Apple Pie Experiments

plus anxiety-inducing decor and bootyful chair design

It’s cool enough for me to enjoy using the oven again!

Searching for the Perfect Pie

I’m going be real today about recipes.

There are so many recipes out there, with stories attached to them and varying degrees of expertise. Some of the recipes have been tested in a lab setting with slowly increasing increment of salt, or eggs, or time in the oven and promise to be an absolute scientific solution to your every baking quandary. Some are specifically simple and just work. Most of them have an air of confidence that the version you’re reading is quite possibly the best.

But the truth is that experience and practice are the 90% of the recipe that can’t be dictated to you. A recipe (well, a lifestyle brand) can be sold to you with photos of new babies and tables set for 16 in a forest setting. I’ve only met a small handful of people that don’t get detectibly stressed at hosting a large group, and they’re either very practiced or have lots of help. Most of us just want something that’ll produce a result that makes humans happy and content.

So here’s my latest pie adventure, pictured above. I used a copy of Kate Mc Dermott’s “Art of the Pie” book I got at the library:

The crust was crumbly and I loved Kate’s instructions on how to handle the dough. I used her all-butter crust recipe. There are a few adorable terms associated with pie-baking like slump, sizzle-whump and the heartbeat of the pie that made me smile while reading. For the apple pie recipe I chose, there were a few things I noped out of immediately: along with my grandmother I dislike having apples baked in anything with the peels still on. I didn’t like the idea of using apple cider vinegar instead of lemon but maybe my mind can be changed.

Here are my family’s opinions:

“The is the best pie you’ve made so far!” Yay!!

“The crust has a good texture but is a little bland”. OK, next time I’ll use salted Kerrygold instead of the unsalted along with the 1/4 tsp of salt. There’s also a lard/butter crust recipe I can try but sometimes I try to go the vegetarian route..

“The apples could’ve been cooked longer”. I did pre-cook the apples until the juices ran, but maybe it’s the mix of apples? I used a mix of Fiji, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp.

So I know I need more tries to get things just right, but I feel like I’m off to an excellent pie baking experience here. At my local store a Whidbey Pie is now up to $21/pie, which is also the new hourly wage at many of the local fast food and grocery stores. My freeelancing rate is more than that rate, so if I spend more than an hour on a pie, is that worth the going rate for labor? Perhaps I need to make 2 or 3 to justify making the pie instead of buying a gourmet version with high-quality ingredients.

I’ll make a pie again this week and compare/contrast the results!

As the Cool Season Begins, My Attention Goes Inside the Home: Personal Feelings on Chandeliers in the Bathroom

It’s pretty simple, but in general I don’t like to have heavy objects suspended directly over me while in any position. Particularly while horizontal. Sleeping under a chandelier is bad, but in the bathtub there is nothing—no layer of clothing, no blankets, no pillow—to guard against the irrational but understandable fear of crystals crashing down and killing me. Even worse, via crystals and electricity.

Beautiful Butts

On a different but wonderfully whimsical side of things, I wholeheartedly endose the use of these butt stools. I really love the description from Kelly Wearstler’s website: “This cheeky design serves the dual purpose of a chair, side table or sculptural art while infusing a sense of sophistication and spontaneity in the space it inhabits.” Right! And they’re butts you sit on!

Can’t you imagine these in a professional work setting??