A Multilingual Post

The milestones just keep on coming! Today I baked my first from-scratch apple crumb pie all on my own. I count this as my first pie because my previous experience involved Laurie, who is a culinary genius. Just as you can't really say you rode a bike when there were training wheels attached, my first pie-baking experience was very closely guided and I was afforded few opportunities to screw up.

But today I did it ALL BY MYSELF when I should have been writing cover letters. Ahem. Did I admit to that?

The illustrated version:
It all began this morning when I acknowledged my hankering for home-made baked goods, and kind of a yearning for an afternoon in the kitchen. So I grabbed the grocery list, added apples and unsalted butter at the bottom, and set off to finally re-stock our kitchen. Funny how the supplies dwindle when you've got two people/grad students scrounging for sustenance and nobody really organizing the food detail. Anyhoodle...

So I obviously started with the pie crust. No illustrations from the process, but it went pretty smoothly and, after much chilling, rolling and delicate moving, resulted in this beauty:


Whilst it chilled, I busied myself with peeling and coring the Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples for the filling and also pastry-blending the crumb topping. Here is my "work station" with all the parts ready to be put together:



In go the apples...(pretty green stripe courtesy of Blogger photo uploads)


And the crumb topping:


By far the best picture is of Joel's face when I showed him the oven-ready pie; it is truly for his delight that I toil:


And 45 minutes later...voila!

Thankfully the red-eye in that last one doesn't seem to show up here. I actually named the file "Demon Baker" when I saved it because it is quite frightening. As in, I wouldn't feel comfortable eating my own pie if I knew someone with those eyes baked it.
*Note: If you click on the photo and open it in its full size, you will apparently SEE WHAT I MEAN. Yich!

Now for a close-up, and The Slicing:


Bon Appetit! Like, good appetite or whatever, not like the Grove City food service. Though I hear they've come a long way, I remain adverse to having my culinary endeavors compared with theirs.

Also, congratulations to the Kings on the birth of baby Jacob!! He's a Halloweenie, and in honor of the happy occasion we took the first piece of pie to Michele in the hospital. Due to a muy rapidalmente birth (Spanish for, a very rapidly birth), he doesn't look nearly as squished and funky as most newborns. In fact, he looks very much like Chris with a hint of Michele's nose:

Congratulations to the Kings, and Happy Halloweenie all around!

And yes, I totally just preempted Jacob's parents by being the first (I think) to publish a photo of him on the blogosphere. W00t!

Mom Would Be So Proud

If the first kitchen fire is a milestone for young marrieds, then surely the second represents a landmark in life experience. We have faced death and destruction together and triumphed - not once, but twice.

Perhaps we should also look into a remedial kitchen safety course.

Allow me to share what happened:

Joel was wrapping up his film paper for tomorrow's class, and I was on a roll with dinner. Potatoes in the oven, stuffing in the microwave, chicken mostly done and waiting on the back burner, and broccoli simmering away happily on the front burner.

That is, until it burst into flames.

Joel's version is somewhat amusing, particularly to me since I have no recollection of many of the details...he was in the living room, out of sight of the stove, and had just stood up for some irrelevant reason. He heard me squeal (I was positive that I had shrieked at the top of my lungs), and thought perhaps I had dropped something on the floor. Heading around the corner to check it out and say hello (he is notorious for wanting hugs whilst I am culinarily occupied), he says he first saw the look of utter panic on my face and, milliseconds later, the front left burner completely aflame.

Me, wearing oven mitts and staring at the flames: "IT'S ON FIRE! IT'S ON FIRE! IT'S ON FIRE!"
Joel, halfway to the fire extinguisher already: "Take it off-"
Me, certain that we were moments from standing on the front lawn looking at the smoking remains of our home: "TAKE WHAT OFF? IT'S ON FIRE!"
Joel: "Take it off the burner!"
Me: "oh...."

Thankfully the Lord allowed whatever it was to burn out enough for me to fearlessly reach through the remaining flames and snatch the pot off of the burner. My spice rack was barely even melted!

And the broccoli was perfectly done. We still don't know what caught fire. The broccoli was in water, which last time I checked, does not typically burst into flames. Joel informed me that I'm lucky to have a husband who stays cool like he does. I responded that I am usually pretty level-headed myself, when ordinary household items are not spontaneously combusting directly in front of my face. Hmph.

So our house is still standing and dinner was surprisingly tasty, all things considered. I say we are complete pros now at domestic emergencies - just look at us racking up all this aged wisdom!