Happy 4th!

WAPF Pie

With the holidays here I wanted to bake pie.  I had ten mason jars full of puree (from two pumpkins!) so I thought I'd make pumpkin pie.
I've never made pumpkin pie before, so I consulted my Nourishing Traditions book.  I love the crust recipe; the filling was...interesting...so I modified it so that it would have more of the traditional pumpkin pie flavor I like so much.

The first time I made the filling I just used my mixer.  This produced slightly lumpy pie, almost like I put apple pieces in it.  Not only that, but the recipe calls for grated lemon rind, so the pie tasted something like a lemon creme pie with pumpkin.  Maybe I used a lemon that was too large, but the next time around I skipped the lemon.

The second time I made the filling I ran it through my blender after mixing it together.  This pie came out much smoother and overall more pleasant to eat.  In addition to omitting the lemon I tweaked the spices which produced a better flavor.

The third time I made the pie I ran the liquid through my blender before adding the pumpkin and then ran the blender a bit more.  I also tweaked the spices further.  The result was pretty awesome I think.  I didn't have an actual slice of this pie because I took it to my friend who just had a baby boy (yay!) but I baked some of the filling in a ramekin to make sure it tasted okay.

So here's the crust recipe.  The only modifications are the partial substitution of whole wheat flour for the white and the removal of Stevia powder:

1 cup unbleached white flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) frozen butter
2 egg yolks
3 rounded tablespoons cold water

Stir flour and salt into a food processor.  Cut the butter into about 16 pieces and distribute over flour.  Pulse the processor until the butter is broken into pea-sized pieces and is well distributed.  Beat the egg yolks briefly with a fork and dribble over the flour mixture.  Pulse once or twice (maybe three times for good measure).  Turn on the processor and pour water in, stop the processor "at once."  The butter should still be visible in pea-sized pieces.  Turn the crust onto wax paper, wrap up and squeeze (not hard, wax paper tends to split open), forming a ball.  Refrigerate for several hours.
Roll on a floured sheet of wax paper.

For your viewing pleasure:

 This really does work, by the way.  And I found that it was amazingly entertaining to do.  Now I just have to keep a plastic bottle around.

Pumpkin Pie Filling (my modified recipe)

15 ounces pumpkin
3 eggs
90 ml dark brown sugar (1/4 and 1/8 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup piima cream or creme fraiche
2 tablespoons brandy

Oven: 350°

Line a pie pan with the crust above.  Cream eggs and sugar, gradually adding everything except the pumpkin.  Blend.  Add pumpkin and blend a bit more.  Pour into the pie shell and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

If you want a sweeter pie, go ahead and just use 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar (or Rapadura is what the original recipe calls for).  I always halve the amount of sugar a baking recipe calls for.

