mrs. nye’s pies

A few weeks ago, I spent an afternoon with one of Andrew’s best friend’s mom, Mrs. Nye. Her son, Alex, and Andrew went to school here in East Aurora together and played on the basketball team. They’re a bit of an unlikely pair (Alex is a bit more fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants and works in the broadcast news business; he’s creative and perhaps a little rough around the edges) but they totally work and both have a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

Anyway, his mom, Ann, is famous around here for her pies–she even had a small home business going for awhile–and pie is one thing that makes me nervous (I’m always afraid I’m going to mess up the crust), so I enlisted her help.

She was prepped and ready to go before I even arrived; she even has a handy pie-rolling station/cutting board built right into her countertop.

My mistake #1: I never use enough flour for the board. Don’t be stingy, Holly!

We started with flour, salt and shortening in the mixer until it resembled a pea-like consistency, then started adding water. Mrs. Nye doesn’t bother with the ‘it must be ice-cold’ business!

Then, just when it was starting to hold together, we formed it into balls/discs by hand. Again, lots of flour!

Rolling them out…

Now, here’s the tricky part: getting the crust INTO the pan… It’s always the part that makes me sweat. I’ve always relied on the ‘drape it over the rolling pin and hope for the best’ method. Mrs. Nye doesn’t sweat it at all; she just rolls it out and before you know it, it’s on the pie plate and she doesn’t care how it looks–it’s on the bottom, anyway. (I knew there would be some nuggets of wisdom in here…)

Crimp the edges however you like–this one was for a one-shell pie–and then grab a fork.

For pre-baking a pie shell, make little punctures ALL OVER THE PIE with a fork. Another thing Mrs. Nye doesn’t mess with is pie weights (she’s a bit of a minimalist).

There’s my pie! This one was a maple syrup pie–Andrew and I are huge fans of the one we had at Aux Anciens Canadiens in Quebec City a couple years ago–and I found a recipe in the pie “bible” at Susy’s house. More on the recipe later.

Mrs. Nye was preparing apples for the rest of our pies, which we would assemble and freeze. Who knew you could do that?

More dough rolling…

…pie-filling…

(My tried-and-true apple pie recipe is from a friend of mine’s mom, which is really just a basic recipe, and then I add LOTS of cinnamon–a tablespoon–and orange juice and orange zest. I saw the citrus addition on a Barefoot Contessa episode and took it to be God’s truth, and it is. The cinnamon is all me.)

…and now, the second crust! Here is where I start to get REALLY nervous. I mean, this is the one that people actually SEE, and it has to fit over the top.

Use water to ‘glue’ the edges before draping with the second crust. (Again, who knew?? No one ever told me this.)

Finish by tearing any extra crust off the long parts and use them to patch other areas, if necessary. For Mrs. Nye, who can actually roll her crust into a relative circle, this is probably an UNnecessary step. For me, it’s the only way my crust actually stretches from side to side…

Life goal #1: master yeast bread

Life goal #2: master pie

Life goal #3: master homemade ice cream

Life goal #4: not get fat in the process

(Hey, a girl can dream…)

Anyway, about the recipe. So Andrew and I just DIED over this maple syrup pie we had on a trip to Quebec City awhile back (the fact that it cost an arm and a leg and we WENT BACK A SECOND TIME should tell you something), and I’ve tried a couple times to make one at home. Imagine, if you will, a pecan pie without the pecans, but still a crunchy ‘crust-like’ top layer. That, my friends, is a maple syrup pie.

Sadly, the recipe we used from the pie “bible” (below) wasn’t quite it.

This recipe is a little closer–I made it for our Bible study shortly after returning home from our trip–but wasn’t exactly right, either. Guess we’ll just have to go back and try it again!! Actually, we’ve been trying to arrange a trip with Emily and Dan up there during the winter, so maybe next year??

Below is me with the baked maple syrup pie. Man, did it smell good! I had to scoot out after it finished, we I took it home to surprise Andrew, and then we showed up at the Nye’s with the rest of the pie to share with them.

The reason this post has taken me SO LONG is that I wanted to wait until I actually baked the apple pie from my freezer (that, and life just has a way of side-tracking me lately…) Well, with only two of us, it’s not all that practical to just throw a pie in the over with no one to help us eat it!

Last night was the perfect excuse–Andrew’s grandma came for a visit for Easter–so I packed it up and brought it over to the Layer’s to have after pizza and wings.

Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the baked pie…by the time I remembered, it was almost gone! The crust looked pretty nice–one of my best, perhaps–I can tell you that.

And since I can’t have pie without ice cream or whipped cream (the maple syrup pie is best with freshly whipped, slightly sweetened whipped cream to cut the sweetness), I asked Andrew’s mom to make sure some was in the freezer. I also brought the salted caramel sauce (Did you know it’s most definitely pronounced “car-A-mel,” not “car-mel?” I heard that on the radio the other day.) Susy sent home with me and it was fantastic.

