2020 Thanksgiving Pie Bake Off

My personal challenge was to write a blog each day while I am on vacation this week. Today I struggled to come up with anything interesting to write about. I thought to myself that most days are pretty routine, and this would be a good challenge for me to come up with something to write. So in the spirit of exercising my brain so it does not shrivel up in my old age. I am recording for eternity or when the internet disappears, My 2020 Thanksgiving pie bake off. 

My great great great grandkids might find this blog as they are researching their family history and wonder why I would just write about baking pies when a major pandemic was happening. My answer to those future grandkids is; there will be more natural disasters, pandemics, and other traumatic events that we cannot control. But what we can control is how we think during stressful times.

Thanksgiving for me is my favorite holiday, because this is the week that I reflect on what I am grateful for. I have a lived a pretty good life, I have two wonderful sons, an amazing husband who has made my life so much better, three granddaughter that are stunning, three sisters and one brother still alive, and so many nieces and nephews that I am so proud of and love dearly, I have a roof over my head, and funds to buy food. My health is okay for a soon to be 66 year old. 

The bake off started because we had a couple of items that we wanted to pre-cook for tomorrow's dinner. One was pies and one was green bean casserole.  

We had bought a pumpkin pie from the store just in case the pies we made did not turn out. I choose to make my favorite pecan pie and my husband choose mincemeat pie. 

The very name "mincemeat" sound pretty gross, so I looked up the ingredients and it was mostly fruit with a bit of meat sauce, so I was okay with the mincemeat. My husband bought the jar of mincemeat and made a streusel topping. We bought the pecans and found they were just as expensive as buying a pie from the grocery store. My husband made the dough and we each rolled out our own pie crust and made our fillings. He and I like to do cooking competitions. I knew I would have the inside edge on this competition, I am not aware of anyone who does not like pecan pie. I told him about what I read in my cookbook about cutting a 12" inch square of foil, then folding the foil in four and cutting out a 7" circle to use to cover the crust for the first half of baking. He did not believe me, so I had to show him in the cookbook. Maybe I should not have shared, so he would have had burnt crust!

I rolled my pie crust out first and he thought it was pretty neat that I rolled up the crust on the rolling pin and then unrolled the dough right into the pie pan. His dough looked much better when he rolled it out. He told me that it was because of a job he had working for a pizza place. I got a bit nervous when I saw how nice his dough looked in the pan compared to mine. 

Once we got the crust foiled up, and put the two pies in the oven, we started chatting and waiting for 25 minutes to take the foil off, my husband asked if I set the timer. NOPE I had not and neither had he. Lucky though, I had taken a picture of him putting the pies in the oven and the picture had a time stamp on it. Yippee! 

We had a great time cooking together, and the pies looked like they turned out really good. Tomorrow with be the day we find out if our effort was worth it. 

Three pies for three people! Tomorrow I will post pictures of the entire dinner.

Black and Green Onions

 Anyone that knows me, is well aware that I am not a "morning person". I need at least one hour to drink my coffee and slowly ease into the day. This was probably one of the most frustrating things my mother had to deal with, as I was growing up.

The previous night I stayed up to 2:00 am, talking with a sister about places our ancestors live in Kansas City, MO. Not only was I groggy when I woke at 8 am,  I was also crabby as I lost my "ease into my day" routine. A group text from one of sisters was on my phone, wanting to know if one of us was awake. I live in the central time zone and my three sisters live in the pacific time zone, tag I was it. After I settle in with my first sip of coffee I texted her that I was up. The phone rang immediately, at the same time my husband came down armed with a pen a paper ready to get my shopping list for the last of the Thanksgiving day meal. 

As my brain felt like it was grinding to shift into gear, I found out what she needed and told her that I would call her back after I told my husband what I needed at the grocery store. While I was off the phone with her, my husband sat down, his pen was poised in his hand ready to write. The dense fog in my brain could not be cleared, I gulped another sip of coffee and took a breath, silently praying that my voice would not sound grumpy as I really was, because I was grateful that he was doing the shopping and I did not have to go. 

I scanned my foggy, groggy brain trying to remember what I needed. as the thoughts were swirling around in my head, I reached in and grabbed Turkey, good I thought I have everything I need. Turkey led me down the path to the stuffing, yep I needed everything for the stuffing, bread crumbs, celery, onion, and mushrooms.  I verbalized those four ingredients, then in my mind I saw a can of chicken broth. I asked if we had any in the pantry in the basement, that was a wrong move on my part. As soon as he got up and started looking, he asked a question that sent my brain into a deep vast dark void. He asked if the seasoning packet that we do not use when we make ramen, could be substituted for chicken broth.

Once again there where a tornado of thoughts swirling in my brain. I tried to remember what was in those packets, would it be too salty, would it change the taste of the stuffing?  Now mind you, the thoughts were happening in a nanosecond. My head started to really hurt and I blurted out, "Sure that will be fine."

Checked off stuffing in my mind. Feeling accomplished, I blurted out "Don't forget the green and black onions and the can of you know, the red stuff you like." He looked at me and repeated back "green and black onions?" Yep I said, "you know the before dinner snacks."

I could tell by the tone of his voice, I was going to get a lecture. I thought don't push it with me this morning, I am barely able to be civil. He again said "Green and black onions?" "Yes with pimentos like your mother asked for." I replied. I am staring at him wondering why he is not understanding what I said. I knew I could not remember what the name of the red stuff that he insists on having I figured he would understand it. (As I get older I can see things in my mind, but the name will escape me.) I took a deep breath and really study the can in my mind and finally said Cranberry, the jelly kind.

Some of the tension and pain in my brain released and thought to myself okay, 'I can bluff my way through the rest of the list.' I then said, "I had texted the list to you for the ingredients to make the pecan pie last week." But I had a feeling he was not just going to let me off that easy. Again he said, "Okay you want black and green onions?" I was about to answer him when I caught the word onion. Damn it, damn it I thought, my mind is failing me. Might as well be put out to pasture if I cannot even remember the name of my favorite part of Thanksgiving! I sweetly looked at him and said green and black OLIVES. But I was seething at myself for forgetting and not catching it when he repeated it back to me two times.  

He left for the store and of course the dog was barking loudly, which really echo's in our living room. As soon as the door shut the dog ran to the blinds and used his paws to bend them to see.  My reaction was a loud curse word in the middle of "NO STOP, Shut the %^&* up!" I am sure that my husband heard it as he walked by the window. 

I swallowed my coffee as fast as I could, called my sister back and hearing her voice really felt like a warm hug for me. 

Even though I had a great conversation with my sister, the rest of the day was a wash out. Everything I wanted to get done or do was not accomplished. I couldn't even take a nap because of something my son had texted me about, it ate at me as I wanted to give him my opinion, but my opinions are never received in the intent that I mean. So I struggled to come up with words that I could tell him my concerns, but make it not seem that I was telling him what to do..... 

Lesson learned; stay on bedtime schedule, wake up early enough to ease into my day.