Easter weekend

Happy Belated Easter! I had all sorts of fun things to blog about this weekend, but kinda took the weekend ‘off’ and this is my first chance to sit down (Not really, I still have TONS of schoolwork to do, but this is somewhat time-sensitive, too. If I wait too long, it will be old news!) and type it all out.

There was LOTS going on this weekend for us, with Andrew’s grandmother visiting and Abigail home from school…

I ran in the Bunny Hop 5K…and scored SECOND PLACE in my age group! Holy smokes! Seriously…despite some of my recent PRs here and here, when I saw the 1,011-runner crowd lining up, all hopes of placing went right out the window. In fact, I was having a bad morning due to a sudden neck spasm and stress (what else is new?), so I really had to pep-talk my way through the entire (almost all uphill, if that’s possible) race.

The neat thing was that the course went right by Andrew’s parents’ driveway! I waved as I passed the first time… (I’m in pink and purple.)

Andrew’s family (and the dogs!) came out to cheer me on…

Here I am on the way back, just a 100 yards or so from the finish. LOVE my purple running pants!

Andrew was convinced I’d placed in my age group (based on the small number of ladies who finished ahead of me), so we waited around for what seemed like forever at the finish for them to post results.

At least the oranges were good and even the store-bought oatmeal raisin cookies were decent. Andrew ate my hot dog, but I caved and got another one and ate about half when the results still weren’t posted…

Sure enough, I DID place–I got SECOND! Prizes for the Bunny Hop are chocolate bunnies, which, despite their appropriateness, are (in my mind) a bit counterproductive. Carolyn had the brilliant idea to throw mine in the freezer and use it to bake with later. It’s currently crushed into small pieces and chilling with my other chocolate.

We spent the day relaxing at Andrew’s parents’ house and running errands on Main Street. We wanted to show grandma the new cupcake place, and while there, I picked up this little guy:

Perhaps the most memorable event was our dinner Saturday night, and, as usual, I got no photos. We ended up at a local hibachi grill/Japanese Steakhouse/sushi bar due to our large party (8) and lack of pre-panning (it was 6:30 and we were trying to find a restaurant without an hour wait). Can I just say the Layers aren’t big on change, ethnic food OR fish??

Let’s just say that if Carolyn’s face had frozen they way she was turning up her nose at the menu, she’s be one unhappy camper. In all honesty, Andrew and I were pretty nervous–we’d taken everyone here thinking it was akin to a Benihana, but it turned out to be about 95% sushi and sans-hibachi tables. Our table ended up with five chicken teriyakis, one beef teriyaki, one soba noodle and one edamame order with an Alaska roll. Can you tell which one was mine??

The night wasn’t a total loss; we ended up in a room of our own and had a few good laughs, and everyone got to experience a few things out of their comfort zone 🙂

Happy Easter morning! I got up early to cook breakfast 🙂

I made the Clinton Street Baking Co.’s buttermilk waffles (thanks for the book, Susy!), maple-roasted bacon and fruit. I even made the maple butter from the cookbook and it. was. divine. Even Andrew loved it.

As always, we did Easter baskets. Andrew’s is full of junk food and candy. I threw in a Bananagrams game, thinking it would be a good 2-person game for the house.

Andrew (as usual), went way overboard with my basket this year:

He collected all sorts of my favorite gourmet/health foods, like sweet potato chips, Luna bars, flavored seltzer, Starburst Jellybeans, Ritter chocolate with Marzipan (Heather introduced me to it before we moved last year)…

…brie and special topping…

…I’ve been DYING to try this chocolate bar since I saw it in a Food Network magazine like two years ago!

Dave sent me home with some Cadbury creme eggs last weekend, and I broke into it Easter morning! (I was good; I only ate half, though.)

Andrew particularly liked his tangerine-flavored Jelly Belly carrot. I had to force him to eat one before church… Seriously, who has to be forced to eat ONE jelly bean EVER? I wasn’t going to eat a bunch of candy all alone!

After church (we accompanied the Layers), we rushed home to finish our contributions to the meal and walk the dog before heading back to their house.

Butter ‘lambs; are a big deal around here. I saw them at the grocery store a week or so ago and wondered where they’d been all the other Easters of my life. Not where I lived, apparently.

