Pie Crust Scares Me

So, this happened today.

My first ever, completely made from scratch, lemon meringue pie.

I've decided my challenge this year is going to be to master pastry. I'm happy making bread, cake, cookies, etc., but I'm a coward when it comes to pastry. I've made a few simple tarts in the past, but mostly, the few times I've made pies, I've used store-bought crust. I know, I'm ashamed. So I've decided that this year I'm going to try various kinds of pastry, and keep making them until I'm satisfied I've got it down.

I'm at the farm for a couple of weeks and was going to make lemon curd with the Meyer lemons again, but then I thought I'd make a start on the Great Pastry Experiment while I'm here, so found this recipe for lemon meringue at Epicurious and made their basic shortcrust. Of course, the proof is in the eating, but Mom made little pear dumpling things with the scraps of pastry and they were pretty good, so I'm fairly sure the crust part of the pie is OK. I licked the spatula after I poured the filling into the crust and it tasted great, and the meringue looks gorgeous, so I'm confident it will be edible. Dad's been away for a couple of days for medical treatment and it's his favourite pie, so it should be a nice surprise for him when he gets home this afternoon.

On my list of other pastry to try is (in order of ascending scariness):

Choux - for cream puffs, profiteroles, and eclairs.
Flaky - for sausage rolls, pasties, and turnovers.
Puff - for palmiers, pot pies, and croissants.
Filo - for baklava, strudel, and hors d'oeuvres.

I'm hoping that, by the end of the year, I can confidently whip up a pie from scratch at any given moment.

Wendy

So, 2017

In 2017 I didn't make New Year's resolutions. Instead, I made of list of things I'd wanted to do in the year, and I purposely made it challenging. Not to make myself feel bad when I didn't "accomplish" everything, but to make me more intentional for the year.

Unfortunately, some health issues basically kicked my butt in 2017, so there were things I wanted to do that I just couldn't, but I AM NOT beating myself up about it.

I'm not going to list the things I didn't get done, but I am going to glory in the things I DID!

1. Make and attend all necessary medical and dental appointments.

Yep.

2. Do one thing I'm scared of.

I went to my first ever protest march.

3. Put a new raised bed in the garden.

I did!

4. Finish off one of my many half-done projects.

I painted and put back together a beautiful cast iron floor lamp that had been in pieces in the garage for years.

5. Make 12 favorite and 12 new recipes.

This one was fun.

Favorites

Most of these I made multiple times during the year, except the hot cross buns, which obviously I made a Easter; the pavlova, for a dinner party; and the mashed potato, which was for Christmas.

1.     Hot Cross Buns – The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I halved the amount of currants and added the zest of one lemon and one orange (in lieu of the candied peel they have in them in England).

2.     Best Cinnamon Rolls – these no-knead rolls are the BEST! I did change the cream cheese frosting for a powdered sugar/cream/vanilla icing so David could eat them.

3.     Banana Bread – from my ever-handy Better Homes and Gardens recipe book (best wedding present ever).

4.     Peach Crumble - ditto

5.     Kombucha – My favorite flavoring for the second ferment has turned out to be Concord grape juice.

6.     Morning muffins – Also from BH&G

7.     Cornbread – and this.

8.     No-knead Bread – the famous recipe from The New York Times

9.     Pavlova with Lime Curd & Raspberries – this was a combination from a couple of different recipes and was amazing. I swirled the lime curd with whipped cream, topped with raspberries and sprinkled with chopped pistachios. Best pavlova ever.

10.  Peach Jam – one batch with yellow peaches, and one with white.

11.  Chili – basically throw tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, tomato paste, garlic, chili flakes, cumin, and balsamic vinegar in a pot and let it simmer for as long as possible.

12.  Mashed potatoes – this has been a bugbear for me, but I finally got it right this year. Thank you, Kitchen Conundrums.

New Recipes

Some of these were more successful than others, but we enjoyed all of them.

1.     Deconstructed Eton Mess – I didn’t really use a recipe for this. I made bite sized meringues and served it with a bowl of sliced and sugared strawberries and a choice of Chantilly Cream or Cashew Cream (see below).

2.     Cashew Cream – I made this from the recipe book we got from the Take 10 program we did in California a few years ago.

3.     Carob Brownies – I used this recipe and just used regular flour and added peanuts. They were gorgeous, and if I hadn’t known they were carob I probably wouldn’t have guessed.

4.     Curried Potatoes & Chickpeas

5.     Apple Butter – two batches, one with some gifted Red Delicious, which I’m not fond of  eating fresh (too mealy), and the other with Honey Crisp, which are gorgeous. I did it in the slow cooker with apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, whole cinnamon and cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg. I’m really pleased with how both batches turned out.

6.     Pickled Beets & Eggs – this was really fun and turned the eggs a lovely shade of magenta.

7.     Cherry Compote – I bought some cherries that looked gorgeous but tasted really disappointing. I didn’t want to waste them so I found this recipe and it turned out amazing. I ate it on everything.

8.     Refrigerator Pickles – from my home-grown cucumbers.

9.     Peach Ice Cream – It was OK, but I folded in too much fresh peach chunks at the end and it froze a bit grainy. Next time I’ll just use puree.

10.  Gluten free peach crisp – not bad but I used a rice flour topping which didn’t stay very crisp. I’ll have to work on this one again.

11.  Blood orange sorbet – absolutely bloody gorgeous.

12.  Carob cake with Swiss Buttercream – my crowning achievement in 2017. I made it for our Boxing Day dinner and it turned out perfect. And no one knew it wasn’t chocolate until they were halfway through. The red walnuts on top are from my parents' farm.  Tune in next time for This Year's Goals. Wendy