A Sunny Welcome to the New Year!

Did January fly by or what? That's NOT a complaint, btw.. the quicker winter gets the flock outta Ohio, the happier I'll be! :) When Jen, our lovely January hostess and author of The Canadian Baker announced what this month's challenge was going to be, I was a little distraught. Lemon Meringue Pie. Some of you might remember way back when we made The Martha's Craptastic Crepe Cake. I had originally wanted to fill my crepe layers with a blood orange curd. currdddddddd kuh uurrrrddddddddd Ugh the sound of it still gives me the willies. So when I knew I'd be attempting another curd, I was shaking in my black fuzzy slippers. I had no problems with the crust.. I used all the water, but didn't add any more. It was pretty dry when I turned it out onto the counter, but I just kept smooshing until I could get it all together. I wrapped it and threw it into the fridge for a while and when I needed it, it rolled out nicely. Amazingly, I have no horror stories for you guys this month! I KNOW! Can you believe it?? My curd turned out beautiful.. there wasn't even a whiff of ass this time. Bonus. I was a little disturbed when the cornstarch, sugar and water concoction started to thicken.. And I know I wasn't the only one, so don't even pretend you didn't think this exact same thing! "I've just cooked myself up a batch of snot." I wasn't expecting that.. but I carried on and was rewarded with a thick and creamy, quite tart, lemon curd. My pretty crust broke :( Although I was extremely pleased with myself that I did not end up with lemony scrambled eggs, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the taste of it. As Helene can attest, it was too tart for me, but after thinking on that I realized that, DUH.. it should be tart because the meringue is so sweet. They'll balance each other nicely - and they did! The meringue, again, I had no problems.. they whipped up all nice and poofy! I did not bake the meringue though. I had an opportunity to try a torch for the first time, so I went for it. Ask me what kind of torch.. go ahead.. ask me.. I used a Bernz-O-Matic torch! That's a small, propane fueled torch that is used for saudering pipes. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I still crack up at the thought of Hubbs and I taking turns weilding that thing on my vulnerable meringue. teeee! But it was fun! I am so buying a lil kitchen torch now! One where I won't need to wear a welder's helmut for protection! 'kay nooooo.. we didn't wear the welder's helmut. But that would have made a lovely photo. Next time maybe. :) Speaking of Hubbs, he is an LMP connoisseur as it's his favorite dessert of all time. So I was a bit nervous when I served him the first slice, which, btw, did not produce a puddle of liquid and did hold it's shape beautifully. The look on his face was priceless after he took his first bite. He put the plate down and gave me a hug! Said it was the best LMP he'd ever had.. so, I guess it was good! hehehe Great big thanks to Jen for picking a really nice challenge this month! And huge, huge thanks to all of the Daring Bakers and our soon-to-be Daring Bakers.. we're over 500 strong now! Woot! Please, click on the Daring Baker link to the right and go check out some of the best lookin' Lemon Meringue Pies that you'll ever see. :) xoxo

A Peachy Surprise!

This is the 2nd of the two posts in which I want to express my gratitude and sheer happiness to have the friends I have. A little over a month ago, I was painfully reading post after post of peach recipes. Why painful? Because here, in the Armpit Of The Midwest, a juicy, sweet and flavorful peach is almost unheard of. I know they've got to be out there, but they certainly aren't featured in any store I shop in. I always see the rock hard, dry and cardboard tasting variety. Ugh. So imagine how hard it was to get two peach pie submissions for La Festa al Fresco, you know that "virtual" party that Ivonne and I throw each year? Virtual meaning.. uhhh.. no real tasty tastes! Sure I've got a good imagination, but c'mon! I was being tortured! Well Chris of Mele Cotte, was one of my torturers, I mean that in the nicest way possible :P, when she submitted a recipe for Piled High Peach Pie. I'm pretty sure I broke down in her comments, all whiney and complaining about the peaches up here in Ohio. I probably *sob*'d a bit too, knowing me and my penchance for adding *actions* to get my point across. Can we all say, "Dork"? =) Wouldn't you know it a few days later Chris e-mailed me asking for my home address. She said she saw something that made her think of me and she wanted to send it along. I was curious and more than a lil excited when I wrote her back and asked, "Is he tall, dark and handsome???" ;) Well "life" butted in again soon after that exchange with Chris and by life, I mean my job, dealing with my Auntie and Alzheimer's and my Mom & a lil health scare (all is fine! Yay!) so any thoughts of Tall, Dark and Handsome, were pretty much crowded out. Until about a week or so after I received the quince from my sweet friend, Elle. Hubbs called me after he got home from work, AGAIN, to tell me that I had received a box from someone named Chris Asomething (he couldn't pronounce her last name teeee!). I squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'd in excitement and couldn't wait to get home to see what I got! And Ohhh my dear sweet Jebus, I was so not disappointed - laying on my kitchen table was a big box of.. yes, you guessed it - PEACHES! I don't think I've opened a box sealed with miles of tape so quickly - I couldn't wait to see them. And then there they were.. each one nestled in it's own cradle of foam, wrapped in pretty green tissue paper.. and the scent? Let's just say, if I could come up with an air freshener that was a cross between Quince and these peaches? I'd so blow Bill Gates outta the water in the next edition of Forbes. har! I ate one immediately and I couldn't believe how good it was. I believe these peaches came from Oregon (I'm thinking the prime peach season in Georgia was long gone) and all I could think of is if a true Georgia peach tasted even better than this Oregon peach, then I'd probably explode after tasting one. So juicy, so sweet and it tasted like A PEACH. I'll be damned. A peach that tastes like a peach. Who woulda thunk it? So without further ado, this is what I baked with my gorgeous peaches - the Piled High Peach pie - just like Chris! I wanted to take something special to my Auntie the next day when Mom and I visited her in the nursing home and I believe, although she's losing her memory at a rapid pace now - that it will be a long time before she forgets this pie.. it was phenomenal. The best peach pie I've ever had - and I believe it was because of the peaches and not so much the recipe. Thank you SO MUCH, Chris!! Not only did you make me one of the happiest peach-deprived people in alla world - but you made my Auntie very happy too. And each and every day she is happy means more to me than I could ever say. xoxo