I made caramelized pear, sage and orange biscuit bites, a recipe I found in a cookbook of Susy’s last time I was at her house. They were pretty darn good, but I don’t know if I’d make them again.

I also made Pioneer Woman’s Tres Leches cake for dessert. I. CAN’T. STOP. EATING. IT. Seriously. I had two pieces yesterday and two pieces (so far) today. Not good.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out before Abigail had to head back to school. I studied for my Micro test (I have THREE tests and a quiz this week…say a prayer for me, people!).

The rest of the family played ‘bean farmer,’ which I believe is really called Bonanza.

Andrew taught grandma.

Carolyn opted out and instead searched for dishes on the iPad.

After a light dinner of sandwiches and leftovers–not that anyone was terribly hungry–Andrew and I headed home to rescue the puppy and prep for the week ahead…if only I’d had another day off!

I’ll be up for air sometime on Thursday!

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.’

can food incite feelings of naked-ness?

Or, rather, the lack of food?

OK, what I’m really getting as is that feeling you get when you forgot to wear your watch. You know, that naked/’I forgot something’ feeling? I was thinking about it the other day, and I feel that way about my fridge sometimes. As in, if I’m out of certain things, all is not right with the world. I feel like we have no food. I feel like I cannot cook or clean or anything until I get to the store. Most are probably obvious, but others, not so much. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Spinach – I probably eat this stuff at least once a day, if not more. I’ve started trying to eat my salad FIRST, because I think if I did that, I would eat even smaller portions for dinner. The trouble is, it makes sense to eat the hot food first, as it will eventually cool down, whereas the salad won’t. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

2. Yogurt – I make my own, which means I need some leftover yogurt as well. Andrew is a huge fan of Kefir, so I like having that around for his breakfasts.

3. Bananas – I use half to sweeten my oatmeal and have been known to slather them in peanut butter, too. I used to hate them once they got really ripe, but now I don’t mind so much.

4. Fruit – Right now it’s citrus, as well as these tiny organic Honey Crisp apples I found awhile ago. They are THE BEST. I don’t care that they are $5.99 a bag.

5. Coffee creamer – Duh. Although, I’m seriously entertaining thoughts of switching to one of the Silk or Coconut Milk flavors once I finish this bottle, or even one of the more “natural” ones. Anyone have any thoughts?

6. Eggs – I don’t eat them very often by themselves (although I LOVE a good omelette!), but the lack of them means no baking, which would put me in a tailspin.

7. Cheese – I usually have a block of parm, as well as a container of something else like feta or blue or gorgonzola. They go in eggs, on top of salads or even with fruit. Cheese sticks are an essential item; I pair one with an apple for a snack.

8. Nuts – I have a giant bin I keep in the freezer of just about every nut around (three varieties of almonds, walnuts, pecans, pine, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds…) for baking, making granola or topping salads and oatmeal.

9. Seltzer – I’ve started drinking flavored seltzer sometimes when I just want something other than water. I used to absolutely hate the “flavor” (it’s carbonated water with a tiny hint of flavor, but not sweet), but it’s something I’ve gotten used to. I’m vehemently opposed to drinking my calories (except infrequent sodas and small amount of honey in tea, and, of course, beer and wine), and at 89 cents for a large bottle, I figured I should try to like it.

10. Ice cream – I’m actually on the fence about this one. I am an ice-cream-aholic. I am. Except that I don’t eat it that much; if I did, I’d have more room in my freezer! Seriously, I have like five pints of Jeni’s and Graeter’s ice creams we’ve brought back from Ohio, plus a christmas flavor of Perry’s I bought thinking Andrew would like it. He doesn’t, which means I’m stuck finishing it. What I need to do is learn to have just a small scoop each night–the problem is that even when I use a small bowl, once I start scooping, it’s like I can’t stop. I think I need a 12-step program…

Well, that’s probably about it. I also like having the ingredients to make things like hummus and granola on hand at a moment’s notice, so I guess I could include oats, real maple syrup and honey on that list, too. Oh and dried cranberries (as well as other fruits) and nut butters. I guess I could just keep going…

The good news is that I’m all stocked up right now and feelin’ good!