standard weekend stuff
This weekend, I accomplish my "goal" of making an apple pie. My secondary goal of making my Quicksilver belt was not accomplished since I'm too lazy, but we did do other general tasks.
Apple Pie
Since Angie went apple picking with her family, we have a ton of apples. So I decided to make an apple pie, which it feels like I haven't made in a while. I guess I've been doing other fruits since Angie loves those so much. Anyway, I made this as a lattice pie since its so much easier to do (placing the top part of the pie is the hardest part of it all normally). Also, my apple pies often are super soupy and runny. So maybe having lots of open parts would allow for more evaporation. It didn't.
Anyway, it started with the standard dough making which is mainly flour, a bit of salt, and some shortening. Mix it all together and cut the shortening in by hand. Add a little water slowly until dough is okay seeming. I think I didn't add enough water or didn't work it long enough because it felt like the dough wasn't optimal later on. I'll blame it on my wrist.
Split dough into two portions, with one more than the other (60/40?) (https://goo.gl/photos/15WvUQaR1zbiqXhB7)
That's put in plastic wrap and put in the freezer while you do the filling. First, I just up 4 or 5 apples into small slices. The recipe asked for 7-8 apples, but that seemed way too much. I even took the two smallest apples from the batch, but it 4 to 5 seemed like enough filling.
Apples, cut, not too exciting (https://goo.gl/photos/mmjSyoFVX7pdKCDD7)
Then you add sugar and brown sugar to the apples. Then you add flour and cinnamon. I don't know if it matters adding separately, but maybe for coating purposes. But I added them separately because I'm lawful and follow rules. I probably should have used a larger bowl since it actually pretty hard to mix, but I think I used the largest bowl that I had.
Delicious filling, pre-cooked but looks good (https://goo.gl/photos/5rJkABM9kn1mK5JC6)
Then, you assume the pie, which is much easier in lattice structure versus the normal top crust. So the larger dough portion makes the bottom and the smaller one, makes the top. The lattice looks fancy, but I think its much easier than trying to make a proper sized dough thingy and transferring it. For the lattice, you just make the strips and lay them across the top of the filling. I'm a bozo and I don't interweave the lattice since I don't have that type of skill, so it's not the best, but its much easier to do. I also started to run out of top dough and didn't do a good job with uniform thickness so its kind of stupid looking.
You can that the outer strips aren't uniform and one is actually missing. I was lazy and just rolled them in my hand instead of rolling them out on a board and cutting them, like the inner strips. Whatever. (https://goo.gl/photos/aLsfeuVbaBcUmmYs5)
Then you bake it for 25 minutes or so:
(https://goo.gl/photos/2i5RrWX7xgE6x5on9)
A funny, related story. So the pie has a cooking time of approximately 25 minutes. So when I put it in the oven, we went to walk Alfie. At one point of our typical path, it comes close to our house again (although we'll walk for another 10 or 15 minutes). So at that point, it was about time to take out the pie. So our plan was for me to head home, take out the pie, and meet back up with Angie and Alfie on the path. But since Alfie is so loyal, after I took out the pie and went back to the path, I saw Alfie and Angie in the same spot! Apparently, he was very distressed and didn't want to leave me behind. What a loyal kiddo =)
Since the weather is getting cooler, we decided to dig up our banana trees and put them in pots to bring inside. One is massive (although no bananas!); its taller than me. When we dug it out, we tried to put it in our largest pot and it wouldn't fit. So we had to go to Home Depot and buy a larger pot. So it is potted and we moved it into our house. If it gets any larger, we won't have anywhere to put it in the fall/winter.
Angie for size reference. (https://goo.gl/photos/7EWLc4Xb7WFk95Yg6)
We have three or four other banana trees which are about two to three feet tall, maybe?
For the last several weeks or more, my right wrist has been kind of off. Its been a bit sore here and then, but I think over the last week, its been weaker. I imagine the more work and stress it handles, it worse it gets. So have it wrapped and hopefully it'll help the healing process. I imagine I sprained it or something a while ago and it just never got a chance to fully heal since its on my right hand. So I'll give it a week of wrapping and if it doesn't significantly improve, maybe I'll get it looked it.
That also means I need to check out my healthcare information. I know when I used to have awesome healthcare, I could go to whatever specialist I wanted as long as they were in network. Now, I'm not sure if I need a primary care referral to go to a specialist. Thanks Obama. (Still never understood why you wouldn't want people to have top quality plans.)
In other news, Atlanta beat the Panthers. I'm a very negative or pessimistic fan, so I kind of just assumed that Atlanta was going to lose since the Panthers were so good last year. Again, their offense looked all world but their defense actually looked decent, although not from the numbers. But when the game was competitive, they played well. Most of CAR yards and points came against prevent defenses although they did make it much closer than I'd like at points.
I'm fairly unexcited for the baseball playoffs. I guess I haven't been following baseball much since the Braves aren't a real team and most of the NL playoff teams are teams that I don't really like. For the first time in years, I'll probably root for AL teams more (TOR, CLE, maybe BAL).
We also watched the last two Underworld movies, neither of which were very good. The third one (Rise of the Lycans) wasn't horrible, but it pretty much just told a story told in the first movie. There was pretty much nothing interesting or new compared to that short flashback scene. The fourth movie (Awakening) seemed like a poorer version of Resident Evil (not even the original, but latter ones). It just seemed to not make tons of sense and was super "this was obviously filmed for 3D". So I'm slightly less disappointed at missing the Underworld/Resident Evil panel at NYCC.
