Sunday, March 30, 2014

A Lid for Every Pot

My Grandma Peacock used to say, "There's a lid for every pot."  I think I included that before in my 365-Day Project of a painting/drawing a day, but not before did the phrase take center stage.  I'm glad these two found each other. (-;


Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Betty Sue Trying to Get in Shape - Goodbye Winter!

Betty Sue could feel the pull of spring nipping at here widening waist and winter sluggishness. Time to get out her exercise DVDs and try to whittle that middle down!  She huffed and she puffed, and you had to admire her fortitude in keeping up with leg lifts, side kicks, and arm circles.  But then she came to that darn double-leg cross grapevine move and she faltered. Looking over her shoulder at the t.v. screen, trying to follow her svelte television instructor, she tripped and twisted her ankle.  Cursed aerobics hell!  She limped to her freezer, grabbed some Ben and Jerry's ice cream, hobbled to the couch and put an end to that insanity.





Speaking of winter, here's a few shots I took last Saturday morning.  I actually was walking Ebert, when I saw this ice in the alley looking like broken glass.  It was so beautiful, I had to run back alone with my camera, but even a 5 minute difference had changed its appearance in the warming sun. Still, here's a peek at nature's mosaic.






Then there was this fellow.  Just a lollipop of a big-headed icicle sticking straight up out of the snow.  He looks like a heart, and in the next, an upright cobra, and then a side-view of a screaming mouth and eyes.
Heart
 

Wide-Eyed Cobra
 

 Eyes and Mouth on the upper right-hand side.


And I love all the detritis and debris in this dirty snow bank.  I want to use that background in a painting.

Here are some wintry goodies.  I took this shot of banana bundt cake while it was still steaming, fresh out of the pan:


I used 2 cups of gluten-free Cup4Cup flour and 1 cup of almond meal to make it gluten-free.


And one final wintry dessert--buttermilk chess pie, which you can read more about at listentomepielady.blogspot.com.




Friday, March 14, 2014

Happy National Pi Day - Grapefruit Pie

Just a snapshot of the finished product.  Grapefruit Pie with Campari and Angostura Orange Bitters.  It was surprisingly delicious!  What little I got of it... Click on the link to my other blog to see all the pics and to find out what happened to my citrusy pie!



Sunday, March 9, 2014

Listen to Me, Pie Lady

I'm thinking I'm going to start another blog that's only about pie called listentomepielady.blogspot.com.  I'm going to put the first post here on livedrawpaint, but I think I'm just put the finished pie product and if you want to troll over to the other blog for details, well by golly, that would be peachy-keen. (-;

So, here ya' go:

First pie of the year.  I meant to start this blog in January, but it just didn't work out that way.

I had my heart set on calling this blog Pie on Sunday, but that name is already taken.  Sooooooooo, we'll go with "Listen to me, Pie Lady."  The inversion of that quote is used in the sweet film, "Waitress" where Old Joe says to our heroine, Jenna, "Pie Lady, listen to me."  It's a moment of great importance:  A man at the end of his life of missed chances trying to open the eyes of a young person and redirect her from his path of regret.  It's a warning of the utmost importance.

I can't find a clip of YouTube of that great exchangeb(about at 1 hr, 21 minutes into the movie), but here's the movie trailer.  You can get a tiny piece of it around 2:04.



O.K., so here's Egg and Grog Pie from "The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book" by Emily and Melissa Elsen out of Brooklyn, NY by way of North Dakota.  This is the first book I will start with on my pie sojourn.  I'm not really much of a "cake" girl, by pie and pastry, have always been my loves.  And if you have gluten problems, don't let it stop you from having these delicious items.  Substitutions are everywhere!





Please, please try to use freshly grated nutmeg.  The fragrant difference and taste is overwhelming!




I like to use "baker's sugar" when baking...it blends so much more easily.


My poor box of Maldon sea salt has seen better days!


Flaky goodness!  I grind it up between my fingers before adding.


Vanilla bean paste-so delicious.  It doesn't thin the batter, but rather adds viscosity to it.


See all those vanilla bean flecks?  Heady!


The gingersnap crust starting to come together.


Oh, yes.  Heavy whipping cream, and 3 eggs, and...


I kid you not.  This black spiced rum was in my cabinet way before I turned to this recipe.  But, when I did, this same bottom is pictured in the book!  AMAZING!  I will admit, I was captivated by the label first--I love octopi--but, man on man, this stuff is so delicious.  I like it better than any other rum I've tried.  This little addition add the "grog" part to the pie.


 Look--even the lid is super fabulous!

Eggnoggy-like filling is ready to go...


The finished result.  You're supposed to let it cool 2-3 hours.  I made 30 minutes.  Within 6 minutes, my husband and I had eaten 1/2 of the custardy pie.  Listen, Kman HATES pie and he loved this.  So del-ee-ish-us. (-;

With a forkful gone...