The pies turned out great

There was still some at the picnic when I went to pick A up, so I had a small piece. Very nutty and chocolately. Some Derby pies look like glorified pecan pies with chocolate, but this recipe is from a 'My Old Kentucky Home' pamphlet, and has walnuts instead. There's a batter of butter, eggs, flour, sugar, and then the walnuts and chocolate, so it comes out creamy rather than clear like chess or pecan pie. Since we did four pies at once, there were three cups of walnuts and three cups of chocolate chips in the whole thing.

But now he is safely delivered, so I can really work on things. I'm going to spend a few minutes cooling down with an iced drink and in front of the fan, then get going in the next half-hour. I'm trying to decide if I want to do the salad in addition to the salmon tonight or leave it for a separate day. The avocado and lettuce would be best if I did them now, I suspect, as the avocado is ripe without being soft, and I don't know how long they'll stay that way. We'll see how my time does, and I'll check the date on the mixed greens. I'm also going to mix up the dough conditioner and bake some whole wheat bread today. But first, cool off, and then get up and rearrange the refrigerator and do the dishes, then put the other groceries away. Hope you're having a good day.

I just made four pies

under direction, and with pre-made crusts (which seemed to bake up quite lovely--they were by Marie Callender, and I chose them because they had to have vegetable oil instead of lard). They were a Derby-style pie (I say that because I think someone actually trademarked the term Derby Pie, which is insane, in my humble opinion.)

Anyway, I helped with that and then came on home, getting here right before dark. The cat was intrigued by the crackle of the seal around the pie crust. He loves to play with plastic like that. You also find it on those boxes of salad or various greens. But he soon got bored, and the other cat snubbed the piece of plastic. The dogs were rambunctious as ever. So I had a nice visit on top of helping with the pies. And I even got a couple of chocolate chips for my work. :)

Today I came in and found a care package on my desk. It was a large gift bag with food in it. I'd been asked why I wasn't coming down to lunch and admitted that I really wasn't eating because I was so low on money (I have exactly $4.54 in the bank, if you count both accounts, plus some pennies at work and at home.) I don't know who gave it to me (I only told a couple of people), but I really appreciate it, although it's kind of sad that I have to sometimes rely on the charity of people around me. I've been doing much better and I thought the worry of where my next meal came from was behind me. Apparently not. Fortunately we get paid Thursday.

I could go on about the creepy guy on the bus or the car buyers looking at the Jaguar in the lot as if it were on sale, when it was parked in an employee area, but I am very tired and am nearly falling to sleep in my chair. I'll type more tomorrow--I'm off from any of my normal Saturday activities, so I'll just wing it and enjoy a day with no major stuff to do. I have to game notes, and a few mild chores, but otherwise it is mine to do as I wish. Mu-hahahahah. Okay, definitely time to get some sleep. Good night.

9,503

That's how many steps I did today, which was an average day in terms of walking. That's almost 10,000, so I feel pretty good about that. Maybe I'm not such a sloth after all. Well, I do walk very slowly, but at least I'm walking. I walked about 3 miles. Not bad, not bad.

The pie was a success. It wasn't the best, it didn't win a prize, but it was fun to make and it was well-received. There were only 1 1/2 slices left when I went to check later. I had the half slice, because I wanted to see how this one came out (better than the other; I'm glad I went with this one, as the custard came out to exactly the right consistency, the nutmeg was well-blended, and the crust was better), and then I gave the last piece away. Neither pie was particularly bourbon-y; it was very subtle, blending with the nutmeg and egg, giving it more a robustness than any strong flavour.

At the actual pie tasting part of things, I had a little just a bit (a dab of crust and a spoonful of berries) of a blueberry pie/cobbler that was made with Splenda. I really need to learn to cook with that. I would have, had I had more experience with it. One thing that the custard did though was the sugar crystallised on top, giving it a sparkling appearance. I'm not sure Splenda would do that for the appearance.

The rest of the day was quite busy and flew by quickly. I found out one of the co-workers who regularly gave me rides home when I was on the old schedule (the one I was with when the duck got knocked over, and who had the adventure with at the mall), has found a new job and her last day is tomorrow. I have something small I'm going to give her in appreciation for all she did for me. I wish her well in this new place, which will better utilise her background.

I'm tired, having stayed up so late, but someone sent me a job description and it closes today, so I really need to work on that before doing anything else. I'll try to write later.

One more post before going to bed

So, the pie tastes pretty good, although I'm not sure it will win any awards. The bourbon is there but rather subtle, I think, with the nutmeg being a little stronger. The crust on the bottom of the one I tried was a little tough, yet flaky; I think it may have been because that was the one on a cookie sheet; the other I lifted partway out of the pie pan and it looked lighter and better.

