Keeping faith

hey you guys? I've been baking. Like, sort of professionally. For the restaurant. And? It is so much fun. I'm not a baker. Well, I seem to be now! But historically my baking has been limited to occasional obsessive bursts. Like with the macaroons! But now? I bake all the time and I LOVE IT.

And I'm good at it! My pumpkin cheesecake? Makes people melt. As does my chocolate mousse. Dana has declared it therapy in a bowl. One of my co-workers has declared that she could live in it.

And the secret? Uh, just follow the recipe and watch the oven temperature. My oven runs about 5o degrees hot. I heart my oven thermometer.

And most of the recipes I follow? Joy of Cooking. No, really. The mousse is from the New York Times cookbook. Everything else? Joy of Cooking. Who knew? Not I.

I am not good at following recipes. I am more of a, "ok, this tastes like this, and that tastes like that, and this is how you cook these things, hey, LET'S THROW A PARTY!"

So, I've had to train myself to TRUST THE RECIPE.

One thing that has perpetually frustrated me is that while I've always made amazing pie crust, I make crappy pies. Still working on that. But now I have not one, but two amazing pie crust recipes. Again, the Joy. The cream cheese pie crust recipe will fool people into thinking it's puff pastry. But no. It's not. It's so much easier!

Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust

One 9" pie crust

1 c + 2 T all-purpose flour

1 T granulated white sugar or 2 T powdered

1/4 t salt

Cut into 1/4" pieces and add:

6 T COLD unsalted butter

3 oz COLD cream cheese

cut butter and cream cheese into dry ingredients until the the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Drizzle up to 3 T COLD heavy/whipping cream.

ONLY ENOUGH CREAM TO COHERE THE DOUGH. Pat it into a circle and wrap in plastic.

LET CHILL AT LEAST HALF HOUR! before forming. For best results, chill again for at least a half hour after forming and before baking @ 350. Make it the day before you need it in other words.

You're on your own for the filling.

Ok, so in other news. My dad is almost done with the five and a half weeks of radiation, and he is doing great. I stopped by the gun club today to say hi while he was shooting skeet. Shooting skeet! Five weeks into radiation! I was so happy. I wished I could have hung out longer and watched, but I had to go to work. He was shooting well! His hands shake too much now for pistol shooting, I kicked his ass a couple weeks ago when we were target shooting. He then wanted me and my sister in law to have a shoot off. She informed me of this while they were out there a week or so ago. She told him that we were a team, not rivals, and that it wasn't going to happen. She thinks that he wanted to redeem himself through me. She kicked both his and my brother's ass earlier in the fall. I think she's right. But it's really just enough to know that both of us are better with a handgun than either of them! That said, I suck with a shotgun. When I was in Jr. High I tried to shoot trap, and the kick was just too much.

In other news, very recent news! College kids moved into the house next door that has been being rehabbed since I moved back in. Like, yesterday. Initially I was all grumpy old lady about it, the previous owner of the house was some very damaged dude, older, but nice and harmless. I never thought he was looking in my windows, and if he was? Eh, whatever. But now, as of yesterday, I have college kids. Across the street, too! Boy Howdy has my neighborhood changed. Hell, my street has changed! I am now old school! WTF?! When I moved in here 7 years ago? I was incomprehensible to my neighbors. I'm positive that they thought I was a lesbian witch. No kids?! No man in the house?! Dress kind of funny?!* So, yeah. DUDES. There are YOUNG PEOPLE living next door to me. I'm over being grumpy old lady about it and am now kind of intrigued.**

So, yeah. Dad doing well. Hello?! AWESOME.

Thanksgiving is at my house this year. My mom was a little put out, cos she is in charge of the turkey, and thinks that hauling the turkey and gravy will be a pain in the ass, and why is at my house? Uh, cos me and sis in law think it will be fun. And the old broad, as my mom said, doesn't get a say. Nope! Been out voted via text by me and sis in law!

So, yeah. It will be fun. Person I Have Been Dating is in charge of cranberry and may take over my dessert duty.

It is strange, this Person I Am Dating. I am turning into a WE. And I have been a ME for a very long time, and wasn't really looking to turn into a WE. But I guess it's true, what they say, when you're not looking for it, all of a sudden, THERE YOU ARE.

Our dating life involves a lot of eating. Mostly eating in. He works days, I work nights, we're tired. We eat in a lot. I have an edge in this vaguely competitive situation as I have been obsessed with food and cooking for most of my life. He can hold his own though. And he makes a wicked martini.

So, here I am. In Pittsburgh. And yes, somehow our idiot mayor got re-elected. I am not registered in PA cos I just registered my car in WA. And I just realized today that I SUCK, because I didn't absentee in WA, and they had the everything but marraige addendum on the ballot. I'M SORRY. It didn't even occur to me to absentee. I'm glad it passed without me. And the 48% of WA that voted against? What the hell is wrong with you?!

Ok, babies. Much love.

*ie, wear a lot of skirts, no Steelers' gear, no jeans, no sweats...yeah. For a little street in Bloomfield, that spells Lesbian Witch. Spelled. Now I'm just part of the scenery. And there's college kids! In the houses where old people used to live! I'm not engaging in hyperbole. When I moved out, I could see the curtains twitching.

**I still have Washington plates on my car, which makes it unsual on the street. See above. But this morning I was driving down the street and some young boy was checking me out. Like, hey, that's the lady with the WA plates Suburu...hey, uh, so, anyway. We checked each other out. He was cute. That's when I called Dana and told her about the college kids, and hey, it might be ok. This conversation was followed by a conversation about how we just can't deal with the college kids, and how we try to keep in mind that we, too, were super obnoxious self-absorbed babies ourselves, once upon a long time ago. And try as we might to keep these facts in mind, GODDAMN. College kids are annoying!