Can-Am Pie

Several months ago we were eating butter tarts, and someone suggested it might be interesting to mix butter tarts with apple pie.

I suppose this pie might be a metaphor for our family: Butter tarts are the quintessential Canadian dessert, and apple pie is as American as... well, apple pie. So I'm calling this one "Can-Am pie".

I started with four large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored.

I squeezed half a lemon over them to keep them white-ish.

Then I made some butter tart filling.

Butter tart filling is a mixture of butter, eggs, brown sugar, and corn syrup.  Like all Canadians, I have a family recipe for butter tarts, but this one was just a recipe I got out of a cook book.

One of my current fascinations is raised pie, so I decided to put this one in a hot water pie crust. I used a spring-form pan to shape the pie.

I poured the entire batch of butter tart filling into the crust, then put the apples on top, sprinkling them with cinnamon and white sugar:

I covered the pie, then baked it for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I took the pie out of the pan and brushed it all over with egg wash, then baked for another 15 minutes.

Grits ain't groceries

Friday nights I make pizza. Saturday mornings Ames makes a huge breakfast.

This last weekend, it was very hot here in the Northwest. I think it was 90 F on Friday when I was biking home. Not perhaps hot by Southern standards, but people here don't generally have air conditioning. So yeah, it was hot. It was hot enough Ames decided to have a light breakfast: she sauteed some onions and peppers, scrambled some eggs, and cut some fruit.

When she called us all for breakfast, the youngest asked what was for breakfast. Ames told her, and she demanded in her most stentorian, Ghost of Christmas Present voice, ``Are there no grits? Is there no bacon?"

Sometimes I'm overcome with pride.

NC Bound

I'm heading out to Raleigh, North Carolina June 20--25. It's a business trip: I won't have a ton of time for hobnobbing, but I will absolutely make some time for what friends and family I can reasonably get in touch with.

Tripping Teresa Day

August 14 is an important day for us: it's my baby sister's birthday.

My baby sister is one of my favourite people, for all that I haven't seen her in a few years. In fact, I just recently saw my older sister for the first time in 7 years... there seems to be a pattern here.

Gwen's clever and witty: I try to keep up with her, but truth to tell, I can't. To misquote Blackadder, she's as witty as a very witty person who enjoys good wit.

We used to be good buddies at one point. Not that we're enemies now or anything, but the course of life tends to affect one's relationships just as it affects one's waistline. We're no longer found bombing around in my old VW Rabbit or a Cessna 152. We don't rise at 4:30 to go fishing in Dad's canoe like we used to.

But although I rarely see her in real life, I certainly hold her in the same affection as then. And I suspect a great deal more respect.

So many happy returns, Gwennie. I look forward to seeing you again in real life when the days get shorter.