So Many Dishes

I’ve been baking this morning. It isn’t something I do very often, but I always have fun when I do. And when I bake, it’s most likely to be a pie. When it comes to cakes vs. pies, I am definitely on team pie.

Making pie crust is an art form—maybe one of the dark arts. I learned by watching my mother and her mother. Both made superb crusts, seemingly effortlessly. Mine usually turns out well, but not without a fair amount of prayer, profanity, or occasional patchwork.

The critical moment comes, in my mind, when you’ve rolled out the crust and are transferring it to the pie plate. I hold my breath: did I add too much water, so that it sticks to the board? Too little, and it tears in the transfer process? Or did I hit the Goldilocks zone?

Today was a Goldilocks day. I had one spot where the dough was rather thin, but it went into the pan with no mishaps. Yea!!

The pie filling today was rhubarb and cranberry. We made a trip to Sprouts in West Palm Beach (I’m still angry that they closed the Wellington store), and they had rhubarb! I couldn’t pass it up. Ken gave me sad puppy eyes when I suggested rhubarb-apple crumble; he wanted pie. My grandmother would make rhubarb-strawberry pie, but I had lots of cranberries in the freezer. So I found a recipe from the cranberry growers association. I made a couple of changes, based on other cranberry based desserts I make, and put a crumb topping on the pie. I’m not sharing the recipe until we’ve tried it, but it looked and smelled good as it came out of the oven. It’s going to be a long day, waiting for dessert time, and the ultimate moment of truth.

Happy eating!