The Mighty Quince

This is one of two posts that are long over due as the wonderful desserts I made were enjoyed by myself, Hubbs, my sister and even my mail lady - a few weeks ago. This is the first of two GIANT THANK YOU's!! from all of us =) Part I - The Quince Starting with some gorgeous quince that have an amazing aroma - oh dear lordie did my house smell WONDERFUL that week. =) My dear friend, Elle, of Feeding My Enthusiasms has a shrub on her property that produces this heavenly smelling fruit and she wrote a post about the quince jelly she made. I had an obvious question after reading the post - how does a yellowish fruit produce such a gorgeous dark pink jelly? Well - not only did she try to answer my question, but she offered to send me some so I could experience this fruit myself! A normal pie for me.. mishapen, rips in the crust, smooshied edges - just picture perfect doncha think? Gah. You may think I'm making this next part up - but I swear it's the truth.. I almost gave my mail lady a black eye when she delivered the sweet smelling box to my door. This woman wouldn't let go of the box! She said her truck smelled so good and she didn't want the source to be taken away. HAR! I thought she was kidding but when I reached for it - she took a step back! I thought there was going to be a rumble.. she was NOT going to keep that box - no fakkin' way. Finally, after I promised to make sure to leave her some of whatever I decided to make with it. I had to actually bribe the woman to LET GO! Sheesh. Well I immediately unpacked them and set them on my kitchen table and then I had to rush back to work. Hubbs got home about an hour before me and a phone call was immediately made to tell me that the house smelled like a fruit orchard and what the hell were those odd shaped yellow things on the table? hehehe So for the next 5 or 6 days they stayed in a bowl on the table fragrancing my wee lil house until I finally found a couple recipes that I wanted to try. The first was an apple and quince pie - I figured it was fitting since it's Autumn here in the Armpit of the Midwest. Course it's still 80º outside, but my calendar tells me it's Fall. Okay well, 4 quince and 4 apples were peeled, cored and sliced up for the pie - which, really is your basic apple pie, just sub some quince for some apples. Of course my house smelled even better as it was baking and I could barely wait until after dinner to try it. You can definitely taste the difference between the apples and the quince and there is also a very different texture. The apples bake down a little more than the quince but both fruits end up very tender. With a scoop of Dulce de Leche icecream, this pie was fantastic. We both enjoyed it very much - so much so that no one at work got any. My mail lady got a huge slab and my sister got a tiny sliver that was left by the time she came for a visit 2 days later. heee! I had about 5 quince left over and the next recipe I decided to try was called Quince Dumplings with Syrup. While the apple/quince pie was baking, I peeled, cored and sliced the rest of the quince and added them to a pot of simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar) and let them poach for 3 hours on medium-high heat. Where the quince in the apple pie didn't change color by much, they sure did in this syrup. Quince the first hour. Quince after the 2nd hour. Quince after the final third hour - gorgeous! After 3 hours I had a gorgeous dark ruby red syrup that was sweet with a floral hit in the background. I could have poured it over ice with a smidge of vodka at that point. *hic* But I behaved myself and allowed it to cool. Unfortunately, I had run out of steam that night so I packed up the fruit and syrup separately and put them in the fridge for another night that week. Well.. as time seems to get sucked away from me lately, I never did get the dumplings made - Hubbs and I picked at the fruit unti it was gone and I froze the syrup. I have about 2 cups of it so I think that I will follow Elle's lead and boil it down until I've got jelly. Won't be much, but at least I'll have my first taste of quince jelly. =) Elle, I can't thank you enough for being so kind to send me the fruit - it was such a great experience cooking with them and an even better experience eating them!! It was a wonderful gift from a wonderful friend.. thank you. =)