Your Weekly Pie #3

Yesterday, I told my friend, Kathryn, a little bit about my plans for next week's pie. I explained that after three fruit pies (the latest is a little blackberry number) I think it is time to veer into the creams, custards, and chiffons. Actually, I said that if I made another fruit pie next week, it would feel like I was cheating.

"You're going to stress yourself out," she laughed.

But here's the thing. I love cooking and baking and I love silly, arbitrary rules I make up to challenge myself in projects like this. Besides, after my blackberry pie with lattice cinnamon streusel crust, I want to try something different. Maybe I will attempt a merengue.

The pie was really delicious, and I was lucky because a swarm of friends descended on the apartment to watch Project Runway and hang out, so it all got eaten save the one slice I had with a cup of coffee for breakfast this morning. It was my first fall pie, and I liked the way it came out. The blackberries were rich and dense, the crust was flaky and buttery. All in all, this is my favorite pie of the project so far.

But, other updates. Troy Davis's execution was stayed by the Supreme Court two hours before he was due to die on Monday. It's a good sign, I think. Hopefully the justices will decide to hear his case. I'm crossing my fingers and my toes. To be honest, I think I will be heartbroken about Georgia a bit, if he doesn't even get a hearing.

The economy is falling to pieces, and John McCain plans on going in there with his tool kit and a few tricks he learned from the Viet Cong. I don't mean to be dismissive. I am glad President Bush has called both prospective presidents to Washington to be present for the first actions taken to fix what is broken. I am glad that there is a degree of transparency about this, and that he gave an address. I am glad that I can read Secretary Paulson's plan to save the market. But I want to see a debate. I want to hear arguments clearly presented from these two candidates, and I want to see them respond to each other. I think it's important, particularly in this election, which has made me feel so far removed from half the country. Not just by things like the Sarah Palin rape kit story, or by John McCain's slide to social conservatism and inability to count his homes, but also by my own biases. I want to see them talk to each other, because I would like to stop a nascent prejudice I've formed against all Republicans. For that, I need to see John McCain make some rational arguments more than I need to see Barack Obama refute them. Because it would be nice not to feel terrified of the GOP.

That said, I want Senator Obama to whoop his ass, and I want white women to stop liking Sarah Palin just because she's spunky. If Santa Claus did advance deliveries, that would be all I want for early November. Oh, but a girl can dream.

Your Weekly Pie #2.75

A picture from the WHCC:
My version:

Your Weekly Pie #2

Sorry it's slightly delayed, but I did make your pie. It was actually a trial version, to prepare for the the strawberry glazed which I plan on making this weekend. You know, it will be awesome. Let me tell you some things though.

I got a bike! I call her the Dreamcycle, in honor of that perfect shade of orange. She has high handle bars and white wall tires, and she's the prettiest bike I've ever seen. I've ridden to work all this week, instead of walking. I have so much more energy, which makes me want to do things, and in that spirit...

I made this white peach pie, with a cookie crust and DIM* whipped cream. It tasted better than Reddiwip. I decided to treat this pie as a test run for the strawberry pie on several grounds:

1. I was searching for a viable alternative to gelatin for setting the pie, because I have vegetarian friends, and I like it when they can eat.
2. Graham cracker crust may be classic, but I wanted to try an alternative.
3. I'd never made whipped cream before, and I feared disaster.

It turned out lovely. All of it. It was sweet and delicious, and I got excited to try that other pie tomorrow. I learned important things about how to make the components, and really, pie is about assembly. You need to construct a viable crust and carefully concoct your filling. Beyond that it is a question of letting it sit or heating it up to fuse it. This was a refrigerate and set number, and I have to say, I liked the result. For the strawberry pie I will use actual gelatin, whereas for this pie I used starch to thicken the filling. I think that my only complaint about the pie, other than that white peaches have too delicate a flavor to hold up to cookie crust and whipped cream, would be that the filling was simply too liquid.

Other activities this week included attending a lecture by Scott McCloud, the comics theorist, at my alma mater. It was a really good presentation. A little rehearsed, but not in a bad way. The whole thing ran so fluidly, I guess it could be favorably compared to my peach pie filling. It was fun to be back at Agnes Scott, to see how the student body is much as it always was. Reassuring. While getting him to sign a book, Scott McCloud informed me about the origins of steampunk, a movement I've been joking about recently.

And yesterday, Lou, the Dreamcycle and I took a trip to Manuel's to go to an Amnesty International sponsored event about the death penalty. It's a hot issue everywhere, but especially in Georgia right now. Jack Alderman was executed three days ago, and William Lynd was killed a month or so before that. The Troy Davis case has been garnering attention in the international press- rightly so, I think. The thing about it, besides the fact that state sanctioned killing is kind of messed up, is that since his trial seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimony against the man, and no other evidence has been produced, no weapons, no DNA magic. Yet, Troy Davis has not been able to present any of this in his own defense, and will be executed in less than a week. Regardless of how one may feel about capital punishment, I think it can be agreed that if the state is going to take the life of a citizen, the process leading up to killing that person must necessarily be a precise and public one. This is a terrible farce, occurring on such a gross scale that it embarrasses me as it shocks and horrifies. This case speaks to a kind of disconcerting and unexpected indifference on the part of the criminal justice system to, well, justice. For all that, people around the world are paying attention, some are taking action, and this system must break or change. I hope that happens sooner, rather than later.

Tonight, to counteract all that culture and information I've been imbibing, I watched the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe. Those things were both awesome, though Firefly's River Tam as a robot wins in a fight versus Pacey Witter of Dawson's Creek and the gland eating monsters. I know you were wondering.

* Did It Myself

Your Weekly Pie #1

I know it's been a long time, but I'm back to revive this blog. Let's go over the major developments.

I found a job! I decided to stay in Atlanta, and these days I'm busy saving your endangered historic structures at The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. My job mainly involves writing some reports and thank you notes. It's pretty lovely, and I work at Rhodes Hall, which is an incredible late Reconstruction-era mansion done in the style of Rhineland castle. Not too shabby.

I walk to work everyday from my attic apartment. It's about 200 feet from Piedmont Park. I share it with Lou, and we both watched enough Sesame Street and had younger siblings, so we're good at sharing.

I have some stories and pictures, but really, I brought back this blog for one reason: pie.

My grandmother died while I was in high school. Mary Cronk was a woman of many talents. She was great at crossword puzzles, at listening to my concerns without laughing, at dealing cards, and at making dessert. During World War II, when my grandfather was driving his tank, she worked in a typing pool for the OSS and mastered a few recipes from that wartime's most popular cookbook. It was three years before the war started that she bought her Women's Home Companion Cookbook, which my Aunt Donna passed my way a couple years ago. I miss my grandma. She deserves a tribute, and in her honor, I'm going to make a pie every week from the WHCC. Until I run out or lose interest.

This week, a variation on the pecan pie as advised in the concluding part of the pie chapter. I know, an ambitious start. I made the chocolate chess pie, featuring pecans and bourbon.

It looks good? More brownie like than I expected. It tasted like a good batch of brownies too, with some crust on the outside. I liked it. I wish it were slightly less fluffy, but I think that taking out an egg and moving closer to a traditional pecan pie recipe would solve that problem. When I do it again, I will make sure to have vanilla ice cream and coffee on-hand as well.

Next week, I'm going to give my first strawberry pie a shot. It should be a challenge, and I'm really excited to make my first graham cracker crust from scratch.