Let's Talk Green Tomato Pie and Artful Nozzle Topping Noises

First, what's spinning in our kitchen now? Why, Nightmares on Wax, A Word of Science
     When I was little, my Grandma used to make green tomato pie with the tomatoes that developed just before the fall frost. I often thought this was a Pennsylvania Dutch receipe, a testament to the region's culinary frugality (I remember my Mum punctuating a conversation about receipes involving pig's feet and pig's ears with the explanatory statement, "People used to use everything but the squeal"). However, I have found that green tomato pie is popular in other areas, too. When I've made it myself before, it's been runny and the green-ness of the tomatoes becomes a little...mmm...how shall I say it...*making a rude lip-smacking noise and wrinkling my nose* overpowering? Perhaps, yucky? Sure, we'll go with yucky.
     My Mum also makes green tomato pie, and hers is more like apple pie and definitely really tasty. I decided to try my hand at the receipe again last night before Michael got home from work. See, I have a metric ton of green tomatoes in the fridge, and I've already made six quarts of green tomato sauce. And sometimes pie is the only acceptable thing a person can have for dinner. In On the Road, Jack Kerouac proclaimed pie to be the most nutritious thing he could get for the few cents he had left in his pocket when he was traveling. Of course, his pie involved ice cream, but that's besides the point. We, folks, had Redi-whip. To celebrate that winning Redi-whip spirit, I'd gladly make the topping-coming-out-of-the-nozzle-noise for you, but I don't have sound effects here on blogger, and that's sad.
Anyway, by 4 p.m. yesterday, I had a few things going on in the kitchen at the same time. In early spring, when we got the new stove, Michael judiciously suggested I get a double oven. A very wise suggestion indeed. At the time I thought, eh, I'm good. *waving hand in the air* I don't need a second oven just yet. Well, clearly, I was a fool. You'll see. I had our poor oven stuffed and working hard for three hours. It has since put in a grievance with its shop steward, but that's me so....*shrugging* ya know...

Coring and slicing green tomatoes for the pie filling.

Here, I'm rolling out the dough for the bottom crust. There will be a top
crust, too. I mean, isn't that why we eat pie, for the crust? Maybe that's just me.

It don't look purty here, but it'll taste good.

And ladies and gentlemen, we are in the pie, ready for a lid!

Lid on! And vented.

Here, the lid gets a lovely brushing of egg wash (I know, I was rather
generous with that brushing) and a dusting of granulated sugar.

Green tomato pie out of the oven and cooling.

Look at what this woman is pushing through the system at 375-degrees.
This went on for hours! Sweet potato fries, banana bread in little pie pans.

Did I mention I was also making a beans and greens soup? I was.
The beans are a Christmas Lima we grew. The meat is pork. The greens are
last week's salad (but still good). The broth is Herbox chicken boullion cubes.
Then there's sage, rosemary, salt, and pepper.  

Whole wheat banana chocolate chip bread in little individual
pie pans because the chocolate chips always stick.

And the green tomato pie with brown sugar. I was happy with my pie this time.

It's Christmas Cookie Time....



Finished chocolate chili cookies!


And here is the first batch...the first successful batch, that is. At Thanksgiving, Mum gave me a Farmer's Almanac with a good-looking receipe for Chocolate Chili cookies in it. I tried it first with "coating chocolate" the first time. I didn't realize what impact this would have on the consistency of the cookie. Ah yes, it made lovely chocolate chili mess all over the cookie sheets simply because every time it was heated, it melted to a thin scrim of liquid. Michael had to help me scrape the baked stuff off the pan. This time, I used semi-sweet morsels and that made all the difference. No habaneros this time either. I put into the mortar and pestle only dried jalapenos. This was mixed with flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, espresso powder, the chocolate mix you see below, along with more semi sweet morsels and walnuts. Good stuff.

The batter!



Me in the walnut bag...




Semi-sweet chocolate chips with Smart
Balance in my newish double-boiler from
Westland Auction.



All Kinds of Good Stuff...

Remember those cucumbers on the vine? I cleaned them at the sink and look what
happened. Nice crumbs around the plate, eh? Well, when magic like that happens,
you have to make sure it's still edible. We assure you that it is.
Interested in the receipe? C'est ca.

Glenn and Michael check the top bar in our garden.

A side view of one of the top bar combs

Capped honey at the top and brood on the bottom.

On Bee Hill, we checked the supers and harvested some frames.

We brought back two frames from the Bee Hill supers. They're hanging in our basement,
on coat hangers, drying within the range of the dehumidifer.  Soon, soon, we taste.

Cake, with a capital 'C'

So, let's talk about cakes, shall we? Now, I have had some absolute cake-rific disasters. Really. You can read all the details here. Cakes have fallen on me like spent plough horses. Cakes have sometimes never baked fully in the center. Cakes have occasionally tasted wonderful, but looked like someone rotund had sat down on them. Years ago, I made a 40th birthday cake for a friend. The person liked German Chocolate, but I soon found that, while butter cream may cover a multitude of sins, German chocolate sauce (you know, the stuff with the coconut) makes a problem cake look suspiciously similar to a giant mound of barf. Yeah....so I didn't actually intend to make a statement on the friend's age, but it pretty much seemed that way when I set the cake in front of them. Yeah, well...anyway! I've grown appreciably better, with much practice, of course.


Well, hello there, lovely. What's your name?



Remember this post from yesterday? About the espresso frosting? I promised you somethin' purty, and darned if I didn't deliver. I'm just bursting with pride. The big cake is for my Mum, whose birthday is coming up. The little cake is for Michael. I mean, a girl just can't have cake in the house and tell her Sweet Hubby, <wagging a finger> no, you can't have any. That's just plain mean. So, he gets one all his own.

What's that? Oh, you noticed there were two small cakes in the picture above? blushing Well, that one....uh, um...cough... it fell on the floor. Yeah, that's it! It fell on the floor. No, I'm totally blowing your horn. I ate it. I mean, come on. Who can wait?







Espresso frosting and birthday cakes...

Mmmm...espresso frosting. Thanks, Medaglia D'Oro.
Who knew you came in powdered deliciousness?

Nope, friends, it's not peanut butter. It's espresso frosting. Let's contemplate the instant Medaglia D'Oro I found in the coffee aisle of Kroger. <she contemplates: chin on fist, elbow on countertop> I mean, who came up with this ingeniousness? Powdered espresso will power many an afternoon from now on.

Fun story: My Mum turned my paternal grandparents, who were inveterate coffee drinkers, onto the regular Medaglia D'Oro. She warned them not to drink a whole pot, as they would with regular coffee. But they either did not understand this or chose not to heed her warning. A week later, the half empty can appeared, as if by magic, on my parents' back porch. Grandma and Grandpa hadn't slept for days.

And yes, we're back to that picture above:
I've made mocha frosting before, which I always feel is overpowering. I feel like I need a double shot of paint stripper to get the choclate residue off my teeth. Really.

My Mum likes mocha frosting on white cake, and I've actually made the small vat-of-lovely pictured above to go on top of her birthday cake. Oh but, but, but....this espresso frosting is so much better, maybe one step short of divine. We're talking angel food, without the cake to get in the way. Sure, I suppose the pic here does make it look  like something the boyz placed (lovingly, always lovingly) in the yard and I, in turn, put into the blender. But wait until it's on the cake. It'll be gorgeous. And tasty, too.

Now, to give credit where credit is due: thank you, Brown Eyed Baker. Find the whole beautiful receipe here.

Okay, really now. Back to my book reviews.....more to come on our hive progress soon, soon! Good news, kids. Very good news.