PieBee Blog

Coconut oil

2012-05-08T03:33:28Z

Coconut oil is touted as superior to vegetable shortening in terms of healthy eating and saturated fats. I bought a jar weeks ago, but have not made a pie in some time. Yesterday, I got my act together and tried making a pie with a coconut oil crust.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, at least at this time of year. Using the usual proportions of flour, and salt, the dough feels a little different as it is mixed up. I don't feel that the flakiness is there as this dough feels more homogenized. After an hour plus in the refrigerator, the dough was way too solid to roll out. It needed to be coaxed back to near room temperature, leaving me wondering why some recipes found on the web emphasized the refrigerator step.

All in all, the result shown here, a rhubarb pecan pie, is quite satisfactory. There is a pleasant aroma of coconut present while preparing the dough. The mild scent persists to the eating stage, too. I will give this a few more tries.

Chicka chicka boom boom

2012-04-30T00:14:05Z

We again hosted a birthday party for Josie and four dozen of her closest friends in our backyard yesterday. We kept to the tried and true formula: mid to late afternoon, some munchies early, the bouncy castle, an "art" table, and of course, some cake and ice cream.

Also squeezed on to the agenda is a book swap. Everyone brings a book and leaves with another. The party actually came to a near stop as kids were excited to check out their new acquisitions. Here Josie browses "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". I am hoping to get a chance to read it soon, too.

Makes herself at home

2012-04-12T03:12:55Z

With Molly gone, our household was without a cat for the first time in forever. Jen's cat, Kaya has been a bit stressed in their cinqo gatos home, sometimes being the object of too rough roughhousing. There Kaya gets isolated overnight to minimize turmoil. She also has been visiting with Karen and me when Jen and Jordi and Josie and Celia go away on trips.

While Karen is recuperating from her knee surgery, she thought it would be nice to have a little extra company. So Kaya is staying with us for a few weeks. She is settling in more and more each day. Here you can see she is pretty well at ease and comfortable.

Passover and Easter

2012-04-08T13:36:52Z

The girls visited yesterday and we had a frantic combination of Passover and Easter combination activities. Here in the picture below, we are starting to dye Easter eggs. Jen found two dozen white eggs after my two stops uncovered nothing but brown eggs. (Note to non-New Englanders: brown eggs are local eggs and therefore the preferred egg 364 days out of the year).

Josie and Cecilia easily went through the batch in short order. Cecilia enjoyed squeezing and cracking and peeling the shells off, then coloring the whites. We did manage to take most of the eggs outside for a late afternoon Easter egg hunt.

Then on to a truncated Passover Seder, with a brief recounting of the flight from Egypt for our almost-four year old. Karen put together and explained the Seder plate. Jen made matzo ball soup. It was quite a bit to pack into a few hour's time.

Blueberry pie

2012-02-25T16:04:34Z

Karen returned home from the hospital last Monday. She got a shiny, new left knee. Not that anyone outside the operating room got to see the hardware. All we get to see is the Steri-Strip covered incision, and you, the piebee visitor, don't get to see even that.

I checked back into the piebee archives and found there is no image of Karen posted from Karen's first, right knee operation. A few days ago, our Facebook friends did get a pic of Karen reading a Fancy Nancy story to Josie. For now, here is a picture of a blueberry pie I made Thursday evening.

The occasion, not that one needs an occasion to bake a pie, was an impending visit from Bert to take some digital pictures of Karen's artwork for Lexington Open Studios. Nothing says "thank you" like a pie. The "Pie Pie Pie" recipe called for butter; that was substituted for by coconut milk. I recently saw a suggestion that coconut oil was good making pie dough, and after not finding coconut oil on the shelf at the local store, that morphed into coconut milk. Adds a little richness, and the coconut flavor is not readily noticed. At least no one asked.

Happy Birthday, Javi

2012-02-23T04:10:18Z

Cecilia and everyone up north send happy birthday wishes to Javier.

Molly Moo

2012-02-12T19:09:59Z

The "Moo" is just for alliteration. We got Molly as a kitten back in 1992. So she almost made 20 years old. One score. The past few years she has been sleeping quite a lot, even by cat standards. The photo below from last Thanksgiving shows her sleepy eyes. When she did rouse herself awake, Molly would caterwaul to give fair warning she was up and about.

