh my. 

Thankfully, my stress level is much lower than expected.  Really low, in fact.  I contribute that to God's grace, and...to chocolate.

And...to homemade pie.  Lots of pie.  Apple pie, bursting at the seams with spicy goodness...

Smooth and creamy pumpkin pie...

...which rose to new heights, since I started making my own sweetened condensed milk, which contains a bit of baking powder.

Juicy peaches stewed in sugar and spices...

 ...and topped with a sweet, butter biscuit crumble:

Did you know about blanching peaches?  Just cut an 'X' in the bottom of the peach, toss it in boiling water for 1 minute, and then roll it into a container of cold water.  The skin peels right off!

 There's just something so soothing and satisfying about burying my hands into a floury dough, or listening to my KitchenAid whirr to life and turn butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and vanilla into something magical.  Stress?  What stress?

Of course, all this pie is no good without my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, which takes a dangerously short amount of time to whip up.

My stress level is low, but now all of my clothes are getting too tight.  Ten pounds up?  Check!  I joined Weight Watchers again, but after this weekend's sugar free-for-all, I don't know if I'll be going back for a few weeks.  I'm not ready to take the walk of shame to the public scale.  However, I truly am looking forward to getting back to a healthier lifestyle once Todd and I get settled.  I've scoped out the local YMCA and healthier-food stores and I'll be ready to put a plan into action.  Best of all, I can bake all day long, but just send the baked goods with Todd when he leaves for work!

I love it when a plan comes together!

Hope you have a great - and stress free - week.  Enjoy fall baking!