I {heart} vacation.
Seriously.
Sleep, more sleep, then a nap for good measure, good food, walkies, leisurely coffee, random outfits that make no fashion sense….what's not to love?
(we have a vet appointment next MON morning, I'll keep you posted.)
Pumpkin Pie
The Pumpkin Pie That Tex Actually Likes
* 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 2 cups canned pumpkin, pureed
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
* 1 cup manufacturing cream
* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
* 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1 pie dough
* Whipped cream, for topping
(Using Paula Deen's recipe.)
Excellent Solstice Geek Haul
So Bunny wasn't doing so well earlier this week (she's doing better now) but as usual I freak out in about .00001 seconds, so i couldn't do much else for beyond what I had done AND it was the solstice, so we opened prezzies to distract me.
Here's some of the haul:
- An iPod set of speakers
- A travel towel (in the guise of a yoga towel:better colors)
- A yarn bowl for feeding it out without the skein going everywhere from Etsy
- and a Polaroid Pogo (in a BuiltNY GPS cover) that I can print pics from my Centro ;)
Also got a nifty ceramic berry bowl (below:its the blue and white thing in the sea of KitchenAid red stuff) that I have been using incessantly since I got it:
The thanksgiving without an oven…or pie.
(Just for the record I will never ever ever buy a Kitchen Aid stove now. Useless. Unreliable. POS.)
I'll try not to let this turn into a rant…and will add photos when my SD card from my fancy camera gets found again. Sigh.
It actually was 'turkey' day this year. Normally I do cornish game hens as I hate dried out roast turkey (and even those folks who fancy themselves fabulous turkey roasters are kidding themselves… its dry, baby.) but we managed to find a small enough turkey to fit into the rotisserie. I can't even tell you how good my freakin' Ronco rotisserie is….yum. That was about the only thing that worked in my opinion (Timmy and Tex will vouch otherwise.) but the oven went up to temperature for about 45 minutes then stopped going above pilot lite level. My cornbread looked like hell… dried out dough. My veggies fared better (acorn squash, roast veg plate) but didn't really get to that settled in yumminess that I like about roasting things. I had to finish everything in a tiny microwave/convection oven and while they cook stuff, they don't roast or make it taste the way I want it to taste.
Grr. So we had turkey (which was marvelous) mostly roasted veg, mashed sweet potatoes (rewarmed in the little oven), acorn squash with corn souffle… and no pie. Well there was pie, but I didn't get any. Tex was bitching about how he hates pumpkin pie so I thought to myself, "Self, let's make a pumpkin pie" because I am mean that way.
Actually, that isn't the whole story, what he said in total was "I hate pumpkin pie. But once they roasted a pumpkin and made it into a pie and I loved it."
Aha. So he doesn't like pumpkin pie mix….I don't much either, but people at work had been eating pumpkin pie for the last three weeks and I kinda wanted my 1-slice-in-every-10-years slice. As the intarweb is my reference library, I googled pumpkin pie and cream cheese (because I was thinking something with a bit of creaminess and more toward a cheesecake might be good.) then I bought pumpkin puree at Whole Foods and went after it. Using Paula Deen's recipe as a basis for the filling (my actual recipe below) I put it in my standard pie crust …and the first tiny snip tasted good but it took so long to cook the fucker in the tiny excuse for a convection oven that I had to leave when it was just coming out of the oven to get home to Bunnycat…and that was ALL I got until the following week where I actually got more of the pie.
Yay. The Pumpkin Pie That Tex Actually Likes
* 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 2 cups canned pumpkin, pureed
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
* 1 cup manufacturing cream
* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
* 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 1 pie dough
* Whipped cream, for topping Directions Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 1 piece of pie dough down into a souffle dish and press down along the bottom and all sides. Put the pie shell back into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color. For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla and spices if using, and beat until incorporated. Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for an hour, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and top each piece with a generous amount of whipped cream.
A fine mess.
These last few weeks have been a giant mess.
Bunny is still doing well, but everything else is kinda getting to that point where I just watch it pile up and burst into flames.
Seriously, I excel at a lot of things; one of those things I excel at is fucking up.
Colossally.
But I can't do that, can I?
Sigh.
I never could just drop it all and run away-that inner drill sergeant kicks in and tells me not to be such a pansy and quit whining … so I'll post my turkey day recap eventually (yes, it was a mess as well, but a mostly tasty mess and no one got botulism, which is something I suppose) then I might have to be quiet for a while.
My whining grates on my nerves after about 20 minutes, and I've usually irritated the shit out of everyone about 13 minutes previously.
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Copyright 2009 SouleMama | Ze Giant (somewhat thin) Recap
Been just a tad busy lately.
Went to visit one grandmother last month and did a whirlwind tour of a goodly amount of Texas crap food that I adore (Whataburger, Taco Cabana, Pappadeaux (Pappadeaux is not crap, but it was in an airport – a bonus food thing as I didn't have time to hit the good food places.))
My grandmother's definitely feeling better, she had some sort of crud in her lungs that was bringing her down, man. But she seemed perky enough for the weekend. I fixed her DVD player and told her to call me when her smart-ass sons didn't explain things well enough (and her smart-ass granddaughter would give it a go.)Then close on the heel's of that whirlwind trip was the cube decorating contest at work I did my cube up as an In-N-Out Burger joint (won 1st prize-putting my art degree to good use.)
In N Out Cube The cube almost didn't happen since the the Bay Bridge decided it wanted to drop pieces of itself on top of cars and they closed it down… which meant that all the thousands and thousands of people who normally go over that bridge had to overflow elsewhere… my bridge as well as public transport (if they had that option.) I left at 6:30 each morning to get to work on time.. and then I left work later to avoid the traffic going home. Made for some long days and I'm lucky I managed to get the materials I needed to do this from Target (red wrapping paper, a red dish towel) and stuff I already had (an old poster frame and cardstock for letters in my printer). But it all came together in a few hours while I was doing a release to the web site anyway.
..and then I slept.
When I woke up it was just about time to visit my other grandmother, but his time we all met up in Vegas.
Meme and Lily
Lovely weekend; we spent the gross national income on shows (the Cirque du Soleil was freakin' awesome – I was all psyched to drop another $150 on another version right then (and you know what a money grubbing fiend I am.) but I got vetoed for Bette Midler. She was good too, but she isn't as flexible as they are… but then again they don't dress up as mermaids and move around the stage in motorized wheelchairs. So there you have it.
We also did our standard practice when I meet up with mom and my cousin of effectively dumping out the contents of the suitcases and rearranging all belongings between the three of us. They ended up with some purses, some stuff I set aside for them anyway and ebooks. I got a rockin' set of skull jammies and a new pouch purse. Excellent haul.
I gambled $2 of my dollars and a atypically increased some that my grandmother had won; Vegas math: $25 in on a nickel video poker game + royal flush=$60 total -me gambling more=$40. Then I stopped.
..and then I needed sleep but I haven't had any since.
Mama shootin' craps (her war cry was "Little Red needs a new coat of paint!"
(Little Red Riding Hood is her little red Grumman Traveler ) Prepping for turkey day now… I might remember to food blog it but don't hold your breath.
Daily Bun:Bunny’s Morning Sprawl
Radiator is on again and the house is feeling like the tropics. Bunny is very happy.
1-2-3 Beer Bread Recipe
1 can (12 oz.) beer – I use Shiner
2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups self rising flour
Place in cold oven and turn on oven 350 degrees.
Bake 50 minutes or until bread is lightly browned.
Remove from pan. Bread is done if it sounds hollow when tapped on bottom.
Cool on wire rack.
