seriously?

[figureinthefog]

So, last year, my mom said she'd bake a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but then she decided she'd rather buy one, but it was too late and she didn't think anyone would have any more.
I told her I'd make it, since I love baking and can make a killer pie.

So, she told my grandparents, aunt and uncle, who were shocked that I was going to "attempt" to

Comments

[figureinthefog]

I made a half-wheat shortbread pie crust this time. I usually do that when I take it to my grandparents' house, since they're not all hard-core wheat-lovers like me.

1 c butter (can be made vegan, if need be, with Earth Balance margarine)
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 c whole wheat flour*
1 c flour*
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

* or 2 c whole wheat flour

Beat the crap out of the butter+sugar until it's all light and fluffy and happy.
Mix flours, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl and add slowly to butter+sugar, continuing to beat and keep fluffy.

I don't usually pre-bake it. It gets too hard when I do.

I don't have a rolling pin, so I just kind of patted it out into the pie pan with well-floured hands.
I think the recipe I originally based this on was for 2 pies, but what I do is make the crust a little thicker, save some to make cookie-cutter-cut-outs to decorate the top, and use a little bit to line a ramekin for a "test pie" so I can sample it and make sure it's nummy before I serve it to other people.

Oh, and I never use whole-wheat pastry flour, just regular whole wheat. I that the finer grind on the whole wheat pastry flours is totally counter-productive. It just makes the end product more dense.

Keeping all of your ingredients super cold will help make anything fluffier/flakier. You can pre-measure your flour+sugar and put it in the fridge/freezer beforehand. Also, I never let my butter/margarine "soften" beforehand.

[pleasesupriseme]

Oh man, I'm saving that recipe. I noticed that you don't use any ice water in your mix- I've always used a little bit in mine to keep it stuck together and help things bind. I don't prebake my crusts either, I hate how hard they get, it just seems silly.

Hmmm. Now I want to make more pies! Sounds pretty tasty.

So how are you otherwise, ma'am? I'm hardly ever online, this christmas we'll be getting the internet again as a present to ourselves.

[figureinthefog]

Merry christmas, have an internet.
Best present ever.

I do have some pie crust recipes that call for less butter (or more flour) and the addition of water, but this one doesn't need it. It's less like a standard crust and more like a shortbread cookie that you bake a pie in. You can also just bake it like shortbread, so you can make cookies with your leftovers, if you have any.
It's not as sweet as some people like their cookies, though.

The pie went over well again, and everyone was, again, amazed that I know how to make a pie.
Maybe I should just suck it up and bask in the "Wow, you made a pie?" glory every year.

I'm well, despite still having morning sickness a bit at 20 weeks (but it's more nausea than actually throwing up). Grr.
Still managing to gain tons of weight.

How've you been? How are the hitchin' plans coming?

[pleasesupriseme]

I'm about three months along and I am so nauseous everyday.. Oof, half the time I brush my teeth I end up hitting my gag reflex somehow and start heaving. It's ridiculous too, because on top of that I got someone's sore throat/headache/stuffy nose cold when I came upstate for Thanksgiving.

I am excited though because hitching plans are definitely getting together and straightened out. I just need to get someone to alter my dress between now and then- that's the last hurdle, I think.

[figureinthefog]

Yeah, they say the nausea is supposed to taper off around 12 weeks, but that's when mine was the worst, too. That's when I had the throwing-up-in-the-hallway-at-work incident. Fun fun.
..and there is nothing like being a sick pregnant woman. I had something really awful a few months back (I went to see a friend out of town and after I'd been there for a whole day, she told me that her daughter was throwing up and running a fever the morning before I got there.), and I just curled up under a blanket with a stuffed t-rex and whined for days. Man, I am normally such a tough broad when I'm sick, but I'm a big whiner when I'm sick and pregnant.