Also, cream fraiche is like french sour cream.  I like it better than sour cream, myself.  You can find it at Sprouts, or a health food store in your area.

~~~

Okay, so this is me coming up with grandiose plans that most likely will not happen but I'm going to give it my best shot.  I'm going to try and make one recipe from the Nourishing Traditions book a day - or at least one a week.  This is a massive project, but I'm really trying to commit to eating better and I think this might be a good way to start.

Anyway, I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving filled with good cheer and merriment and such!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the year of the Dragon: the year the world ends.

With the Mayan Calendar ending, who knows what will happen this coming December.  The Earth could explode!...or something.  Regardless of the impending apocalypse, this year is ringing in with interesting prospects:
The Good - awesome things

• My roommate is nice to me.  Together we are starting on the path to healthier diets and exercise.
• On a similar note, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is set up now.  Loads of fun shall ensue.
• I'm getting married this year and I can't wait!  I'm so excited to spend the rest of my life with my fiance; I'm eager to do the 'boring' stuff such as sitting around the house reading the paper, yard work together, and cooking together.  It will be fantastic, and I plan on keeping it that way for a long time.
• I am happy at my place of employment.  This is pretty much a 180° change.  I'm still working for the same guy (I used to be miserable here) but I've moved to a better location.

The Bad - things that are simultaneously good and bad

• Possibly moving my wedding forward.
  This is good because I'm an instant gratification person.  I want to live with my fiance now not later.
  This is bad because it sort of makes me feel overwhelmed.  I want to do this slow and steady; when I rush things I tend to make mistakes.
• The location I moved to gives me more hours, which means less time away from work, but more money.

The Ugly - things that fail

• Obama signed the NDAA.  The mere existence of this folly says a lot to me about our government.  Government is steadily losing direction and the general public seems to be unaware.  I ran into someone the other day who had no idea what the NDAA even was.
• The FDA decided "voluntary reform" was better than regulation of antibiotic use in animal feed.  The question here is, "what is this doing to our food?" and all of the implications that come with that.
• Government.

Lessons Nine, Ten, and Eleven

I have finished Convert Instructions!  Next step is a conditional baptism, conditional confession, and first holy communion.  I'm excited!  At my last lesson I picked up a Roman Missal, which I am also super excited about.

Quick note:  check out Dyno-Mom's blog!  She's coming out with a book soon and I'm super excited for it!

I guess I'm just super excited all around this weekend.  It is Christmas, so that could account for most of it.
By the way, Merry Christmas to you, dear reader!  I hope you're having an excellent holiday.

~~~

Lesson Nine:
The Holy Spirit and Grace
"Where the offense has abounded, grace has abounded yet more" (Romans 5, 20).
A.  The Holy Spirirt
The Holy Spirit, symbolized by a dove, comes from the Father and the Son like love from the heart.  He is the mutual love of the Father and the Son.
B.  Grace
110.  How many kinds of grace are there?  There are two kinds of grace, sanctifying grace and actual grace.
C.  Sources of Grace
117.  What are the principle ways of obtaining grace?  The principle ways of obtaining grace are prayer and the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist.  

"It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
But you say that's exactly how this grace thing works"

Lesson Ten:
The Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
A.  Virtues
121.  What are the three theological virtues?  The three theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity.
B.  Gifts of the Holy Spirit
This chapter has so many good lessons in it, I will most likely post a whole entry on it Monday, after Christmas.  For now I will list the beatitudes as I consider them too important to be left out - as a lot of things are in this lesson, actually...
129.  Which are the eight beatitudes?
The eight beatitudes are:

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.
3. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
4. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
6. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
8. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Lesson Eleven:
The Catholic Church
136.  What is the Church?  The Church is the congregation of all baptized persons united in the same true faith, the same sacrifice, and the same sacraments, under the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him.
The Church is the mystical body of Christ.

~~~

A small note on the difficulties of forgiveness:
I had to call Sears Repair for a second time yesterday to fix my washer, which was broken by my last roommate.  Everything that had happened until this point had been quietly piling up in the shadows, waiting until  my resolve was the weakest to fall over and trigger my emotions.  The pile - being rather high - did some damage and I found myself seething after hanging up the phone.  I was angry that, after everything else, I couldn't just move on.  It was as if - through this broken machine - she was mocking me (which is ridiculous), keeping me from traveling forward on the path of forgiveness and emotional health.
I broke down and posted a rant on another journal about it.  This didn't help because it was, in effect, the wrong thing to do.  However, I decided to keep the journal up, hanging my anger to dry [read dissipate] on the clothesline of the interwebs.  Perhaps I will remove it at a later date.
What I learned is that it's going to be a while longer before I am healed.  The journey through hurt is a long and arduous one, but at the end I will find strength and a new - better - me.
The difficult part is remembering to pray when I'm traversing a crevasse in the icy path.

"It's not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart"

 Quotes from the song Roll Away Your Stone by Mumford and Sons

Merry Christmahanakwanzika.

The verdict is in:
This blog will remain anonymous until I am married at which time I will begin using my own name and being less impersonal about situations that happen to me.
I've decided to stop writing early in the morning when I get to work.  I'm not as good with words until I'm fully awake.

