The title was a toss-up between what I used and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. For the number of times I wanted to throw back my head and just say an old fashioned Peanuts-style “Arrrrgh!” Could not get one thing to go to plan.
First, I didn’t get out of work until late. So, I’m behind the clock as it is, with a timetable that needs to accommodate 2 pies, and preparing the green bean casserole to be ready to go in the oven first thing T-day morning. And I need to stop at the grocery store for eggs and foil. And miracle of miracles, I breeze right through. I figure this is a good sign. Everything will go just fine. Optimist.
I start cooking the cider for the Apple Cider Pie recipe I got from the Washington Post. Then I’m baking the sweet potatoes for the other pie. I’m rocking. I’m rolling. I do the gluten free nut crust for the sweet potato pie. I put it all together and throw it in the oven, that for once I’d remembered to pre-heat. Bam, baby! I am on fire.
Oh, wait, is something really on fire? No. It’s just the nuts in the pie crust have swelled up over the edges and are burning around the edge of the pie pan. I go back and look at the recipe. Sure enough. It was supposed to be a no-bake crust. Damn! Absolutely nothing I can do about it now, other than turn on the Vent-a-Hood fan, wipe off the edges and tell everybody they can eat the middle of the pie even if the crust tastes like Kingsford Sure Fire.
Fine. Fine. I can’t let one or two little problems slow me down. I’m on to finish the apple pie. I layer my apples, finish the cider filling, lay down the crust, cut out the little vents, crimp the edges. Looks pretty if I say so myself. I pop it in the oven and sit down to review my green bean casserole recipe. Sniff. Sniff. What’s that? Oh, it’s just that I didn’t pinch the edges well enough, and I’ve got an apple cider volcano in my oven. If my 4th grade science project had erupted that well, I’d probably have gotten into the earth sciences and have my own show on National Geographic TV by now - Gotta Love-a Lava. So, now I have to wait until the pie finishes, then clean out the oven. It is now midnight. It will be 1 before I’m ready to start the beans.
Or would be ready to start the green beans if I hadn’t bought cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom soup. Aarrrrgh! For one crazy moment, I consider just going ahead and telling people that it was a new recipe I was trying out. But Thanksgiving is no day to go off the reservation on a classic dish. So, I had to table the green beans until morning when I could go back to the grocery store and get the mushroom soup. I go to bed at 1:30, knowing I’d need to get up at 7:00 to make it to the store. Sigh. No rest for the wicked. Or at least very little rest for the occasionally naughty.
In the end, everything tasted fine, more or less. But I could hardly keep my eyes open to eat it. In the final review the apple cider pie was rated good by those who ate it: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2008/11/19/lost-nation-cider-pie/ . The sweet potato pie was rated as excellent (even with the overly toasted nut crust, my bad) http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/calleys-sweet-potato-pie-recipe/index.html . And well, the green bean casserole was green bean casserole. How much can you expect?
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4 comments:
Hey - speaking of pies, a neighbor, Amy, won in the WaPo pie contest for "Mushkie's Mocha Mousse Pie" - see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110702535.html.
Then yesterdau I run into ANOTHER neighbor, Sally, who sniffs that next year SHE is entering and will win as she has been on a pie-baking-binge and made 4 for her Turkey Day.
I only observed (in my head) that I was not invited to taste ANY of these pies ;-). Though with 4+ desserts at the family dinner I attendeed, I really did not need another bite.
Whoo. That mocha pie sounds hardcore. I'd only be likely to make it if I had an obliging neighbor. But that coffee whipped cream sounds killer. Filed in the mental bank for future use.
My Aunt tried to kill us. She insisted on cooking and bringing the turkey (I thought I settled it, but Wed. afternoon when I called to give her an actual arrival time, she was already happily cooking away). I sighed and stuck my turkey in the freezer for later. I made a ham just in case. On t-day, Aunt shows up with the turkey and I put it in the over to "warm it up". After an hour, we pulled it out to carve it up for dinner, but it was still raw underneath so we had to put it back in for another 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, I'd read online that you're not supposed to cook a whole turkey and put it in the fridge because it can't cool down fast enough to stop bateria from growing. I was a LOT nervous that we'd all get food poisoning. Thankfully nothing happaned, but I could have strangled her for being so "helpful"
Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like Salmonella. God love her. Sometimes I wish it didn't sound so unreasonable when I yell "Quit HELPING!!"
One of my friends did the turkey for the dinner Thanksgiving on the smoker. She was so scared she'd screw it up that she did a backup turkey in the oven. Girl was seriously stressed. I think she gets the green bean casserole to do next year.
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