Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving usually translates into a culinary bounty, the cherry on top being the delicious pumpkin pie. Here's how I usually make it (with a couple of tweaks mentioned below). Plus music to carve the pumpkin to as well as bake the actual pie to. Plus photos.

First of all, I tend to use a larger quantity of pumpkin pulp, and a larger pie mold. Then, I never use store-bought crust or pastry base, instead I either make a quick graham crackers crust or, more often, a classic, flour-based crust (the same one I use for my Coconut Cream Pie), in which case I throw in some lattice work on top. I usually skip the nutmeg (apparently it is poisonous) and add a dash of vanilla or rum, instead.

Here are the photos.

Southern Devil's Food Cake

My gran&bro had a birthday in the summer months (which is not uncommon, as it tends to happen every darn year). However, because the family couldn't be together for their birthday, we celebrated later on and now I'm late-late-blogging their cake. What is that you say?Unsynchronized mess?Well, here's The Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to make it all cohere.

Southern Devil's Food Cake

My peeps love chocolate so I decided to make something with enough of it so that not even the most flat out chocoholic could handle it. Short story long: We all caved in. Mom didn't. (She must have switched her blood for liquid chocolate earlier in life.) Mission failed. Tasty yum! Ready for a challenge? Here we go!

Here's the recipe.

Here's the music to bake it to:

And here are the pictures:

I covered mine in blackberries because we had A LOT of them and I thought they worked well with the serious amounts of choc. They do, so feel free to berry-it-up for a bit of relief from all that choc.
Enjoy!

The Taste of a Different Summer

Buttermilk Pancakes

As mentioned in the previous post, buttermilk pancakes were last summer's go-to treat. There isn't much to say about pancakes (since they're such a basic thing to make) other than to acknowledge that I was under the influence of Dead Like Me and I overindulged, so eat cautiously, these darlings are addictive and..scales don't lie (unless they're broken).
Here's the recipe.
Here's the music:

Here are the photos:

Toodles!

The Taste of Summer

As mentioned before (and as testified by the date of this post) summer is over. However, because I was a busy bee throughout August and most of September, I accumulated quite a bit of material to be posted here at a later, less hectic date. I've also concocted a new format (to better match the new Blogger). Without further ado, here is the first of (hopefully) many such blog posts.
*************************************

This summer's obsession (food-wise) has been the delicious Coconut Cream Pie (last summer, it was buttermilk pancakes - to be featured in a later post). I think I made this pie just about a dozen times since June (whenever we ran out of it, I'd whip up a new one, which drove my friends and family crazy). 

This pie reminds me of C, the wonderful friend who introduced me to it. It's been five years (to the date) since I last saw him and almost two since I last heard from him. I can only hope he's doing well, wherever he may be. 

I think I started making the pie out of nostalgia for a time and a place that appear to be lost forever. It stuck with me and the more I ate, the more I wanted to eat. On top of that, it is very easy to make and the perfect summer-treat because it's best served cold. This is the recipe I use and (above) the music I listen to while baking.

Enjoy!

First of Autumn

Summer's been over for a while, but the weather is still warm. Finally, we're having an Indian Summer after quite a few years of chilly autumns. This here is a photographic journal of the things I did/smelled/arranged/gazed upon during the past month or so.

Mutant pigeon, or most likely, just a really young one. Notice his/her irregular, aquiline beak.

 My mom received lots of flowers.

The things we made for my mom's fifth graders.

Meanwhile at the country house...

The foods, the drinks, the creatures, the flowers...