This is the first time we have been pet-less. The house will seem a little bit empty without her presence on the couch.

Super pie

2012-02-05T16:36:09Z

After Karen's surgery was postponed due to her catching a cold, we have been laying low, trying to minimize the chances of getting the next germ. So, no visiting and next to no visitors. So what to do? A bit of cooking for Super Bowl Sunday! This pecan pie comes from the recipe in the "Pie Pie Pie" book.

New skates

2012-01-23T00:51:08Z

This weekend saw a bit of snow, the first nontrivial snow of 2012 here. It fell on a Saturday, which if you have no errands that need urgent attention, means it can be ignored mostly. For some reason, the quietude spilled over to Sunday. Bert and I found the Sunday morning skate a bit quieter than usual. Literally. The usual radio oldies music was mute.

Last week, Jordi and Josie joined us. Jordi has himself a new pair of skates, his first non-rental pair. Josie is making a bit of progress.

She and I were sitting in the changing area before the break and I mentioned the Zamboni would be on the ice soon. The loud horn and not knowing what the heck "the Zamboni" is, had her a bit spooked. Once the Zamboni was circling the ice and could be seen though the glass doors, it seemed safe enough for a closer look.

The Patriots played and defeated the Ravens this afternoon. I split my time between watching and baking a pecan pie from the Deerfield's Bakery recipe from "Killer Pies". Not a bad way to spend the day.

MMXII

2012-01-01T22:21:14Z

Karen and I hosted the New Year's Eve Perquackey get together last night. Jen, Jordi, Josie and Cecilia joined us for dinner, but didn't hang around for the tossing of the cubes. Knowing the plan, I snapped this photo before dinner.

After dinner, Bonny played tournament director, having a first round to reduce the six players to four for the semi-final and final rounds. Bert was the evening's winner, with a two roll win over runner-up Karen.

Dinner was quite tasty, with a bit of pot luck contributed. We had a lot of good and tasty food. I had spent the day baking two pies. Here today, apple pie and coffee. A great start to 2012.

Christmas pie

2011-12-26T03:17:03Z

It has been a quiet holiday weekend for Karen and me. Today we have been visiting via facetime and telephone, with one actual visit to see my mother-in-law, Ruth. And we have been doing some good eating. Karen prepared a nice bacon and eggs and cinnamon bun breakfast. At her suggestion, I made a cherry pie. This is a cherry crumble pie recipe coming from the "Country Living" web site. Salmon was what's for dinner.

The onion and orange were nearby and pressed into service just for color and interest.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all.

Early Holidays

2011-12-18T02:39:28Z

Travel plans put us apart from the AMs next weekend. So Jen and Jordi had us over today to bake cookies and open gifts. Jen had prepared cookie dough ahead of time, so today was focused on rolling and baking. Jen does a real good job with the cookies. Lots of variety. It reminds us of my mom's Christmas cookies, although Jen is still trying to properly recreate her favorite, Forgotten cookies.

There were lots of gifts under the tree. We all got some nice surprises. Josie is a whirlwind, with a bit of envy for any gift that someone else gets. Above she is trying on my Rudolf nose. The day was finished off with that holiday tradition: Chinese take-out.

Party hats

2011-12-09T03:28:12Z

We took Jen out to dinner for her birthday on Tuesday. Dessert was enjoyed at home. Christina baked a delicious carrot cake which we see below as we serenade the birthday girl, just before the candle blow out. The birthday hat is new, but is expected to be a tradition going forward.

The candles all went out, so Jen should get her wish.

Pie trio

2011-11-25T01:37:41Z

We had a smallish Thanksgiving get together today. But the menu was anything but small: turkey, stuffing, green beans, carrot souffle, sweet potato casserole, roast kale, have I forgotten anything? Yes, cranberry sauce from a can. Most of the afternoon was spent cooking.

Oh, for dessert, three pies. Karen made pumpkin, Jen made pecan, and mine was an apple pie with a few dried cherries tossed in. And some ice cream and whipped cream. Josie is learning a little French: à la mode.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Always one

2011-11-13T19:19:40Z

Sheila and Bob were visiting this weekend. On Saturday we had a belated birthday party for Celia and an early party for Sheila. Ruth joined us too.

Here is a photo from Sunday. Celia really is a generally happy baby. I think at this point she just didn't want to get back in to the car. They were headed off to yet another party.