Apple Pie
Since Angie went apple picking with her family, we have a ton of apples. So I decided to make an apple pie, which it feels like I haven't made in a while. I guess I've been doing other fruits since Angie loves those so much. Anyway, I made this as a lattice pie since its so much easier to do (placing the top part of the pie is the hardest part of it all normally). Also, my apple pies often are super soupy and runny. So maybe having lots of open parts would allow for more evaporation. It didn't.
Anyway, it started with the standard dough making which is mainly flour, a bit of salt, and some shortening. Mix it all together and cut the shortening in by hand. Add a little water slowly until dough is okay seeming. I think I didn't add enough water or didn't work it long enough because it felt like the dough wasn't optimal later on. I'll blame it on my wrist.
Split dough into two portions, with one more than the other (60/40?) (https://goo.gl/photos/15WvUQaR1zbiqXhB7)
That's put in plastic wrap and put in the freezer while you do the filling. First, I just up 4 or 5 apples into small slices. The recipe asked for 7-8 apples, but that seemed way too much. I even took the two smallest apples from the batch, but it 4 to 5 seemed like enough filling.
Apples, cut, not too exciting (https://goo.gl/photos/mmjSyoFVX7pdKCDD7)
Then you add sugar and brown sugar to the apples. Then you add flour and cinnamon. I don't know if it matters adding separately, but maybe for coating purposes. But I added them separately because I'm lawful and follow rules. I probably should have used a larger bowl since it actually pretty hard to mix, but I think I used the largest bowl that I had.
Delicious filling, pre-cooked but looks good (https://goo.gl/photos/5rJkABM9kn1mK5JC6)
Then, you assume the pie, which is much easier in lattice structure versus the normal top crust. So the larger dough portion makes the bottom and the smaller one, makes the top. The lattice looks fancy, but I think its much easier than trying to make a proper sized dough thingy and transferring it. For the lattice, you just make the strips and lay them across the top of the filling. I'm a bozo and I don't interweave the lattice since I don't have that type of skill, so it's not the best, but its much easier to do. I also started to run out of top dough and didn't do a good job with uniform thickness so its kind of stupid looking.
You can that the outer strips aren't uniform and one is actually missing. I was lazy and just rolled them in my hand instead of rolling them out on a board and cutting them, like the inner strips. Whatever. (https://goo.gl/photos/aLsfeuVbaBcUmmYs5)
Then you bake it for 25 minutes or so:
(https://goo.gl/photos/2i5RrWX7xgE6x5on9)
A funny, related story. So the pie has a cooking time of approximately 25 minutes. So when I put it in the oven, we went to walk Alfie. At one point of our typical path, it comes close to our house again (although we'll walk for another 10 or 15 minutes). So at that point, it was about time to take out the pie. So our plan was for me to head home, take out the pie, and meet back up with Angie and Alfie on the path. But since Alfie is so loyal, after I took out the pie and went back to the path, I saw Alfie and Angie in the same spot! Apparently, he was very distressed and didn't want to leave me behind. What a loyal kiddo =)
Since the weather is getting cooler, we decided to dig up our banana trees and put them in pots to bring inside. One is massive (although no bananas!); its taller than me. When we dug it out, we tried to put it in our largest pot and it wouldn't fit. So we had to go to Home Depot and buy a larger pot. So it is potted and we moved it into our house. If it gets any larger, we won't have anywhere to put it in the fall/winter.
Angie for size reference. (https://goo.gl/photos/7EWLc4Xb7WFk95Yg6)
We have three or four other banana trees which are about two to three feet tall, maybe?
For the last several weeks or more, my right wrist has been kind of off. Its been a bit sore here and then, but I think over the last week, its been weaker. I imagine the more work and stress it handles, it worse it gets. So have it wrapped and hopefully it'll help the healing process. I imagine I sprained it or something a while ago and it just never got a chance to fully heal since its on my right hand. So I'll give it a week of wrapping and if it doesn't significantly improve, maybe I'll get it looked it.
That also means I need to check out my healthcare information. I know when I used to have awesome healthcare, I could go to whatever specialist I wanted as long as they were in network. Now, I'm not sure if I need a primary care referral to go to a specialist. Thanks Obama. (Still never understood why you wouldn't want people to have top quality plans.)
In other news, Atlanta beat the Panthers. I'm a very negative or pessimistic fan, so I kind of just assumed that Atlanta was going to lose since the Panthers were so good last year. Again, their offense looked all world but their defense actually looked decent, although not from the numbers. But when the game was competitive, they played well. Most of CAR yards and points came against prevent defenses although they did make it much closer than I'd like at points.
I'm fairly unexcited for the baseball playoffs. I guess I haven't been following baseball much since the Braves aren't a real team and most of the NL playoff teams are teams that I don't really like. For the first time in years, I'll probably root for AL teams more (TOR, CLE, maybe BAL).
We also watched the last two Underworld movies, neither of which were very good. The third one (Rise of the Lycans) wasn't horrible, but it pretty much just told a story told in the first movie. There was pretty much nothing interesting or new compared to that short flashback scene. The fourth movie (Awakening) seemed like a poorer version of Resident Evil (not even the original, but latter ones). It just seemed to not make tons of sense and was super "this was obviously filmed for 3D". So I'm slightly less disappointed at missing the Underworld/Resident Evil panel at NYCC.