Adventures in Domesticity

This past Friday, I got a wild notion that I wanted to bake stuff. It happens every now and then. Usually, I can satisfy that urge with a quick batch of refrigerated cookie dough. For some reason, though, I didn't want to go that route. So instead, I headed to the grocery store, which was packed with people losing their minds and emptying their wallets ahead of Ike. More on Ike later.

I did a mental inventory of what was in my pantry, then I filled up my basket with all the things I thought I'd need... Eggs, cream cheese, chocolate chips, muffin mix, strawberries, brown sugar, brownie mix, and muffin mix. I really wanted to make blueberry muffins from scratch, but I didn't like the looks of the blueberries at the store.

Saturday morning, I got up, made brunch (with blueberry muffins!), cleaned all that mess up, and watched some football. I kept going back to my Joy of Cooking cookbook. I kept reading and re-reading the pie dough recipe. I've heard that pie dough is not the easiest thing to make, but I was up for the challenge. I made dough. I thought it turned out very nicely, too. I wrapped it in plastic wrap, and chilled it in the fridge as per the directions. After a decent amount of time, I began on the filling. I washed and sliced two pounds of strawberries, and then prepared them per the recipe (i.e. I squeezed a lemon on them). One cup of sugar, a quarter cup of flour, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dash of salt were mixed up and combined with the berries.

Then I went to get the dough out. And I started rolling it. Then I balled it back up and started over again. For 20 minutes, I worked with this dough. I finally gave up, threw it in the trash, and ran to get a refrigerated crust from the store.

Yeah. FAIL!

But the pie turned out nicely, don't you think?

And it was absolutely delicious! It was more cobbler-like than pie-like, though. I guess there was too much liquid in the fruit. But for my very first pie, it wasn't bad. I'm more of a cake person. I can bake the hell out of a cake. Give me a recipe and I'll give you a cake. But pies are something I've never attempted. I'd make a pie again, too. But next time, I'm going to try the Perini Pie Crust (If you do not have a copy of Texas Cowboy Cooking, then you need to go out and get one immediately! www.periniranch.com. You'll thank me.).

Then yesterday, I made Nestlé Toll House pan cookies.

Now. Will someone please come over and eat all this stuff???

Regarding Ike... One of my friends put it best for me... How is it that a storm that covers 80% of the Gulf of Mexico doesn't bring a single drop of rain to Central Texas? We are in a drought and the people that could not use any more rain (all the way up through Illinois, and toward the east coast) are getting hammered with rain and we're dry. My family, who lives in the general vicinity of Houston, were not affected by the storm, but my friends were. They have no power, no water, and no gas. Galveston is under water. There is massive destruction in a diagonal line from Galveston to Chicago. It sucks.