I wanna know what your dress looks like! We were so broke when we got hitched, I was just wearing the cheapest maternity dress we could find (it was under $5 on the clearance rack at Sears). It loved it, though. It was a long shift dress with a vaguely Indian-ish print in golds, purples, and reds (predominantly red).

[pleasesupriseme]

It's not a maternity dress, but it's got two side panels that meet in the middle that we're disattaching and using snaps to have them in between my bellybutton and sides. It's great though- it's white with see through straps and tons of shiny rhinestones and crystal beads to make flowers all over the front and back's middle panel. I never thought I'd like that kind of thing but I love the dress.

We've been really broke but my father unexpectedly decided to help out way more than he said he would- my dress was on sale from a thousand to being two hundred, and after we got it (my friend had her credit card on her and I was going to pay her back asap) my father said he'd send me money through paypal for the dress, right? I just got an email from paypal- he sent me $1,000! This is the man that hardly talks to me. We've got a really complicated relationship and um, well, wow.

I am suddenly a lot less worried about paying for wedding stuff, to say the least. The leftovers can go toward Adam's big ol' creditcard debt too, hurray!

[figureinthefog]

Aww, that sounds so pretty! I normally don't like that stuff at all either, but for weddings, I just squee over dresses.

Wow! That's awesome. It sounds like he cares for you a lot more than he knows how to say.

My dad didn't give me a damn thing, and showed up 30 minutes late. He hates Geo, 'cause he's not a clean-cut christian boy. He disowned me 8 years ago, though, so it's not like his opinion matters. :)
My mom wasn't invited, nor was any of her family, 'cause she and my dad can't act like adults around eachother, and I had to pick (which was not a comfortable decision to have to make, since picking my dad meant that none of my surviving grandparents could attend).
I can't honestly say I made the wrong choice. As much as I regret my grandparents and my great-aunt not being there, my mom is such a drama queen, and she likes to upset me when we're in a group setting by telling other people flat-out lies about how great she was to me when I was a kid, I'm not sure how my big day would have gone if she was there. I'd guess there would have been a 90% chance that I would have wound up in tears.

Geo's parents helped out a lot, they got the cake (sheet cake, but still way too much for 12 people), a huge deli tray (again, way too much for 12 people), cups, sodas, ice, chips, pretzels, huge bowls for the chips and pretzels, paper plates, napkins, etc. It was really cool going to a flower shop with Geo's family that morning and picking my own bouquet flowers. His family's really cool.

I just got rambly, didn't I? I can't wait to see pictures of your wedding afterwards! Are you still planning on doing it at the beach?

[pleasesupriseme]

That's really sad that your dad was late and being such a putz, but it definitely sounds better than if your mother was there! I know my dad loves me, but his new wife tries to keep him as detached from us kids as much as possible, and he's always tried buying my love, so.. I'm not all that surprised to be honest. It's really cool of him, but not unexpected.

I wish we only had a dozen people! It's all I wanted, but now there's so many folks coming. My mother is making the cake though, along with a friend. It'll have a castle on top (this:http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=castle+cake+pans&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DMUS&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=850155657658065692&ei=aowRS_GgA9KjnQec8M3HAw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBkQ8gIwAQ#) and a two layers of square cake, and then a bigger circle cake layer for the moat to be on. It'll be ridiculously cool, they're having so much fun planning it out!

We're not going to actually be at the beach, but within a few hundred feet or so. There's a little park that was made for ceremonies and things that's perfect- there's parking, it's pretty, there's a huge cool fountain to take pictures by, and it's hidden from the wind well, so we're not expecting to be hit by sand too much.

My new uncle is a professional photographer and my best friend was a photography major so I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures, I'll have a big ridiculous post with them soon after, I'm sure.

Oh, and I'm splurging on wedding plugs- there's a girl on g_t selling TWO pairs of anatoego eyelets that would match our colors for only $150, so I can buy two pairs for 1/2 the price of one pair. Was too tempting to pass up. I've never spent that much on myself!