Saturday, June 26, 2010 Getting Back in the Swing of Things

A couple people ended up coming over this past Thursday night to share in the leftovers from my husband's birthday celebration. Pulled Pork, more Slammin' Drop Biscuits - I keep finding myself craving these freakin' biscuits! Carlos laughed when I said they were slammin' - but after having one he agreed that they were.

I finally made the Peanut Butter and Fluff Crostini with Grilled Celery from the Twisted Comfort menu. It was really good! I'll make it again, with a little less PB. Maybe spice it up a bit too. But it gets a thumbs up. Grill some celery with olive oil, salt and pepper and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I also made a Strawberry Pie with all of the leftover strawberries from our trip to the farm. It was awesome!

Those of you who know me personally are aware of that dark period of my life known as "when I worked at the bakery." For those of you who don't know me I shall try to elaborate.

I loved that job. I had no problem getting up at 5 in the morning to go and make cakes for family celebrations. I loved making things, I loved all the icing that would fall into my mouth. I loved everyone I worked with, I had two super cool bosses...the only problem was those two bosses had a mother who also worked there and she hated me.

If you're familiar with Italian-American culture or understand the term "mother hen" then you can skip the next paragraph.

Nothing I did was right. If her sons complimented me on something I'd done well you could guarantee she'd never allow me to do it that way again. She went so far as to redecorate the cakes I made. She'd undermine me, deliberately instructing me to do something wrong and then correcting me when I followed her original instructions. I could go on but it's Saturday and I don't get to see my therapist until Tuesday.

We all have these kinds of people in our past. Hopefully they're not in our present.

The reason I bring her up is the Strawberry Pie.

She made some once, and was so secretive about the recipe that she MADE THE FILLING AT HOME! And oh how she crowed about that pie. She boasted about getting the recipe from a southern diner. She was the ONLY ONE who'd ever been able to get the recipe from this lady and she would never share it!

I never tried it. It sure was pretty though, the bright red jelly shined like candy.

Life went on. I forgot about the pie. Not the mother hen.

So when I had all these beautiful ripe red strawberries all sliced up and ready to go that friggin' pie came right back into my head. One quick Google search and BANG! A ton of strawberry pie recipes. I read quite a few before I chose one as my guide. I'd never use strawberry jello when I had the real thing, and adding a ton of sugar was out of the question.

I nervously made the pie, as if she'd be judging my final product. I melted chocolate on the bottom just to piss her off. It was an ongoing battle we had whether or not to put chocolate on the bottom of the fruit tarts to keep the shells from breaking. I only won when she was on vacation.

The final product, when accompanied with real freshly made whipped cream, was refreshing, slightly sweet, truly strawberry pie. Outstanding. The chocolate layer only enhanced the flavor of the berries.

Would I bet mine was better than hers?

You bet your naturally sweetened ass I would!

Bang on, my peeps!

-HH

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