~~~

Last night my roommate and I cooked a delicious dish with (mostly) organic veggies/sauce.  We had previously gone to King Soopers (City Market/Kroger) to procure some edibles for my pathetically empty refrigerator and 'pantry.'  We were in the organic produce section - which is fairly large; this particular store has a very decent organic and 'exotic' food selection - and there were some things that were so expensive that I refused to pick them up there, preferring Sprouts' prices.  So we purchased said things in the un-organic variety as there was, generally, a more than $2 difference between them.  The whole trip took a little under an hour as we meandered through the store trying to think of things we may have forgotten (we had no list, because we're geniuses).
Something occurred to me (or, more accurately reoccurred) this morning; we - the consumer - are at the mercy of the companies.  How much do we really know about what happens on the farms?  What fertilizers the plants are getting, or what pesticides?  What legally qualifies as organic, and what are the labeling criteria?  Is something that says "organic" necessarily going to be bona-fide organic?
These are questions to which there is no readily available response.  If you're that interested in it, you usually have to go online to find out, and even then the information can be hard to find.  So, in a world where produce is available in massive quantities, what can the consumer do to make sure their food is not being mishandled?
Sorry, I shouldn't even say "world," I should say country.

Another thing that occurred to me is what I see capitalism doing to Christmas every year.  Slowly, we're leeching the meaning from this great holiday.  Not Christian?  That's okay, but it should also be okay to be Christian and express our love for God publicly, just as you express your distaste publicly.  I'm not angry that the above linked tree has only one ornament relating to Christianity, but I would say it should be called a 'holiday tree' rather than a 'Christmas tree.'
On a related note:  Those of you angry about the cross at the WTC site should find a more productive use of your energy.

Christmas is not about gift giving.  Christmas is about Christ:

"The word "Christmas" originated as a compound meaning "Christ's mass". It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038 Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation of HebrewMāšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), "Messiah"; and mæsse is from Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist. The form "Christenmas" was also historically used, but is now considered archaic and dialectal;Cristenmasse, literally "Christian mass". "Xmas" is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), "Christ", though numerous style guides discourage its use^; it has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where "Χρ̄" is an abbreviation for Χριστός). it derives from Middle English"

 This holiday should be a celebration of faith and family, not a celebration of capitalism.  There are countries that don't have enough food or readily available clean water.  How has it become so important to buy people things they don't even need, and extravagantly so?
I hear on the radio quite often during the holiday season that someone has "ruined Christmas" by not getting a child what they want (like a puppy) to put under the tree.  This is more upsetting to me than the Capitol's holiday tree.  We've lost sight of what's truly important.

Quote found here.

Brain Vomit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was quite the day for me, lots of house work done.  I (almost) finished painting the guest room (just one more coat of the darker color), moved junk out and ripped the carpet out of the same room, and tilled half the garden with a shovel.  I'm seriously considering buying rototiller, my garden is too large to till manually [read I'm lazy].  This was all I did really, I was going to plant some bulbs as well but decided against it in favor of tilling the garden with a shovel.  Right hard work that is, so I just went back inside and showered rather than continue yard work.

To the point:
I think Thanksgiving should be a weekly occurrence.  Not the overeating part, the thanks giving part - and maybe the family part as well.  As a culture we seem to have become rather...entitled.  We tend to lean toward ungratefulness in this attitude of 'I deserve'.  Truth is what you do and don't deserve is really very simple, you can work it out by separating the need from the want.  Wanting something is not congruent with deserving it.  For example; saying 'I deserve a new car because I worked so hard' is a bit silly.  You don't deserve that car, it is not your right to own that car, the car itself may be a frivolous purchase, but it is nice to treat yourself nonetheless.  On the same token, needing something isn't always the same as deserving it, but needing and deserving often go hand in hand.  I feel people deserve a roof over their heads, or a decent meal, someone to care about them.
The point here is that what is deserved and what is not is generally relative to the person.  However, in my opinion American society is too entitled for its own good.  In the very end, it is God who decides what we deserve and what we do not.