Well hello! So much has happened since August 2020, when I last posted about our wonderful summer vacation around Wisconsin. Unfortunately none of those memories landed here on our blog - there are plenty of obvious reasons why - but I decided against using that as a reason not to restart things here at Life on Center.
For my birthday this year I got some fun and useful kitchen tools: pie weights, two crust shields, and The Book on Pie. Thank you, Marcia, for your research into just how many pie weights are needed and for the complete pie package! Around the same time I began my final 365 days in my thirties, the school year was really kicked into gear and we were all getting used to a new season - Nate mostly back at work in-person, all three kids at Lowell for FULL DAYS of school, and a weekly family routine with a lot more normalcy than our summer camp smorgasbord schedule had. I noticed that while I felt busy, there was some "choice time" in my weeks - time that wasn't already spoken for but could easily be wasted if I wasn't thoughtful about how to use it. I decided to combine these two opportunities (?!) into a hobby that could potentially double as a way to relax and keep things in perspective.
So I'm ready to publicly (ha!) commit to a new but small goal: to bake a pie each week. I'm not going to put other conditions on it - mostly they will be dessert pies, but savory are also allowed. And if I feel like doing something else to relax during pie time, that's cool. It just seems like an unnecessary thing that I want to make time for, to pull myself away from checklists that constantly tell me of their importance. I'm smarter now and can talk back to my compulsion to get things done when in reality they can wait.
So far I've made five pies (three are below) and it's been really enjoyable, especially when I plan ahead and don't try to make the crust and the filling all in one afternoon. My favorite to eat was the chocolate covered raspberry pie. My best looking crust was Monday's golden cheese crust for a green veggie quiche. Not pictured, because we're having it tonight and it's still awaiting it's whipped cream topping: butterscotch apple with a pecan crust.
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| Sweet corn pie with blueberry whipped cream |
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| Chocolate sugar pie in the making |
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| Turning a chocolate sugar pie into a pumpkin pie at the kids' request |
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| My fav so far: chocolate covered raspberry pie |
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| Me trying, unsuccessfully, to hide my messy chocolate all-butter crust work |
This first month or so has been pretty great and almost life-giving, within the limits of how much life baking can give. I don't know that all of the pies that I make will find their way to our blog like my friend Sarah Goupell's blog and I certainly don't need to make to to any certain number of pies. Maybe this is a fall goal and after the new year I'll switch to a different life-balance test. For now, I'm having fun and feeling a bit more care-free than is typical for me. More of that!
