aliens ate my brain and found it tasty
Pumpkin pie last night, as advertised. Apparently I left my vanilla extract in Seattle, probably next to my heart, but turbinado sugar in the whipped cream adds something of its flavor. I want to try maple syrup, or cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg, per F's idea. It was also the first time I've successfully transferred a handmade pie crust from rolling surface to pie tin without an epic structural integrity fail. (Answer: parchment; next time: add a dusting of cornstarch.)
My kitchen is tiny, badly ventilated and never cooler than 75°, so it's tricky but apparently quite possible to make short pastry without melting the butter (if you freeze it, cut it quickly into the flour while hanging out in front of the a/c, keep ice water handy for your fingers, work on a chilled marble tile, and the whole nine yards.) I'm almost feeling bake-tacular enough to attempt bread again. I know I make a tolerable challah but have never been happy with my straight-up crusty bread.
Finally found mirin last night at the expensive, pretentious grocery store I go to for things outside the staples at D'Agostino. Homemade teriyaki sauce will be mine. I'm starting to be very startled by the difficulty of buying raw-ish ingredients when so much semi-prepared good food is abundant. I shouldn't get too precious about convenience foods, though: the pumpkin came from a can, not a sugar pumpkin grown in homemade compost. Yaaaaarrrrr.
Seriously, what aliens abducted me and replaced my appreciation for cool ranch Doritos with a fascination for sauce tempering? The fuck?
My kitchen is tiny, badly ventilated and never cooler than 75°, so it's tricky but apparently quite possible to make short pastry without melting the butter (if you freeze it, cut it quickly into the flour while hanging out in front of the a/c, keep ice water handy for your fingers, work on a chilled marble tile, and the whole nine yards.) I'm almost feeling bake-tacular enough to attempt bread again. I know I make a tolerable challah but have never been happy with my straight-up crusty bread.
Finally found mirin last night at the expensive, pretentious grocery store I go to for things outside the staples at D'Agostino. Homemade teriyaki sauce will be mine. I'm starting to be very startled by the difficulty of buying raw-ish ingredients when so much semi-prepared good food is abundant. I shouldn't get too precious about convenience foods, though: the pumpkin came from a can, not a sugar pumpkin grown in homemade compost. Yaaaaarrrrr.
Seriously, what aliens abducted me and replaced my appreciation for cool ranch Doritos with a fascination for sauce tempering? The fuck?