By the way, when dealing with custard pies, I found two secrets to making sure the bottom wasn't mushy. One, you can brush some egg white on the crust before baking. Two, this recipe called for me to bake the crust for a few minutes at a higher temperature (in this case 400) and then put the filling in and bake at a lower temperature (in this case 325). That part of it worked out well; there was no mushiness. Also, the one thing I almost forgot was to tent the edges of the pie with aluminium foil to prevent them from burning. Again, that mostly worked, despite the fact I was putting them on slightly after I put the pies in the oven. :)

Okay, I'm going to write a note to myself to put the whipped cream in the bag with everything else tomorrow morning so I don't forget (obviously it has to stay in the refrigerator till then). The nutmeg's in the bag already. All that's left to do is put the one pie in its plastic encasement and put it in the fridge. Come to think of it, I think I'll just put that in the bag, with the whipped cream and nutmeg, and put it all in the fridge--it won't hurt the nutmeg. Okay, sleepiness has finally caught up with me. And with that, I bid you adieu. Good night.

Pies!

Not too bad for someone who hasn't baked a pie from scratch since high school. The crust could be a little prettier, but hey, a little whipped cream on it and no one will know. Just kidding. The real trick, though, is if they taste decent. That's still to be determined.

Okay, time to take my contact outs. They're starting to bother me and I'm getting some kind of film on it that makes it difficult to see properly.

Thanks for putting up with my pie updates. :)

Well, cleanup has been accomplished and the pies have about 20 minutes left

The crust isn't the prettiest, but it looks like it's going to be tasty, so I might lose points on presentation and get some elsewhere. Brandon suggested that since I had enough ingredients, I do two pies to determine if it comes out okay, that way I can taste one. I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the pie in that case, but hey. I guess I can take it later in on Friday for the lunch crew. I used up all the bourbon in the tiny airplane bottle. The crust recipe was for two crusts, but I had to double the recipe for the custard, so instead of putting a whole thing of bourbon in, I made two batches. Each has a little over 2 Tbsp. of bourbon in it.

It was nice to bake again. I did have to bring out my mixer to get the custard smooth. I'm not used to doing custards, and despite the fact that the ingredients were the same for each, the nutmeg clumped a bit on one (that'll probably be the one I keep in reserve). Amazingly, I got very little on me, and could have done it wearing pearls and one of those poufy 50s dresses as long as I had an apron. Cleanup wasn't too hard, either. I put the dishes that could be run through the dishwasher in there, washed all the hand washables, wiped down the counters and worktable. So there's just waiting till midnight, putting a knife in to see if they're done, and if not, cook about 10 more minutes. Then I'll let them cool and taste the one and wrap it up, and put the other in the covering that came with the pie pans (a top cover locks into a bottom plastic plate with the aluminium pie plate inside).

I went ahead and got some of those Sparkling Ice drinks, too, and I've tried the orange-mango and coconut-pineapple, and can give two thumbs' up for them.

I think I'll be staying up for awhile with the pies. It makes for a good day that I didn't just come home and crash, which means I can obviously stay up. I fall asleep when I'm bored or trying to avoid other things (like cleaning house or doing laundry).

PS While I was at UK today I got a UK library card. I didn't check anything out, but it's nice to be able to. :)

Time to really get going

I've made the crust and it's been in the refrigerator for almost an hour. Time to let it warm up a few minutes and then roll it out, put it in the pan, bake it for five minutes to set the dough in preparation for the custard, and then make the custard, put it in, and bake it fully. Wish me luck! I'll probably be finished by midnight or so. :)

Whew! Just got home

I had a webcast from the Medical Library Association at the University of Kentucky Medical Center Library today and got to see some of my fellow medical librarians and speak to the former chair of the committee I'm chairing now about upcoming events at the annual meeting in Seattle in May. I'm not able to go, but she is, and she volunteered to take care of the booth and man it during on of our activities, for which I am very grateful, as it's during the same time as our section meeting and I wasn't sure I could find someone to do it.

I have a pedometer that I wore today. I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking around UK and wondered if I could reach the magic '10,000 steps' they talk about. Well, I made it past 12,000! Woo-hoo! This meter measures passive walking (that is, steps I take walking across the room or through the hallways as well as exercise-style walking. Not all of them do. So all the steps counted. It also kept total time walking, calories burned, and distance walked.) I walked about four miles today. Now obviously, today wasn't a normal day. But I'm going to try to wear it and figure out what is normal. I do walk to and from the bus stop, and then around the hospital several times a day, plus occasional attempts at going for a walk.