It’s kind of a mess in my bowl, but, as my mom would say (and I bet Mrs. Nye, too), ‘it’s all going the same place.’

don’t touch my fridge :)

You know how people always talk about how their leftovers get pushed to the very back of the fridge and then, weeks later, they have science projects to dispose of? (Being in Microbiology right now, I’m getting more than my fair share of disgusting stories and germ information–part fascinating, part gross.)

Anyway, about the fridge. No, I don’t ‘lose’ things in the fridge. EVER. As in, NEVER EVER. Let’s just say the fridge (as I learned when having to share with Heather when she lived with me for a month–love you, dear!), is one of the things I’m pretty OCD about.

It’s my space, you know?

I know where everything is at any point in time. And how much is left. Everything has a spot. There is a spot for everything. If there isn’t room, I make room in the right area. Go ahead, ask me exactly what brand of soy sauce/milk/lime juice, where they are in the fridge and exactly how much is left in the container… I can tell you. Because I’m that weird.

But, again, it’s my thing. I like a tidy fridge. No crumbs, no spills. Everything organized and easy to find. I use good Tupperware or glass containers, preferably see-through and stain-resistant. When we have leftovers, I feel a little “on-edge” until they are gone. I don’t want to waste them. I don’t want them to go bad. Andrew probably wonders why I’m always pushing leftovers on him all the time… They must disappear from the fridge in a timely manner! They bother me. They haunt me until they are gone.

So, no, these ‘science projects’ people speak of? No clue.

it was a green kind of weekend

I’m not Irish. Nor do I really “dress up” for holidays. (Well, I’d love nothing more than uber-festive Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but not everyone is up for that in my families. Sigh.)

But there is something about St. Patrick’s Day that makes me want to pull out all the stops and (tastefully) adorn myself in green. Maybe it’s the spring weather. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m already a huge ‘green’ fan. Maybe it’s the few ‘strategic’ green articles of clothing I own.

Anyway.

We’re having phenomenally good weather here this week (which is a boon for the parades and things), and so to take full advantage of it, I decided to run outside. In green. You see, for the last few (maybe four or five?), I’ve been running a 10K on, or in honor of, St. Patrick’s Day in head-to-toe green. Wright-Patt ABF always had their St. Patrick’s Day run (and I was a sucker for those lunchtime base runs), and even after separating from the military, Susy and I still participated in them until I moved last year.

Well, it’s just more than a 10K (6.3 miles, to be exact) from our driveway in Orchard Park to Andrew’s parents’ driveway in East Aurora. So, I ran there. I packed up a gym bag, my phone and purse and sent them all with Andrew so I could shower after at his parents’ house. It actually worked out perfectly; Andrew often goes into work for a few hours Saturday morning and then we like to meet up in EA for lunch/coffee/walking around/errands/hanging at his parents’ house, so this eliminated the second car I would have driven to get there. SCORE!

Which brings me to the POINT of this entire post: the green.

Sadly, despite thinking about snapping a photo during my run, I failed to actually take a photo of me in my running get-up and didn’t remember until I was half-naked and jumping in the shower. Sad.

Just imagine neon-green Nike running shorts, a light-green 3/4 length shirt with a light-pink “Speed Demon” printed on the front, paired with my hot pink “Suck it up, Cupcake” sweatband and sunglasses (thanks mom!). That shirt was perhaps the best Goodwill find yet. You get the picture.

With the nice weather, I busted out my favorite shoes on the planet:

We went to Arriba for lunch for outdoor seating and enjoyed Margaritas and tacos. I had wanted something light, (I would have been fine with a banana and yogurt) but Andrew doesn’t often request Mexican, so I wasn’t about to turn him down. And, in fact, we both ordered the single tacos, which I feared might not be enough, but it was plenty! I took half my grilled chicken taco home (essentially a taco salad on a burrito shell, minus the cheese), along with half the sides I ordered (corn pudding, because it’s AMAZING, and black beans). Score one for healthy options at what could have been a calorie-bomb AND portion control! I even went easy on the chips and salsa 🙂

Not to mention, Andrew ordered the carnitas taco, which is a seasoned pork taco filled with a pineapple salsa and cilantro cabbage slaw… Holy Smokes! He inhaled it. Let’s just say he’s counting the days until he can go back.

Afterward we walked about the village, popping into stores here and there. I needed more honey, so I got a bottle of the local stuff at the co-op’s mini-Market. We picked up a bottle of Rose at Salut, the new wine store, and I indulged in an ice cream cone from Fowler’s. (Hey, at least we walked a TON.)

We came home and promptly became bumps on logs and continued watching season 1 of Big Bang Theory, borrowed from Carolyn.

We did, however, manage to take a walk to Vincenzo’s, the local Italian Ice place in the Orchard Park village, for a post-dinner treat. They even welcome dogs INSIDE and have treats for them, too!

Please note my GREEN PSU sweatshirt 🙂

Check out my running outfit for Sunday morning: same shorts, different shirt. I mean, if one actually HAS neon green running shorts, you gotta take full advantage of them this time of year! (That, and the amazing weather!)