Friday, December 24, 2010

The Christmas Pie that Almost Wasn't

  Yesterday I was making a pie for Christmas Eve (today). Even though we're Jewish, my mom's side of the family is Catholic and we have dinner with her older sister on Christmas Eve.
Anyway.
  I make pies frequently for holidays or if I'm in the mood for pie. The show Pushing Daisies inspired me to make pies. I make REALLY GOOD pies. So yesterday I was making a blackberry and raspberry pie. I should have seen that it was doomed from the start.
  First of all, I'm sick. Second, originally I was going to make a chocolate crust. I wanted to make a pie from this movie, Waitress. The woman in the movie makes various pies according to events in her life. The pie was simple: chocolate crust, raspberries, blackberries. I looked online for chocolate pie crust recipes. They were mostly crushed cookie pie crusts but I didn't want that. I found one recipe that I was going to use, but the review was terrible (I didn't even read the review until I was almost done writing down the recipe, because the printer wasn't working). I found another that I wanted to print but my dad was messing with the printer and I got frustrated so, I gave up on that and decided to make a normal crust as I always do.
  My dad and I then went out to buy the fruit. I also had to go to the bank, which I could have done earlier if my dad hadn't gone without me when he knew I needed to go. So we got home. I washed, dried, and put away the dishes so I could have room to bake, and commenced baking. It was easy. It was also my first time making a single crust, instead of a double crust, but that was fine, just less crust to make and roll out (which is the most frustrating thing, but it went smoothly). I got the crust in the pan, filled it, covered the edges, and popped it in the oven. No big deal. It baked for 20 minutes with the edges covered, then another 20 without the edges covered. I took some of the juice out so it wouldn't make a big mess, and put it in for another 10 minutes.
  I always put the pie on a baking sheet so if juice comes out it doesn't get all over the oven. When I checked on the pie again, I was pulling the baking sheet out, it slipped, and the pie fell. It fell into the oven. Probably 75% of the filling was now on the bottom of the oven and in the crack of the door.
I just stood there. I had no idea what to do. I was trying not to cry, but that failed. My mom told me to turn off the oven and pick it up. I set it on the stove. My dad hugged me, I was sobbing. It wasn't anything to cry over, but I was sick, tired, and frustrated with nothing. I sat and cried for a while, then watched my mom clean up the mess. The pie crust was perfectly fine. Half of me wanted to salvage it and the other half said "Fuck it. Make scones tomorrow morning." My mom put the crust in the oven to finish cooking and started to mix together the remaining berries. There were leftover raspberries and she threw those in. We also grated apples into the mix.
  It turned out more like a tart, but it looks pretty good. After I calmed down, I was pleased and thoroughly thankful for my mother.

Step in time

I saw Mary Poppins on Tuesday at the Detroit Opera House. It was AMAZING! Very different from the movie, although I do love the movie. The music was great and the dancing was spectacular. Though, my friend and I were sitting in the "nose-bleed" section, we were pretty far away, we still had a good view of things. The guy who played Bert, even though his accent was so-so, was really talented. His voice was awesome and during the Step In Time scene (my favorite in the movie and this show) he walked up the side wall of the stage (proscenium arch, if you will), kept going, and when he was on the ceiling, he began dancing with the rest only he was upside-down. On the ceiling. Tap dancing. MIND BLOWN. I also really enjoyed the ensemble, they were quite talented (I loved the dancing!!!!). This post isn't really doing the show justice, but it was a fantastic show. You're just going to have to take my word for it.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

I'm at war...

With hair dye. Seriously. It's a sneaky mofo.
On Saturdays I work at my Aunt's hair salon, cleaning. Hair dye shows up in the weirdest spots. One time I was cleaning tint bowls and when I finished I looked down and noticed there was bleach on my shirt. I didn't clean any bowls with bleach in them and apparently I hadn't noticed the big splotch of bleach on the edge of the counter, but now, there's a big bleach stain on my Jimi Hendrix shirt. If I'm ever dealing with dirty towels (which is a lot) I get dye on my hands. If I organize all the dye and tint, the tubes and bottles are sometimes covered in crap, so it gets all over me. This past Saturday, I was taking out the trash. I went to put the lid back on the garbage can and there was hair dye on the inside of it. THE INSIDE. WHAT? I don't understand how that happens. Outside, okay, fine. Inside, wtf?
Anyway, I'm obviously losing this battle. There are in fact dye stains on my left hand.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Something

Ooooh...the first blog post. Wow. Neat.
I'm pretty sure I'm doing this out of sheer boredom. I really should be doing homework, but I'm not.
I suppose I should say/write/type something about myself. If you're typing it...I guess you're writing it but...not saying it. Unless as you type something, you say it out loud. But no one's listening. I'm rambling. Anyway, I live in a house with a family and some pets. I'm in high school, so no creepers here please. You will get shot down like a deer during hunting season. I don't care if anyone reads this, really. I think I'll put some photos up though, seeing as how I would like to be a photographer. I appreciate constructive criticism. Well, that's all I have to say about anything right now.
Cheerio!