After the webcast, I took the bus into the transit centre and changed back to my normal bus, then stopped at Liquor Barn for a teensy, tiny bottle of Buffalo Trace bourbon and then walked over to Kroger (again with the walking) and shopped for the ingredients I needed for the pie. It was relatively straightforward. I needed flour, sugar (I got a small bag/box of each), vanilla, nutmeg (I think I have some somewhere in my cabinet, but didn't want to chance it, and it's probably years old anyway), eggs, unsalted butter, and some whipped cream (I'm making everything else from scratch, except this...but it is from real cream and not that oil stuff). I also got a package of pie pans WITH LIDS, something I need for taking a pie to work with me on the bus, which should be an adventure in and of itself.

Anyway, we'll see if this turns out to be an absolute disaster or not. I'm going to eat some more Indian food with the rice I cooked yesterday (I think I'll try the chickpea curry this time) and then cut up my butter and get it really cold to start the process. There's a lot of freezing and refrigerating in this recipe to produce a really flaky crust. Both recipes, however--the crust and the custard--are pretty straightforward. The only real question is the bourbon. In the original recipe I found, 1 Tbsp of bourbon was used, but then I realised it was a recipe for a bourbon custard and not a pie at all. The custard is cooked and then the bourbon is added when it cools. But I'm going to be baking my custard in the pie shell, so I thought I might need to increase the bourbon because it's being cooked and presumably the alcohol will cook out, leaving just the flavour. I did find one recipe that involved a custard pie with bourbon in it that used 3 Tbsp. (although it also had bacon in it, which sounds disgusting, but I guess for meat eaters it would be okay). So I think I'll go with that and see how it turns out; if it's a bit strong, well, at least we're not going to get drunk off it. I'll take the whipped cream with me and put it on right before the contest, sprinkling a little nutmeg on it.

This sounded interesting, and I asked several people if they thought it or a transparent pie would be good for the contest, and everyone voted for bourbon (except A and YKWIA, the latter of whom I think didn't give an opinion one way or another and was just amused that I was trying this). But I really did spend three years, albeit long ago, baking in Future Homemakers of America, even though I never really learned to cook. But the ironic thing is between my dislike of bourbon (at least in bourbon balls, I'm just not a fan) and my diabetes, I don't actually plan on eating the pie, except maybe a little taste just to see how I did. So there you go.

While I was at Kroger I also got some generic Claritin. 10 pills of Claritin are almost $11. 10 pills of Kroger brand are $1.99. I got a bottle of 60 for $7.96. 45 Claritin tablets were something like $30. Go generics. I don't care so long as they work, and my allergies have been so bad, this week especially. A co-worker gave me some Advil Cold & Sinus earlier today and it helped. But before that my breathing was very wheezy and I actually had to use my inhaler, which is usually a once or twice a year thing and I've been using it maybe once every two weeks, and probably should more than that. With the early spring, the grass and tree pollen is happening at the same time. I think that's my main problem. I'm allergic to all sorts of grasses and trees as well. I think I'm okay around evergreens, but I'm not sure they checked for that. But oak? Bleh. I start having trouble the moment those buds on the maples start, which this year was back in January.

Okay, time to go get something to eat and then start the pie process. Wish me luck.

I think I may have found an alternative to soda [in addition to regular water, of course]

Someone at work introduced me to Sparkling Ice, a sparkling water flavoured with natural flavours and Splenda (which, although an artificial sweetener, is probably better than aspartame). They also have vitamins and antioxidants in them. I tried some Coconut Pineapple and it was very good. They have other flavours like orange-mango, black raspberry, kiwi-strawberry, lemonade, lemon-lime, and pomegranate-berry. Apparently Kroger has a special on them so they're $1 a bottle, which is cheaper than a single soda. They still taste good if they go flat, too, according to her. And there's no caffeine.

Just for those out there going, 'but plain water is fine', yes, it is, and I'm drinking the equivalent of ten cups of water a day, but I also have about three sodas. And on game day, when I normally drink a two-litre of Diet Sunkist, I could bring a couple of these and drink regular water the rest of the night. It's an idea, anyway...I'll check at the store when I go tomorrow to pick up pie ingredients. They're having a pie contest at work and I'm going to try to make a bourbon custard pie. We'll see how it goes. But the list of ingredients I need isn't long (I just had the salt, none of the other staples like flour, but I should have that on hand, anyway.)

Just now I had some very tasty basmati rice with rajma masala (a red kidney bean curry), the latter from Kitchens of India. I discovered that Amazon sells a variety or two I never see in the store, plus multi-packs at a nice price. Sadly, I did not have fresh naan for my dinner, or naan at all. But the curry was good. And I made enough rice for tomorrow's dinner (I would take it for lunch, but then one of my co-workers would go on about how it stinks--she does every time.) Personally I think Indian food smells wonderful. The same goes for Thai food. A former co-worker of mine who was from Thailand had to endure an officemate who insisted that her food smelled like feet. Really.

I got the report I needed to do finished and turned it in, and they were happy with it, even though it's a bit late. Now for that book review....