Life lesson # 3 and # 4

Life Lesson # 3, don't always follow the recipe...I did an oops and it turned out better than the original recipe. I forgot to put the sugar in the topping, so scraped the topping off, and put the sugar in the peaches, returned topping for baking, sprinkled well with about 2 -3 tablespoons of demerara sugar, oh it was so good...also forgot the cinnamon was to go in the peaches, so put it in the topping...worked out fine! So the life lesson is perhaps the original recipe wasn't the greatest after all.

uhoh...poor little chicken in oven, put the tray back in under the grill and did not notice the plastic chicken cutting board was hanging onto the back side....oh dear...always check...Life Lesson # 4, just in case the chicken is still damp and holding on for dear life! Oh the tray got dirty when I baked the cobbler and like an idiot I did not cover it with foil before baking the cobbler which boiled over. So I had removed the tray and scrubbed it, put it behind the faucet for drying apparently right next to the chicken cutting mat and they got stuck together!

I had been preheating the oven for jacket potatoes I intended to stuff with cheese, bacon, butter and sour cream...I scoop out the potato and mash all of that together, then put it all back together...it's yummy! I turned and noted smoke pouring out of my oven and a horrible horrible stench! Aaaaccckkk!

Fortunately I kept my few wits about me and shut off the oven, a first attempt to scoop fried plastic chicken off the bottom of the non removable part of my oven showed me that it needed to cool because it had the consistency of wet chewing gum stuck on your shoe!

I got so lucky, the little chicken did a regroup of its molecules in the cooling process and came out mostly whole...the rest I was able to clean up with a razor blade scraper...oh so fortunate that the oven base is ceramic too. It only took about five minutes with the blade and hot soapy dishwater to clean it up...oh I was lucky this time as I could've turned the thing on and left the house for an hour. So the lesson is always check the bottom of whatever you've stuck in the oven, just in case a plastic chicken goes along for a ride!
Ha and when you check your post you find out that your pictures are in reverse order....the clean oven should've been last and the poor little chicken should've been first...ahhh well...like Scarlett said..."tomorrow is another day".

A pot that age has made beautiful

I often wonder where this pot came from. It magically appeared one day, that happens sometimes when you have a gardener. When it first appeared it was a normal pot with normal colors. I think the gardener was trying to replace a pot that I had loved and he tossed out, it was broken and I had put it in a tree branch for decoration. Well...over time this pot has beautifully aged. I notice it daily when I go outside. I rather love it now. I think it's a happy pot. I love the age spots on it and just like my own, Mother Nature provided them.

Life Lessons 1 & 2

First life lesson...remember to prebake crust for key lime pie at least 20 minutes before adding filling and baking the 12 minutes which is perfect by the way for filling, cuts perfectly and eggs are bacteria free after 12 minutes...just be sure the pie crust is properly prebaked. It may take longer than 20 minutes, will test that again.
Egg yolks here are very dark orange, hence nearly melon or pumpkin colored key lime pie!

And to Life Lesson number 2. Keep rubber gloves in the bathroom for when your bracelet falls in the toilet! I had to fish out the chain then find the little ball too...ugh..thank you to whoever invented rubber gloves! I soaked them in bleach/dish wash soap and hottest water possible. And always remember to look BEFORE you flush..as I once flushed the last $20.00 we had and payday was a few days away.

Pie anyone?

This is my key lime tree in my garden in Dubai, two years in a row now it has produced somewhere in the area of 100 lbs of key limes and thus many pies. I decided I must find more recipes using key limes as I have so many and still have frozen juice and zest from last summer! I found this http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blfruit27.htm there are several recipes there that sound just terrific.
Several years ago I was interviewed for an article for Friday magazine, a local magazine here in Dubai that comes with your newspaper on Friday. I was required to make six pies and submit the pies for photographing along with the recipes. The lady that interviewed me was from India and she had brought her little ten year old girl along, neither of them nor the Phillipine photographer had ever had pie so we sat and sampled them all after the photo shoot. I use an old recipe for piecrust I found years ago in the Southern Living 1979 recipe book. I learned to make some new pies for the article, one was a coconut cream totally from scratch, it was delicious and fun. I also made pecan, apple, key lime and a cherry and a blueberry though they did not photograph those two. I have so many pie dishes because of that photo shoot! I have given several away full of pie. I also found a site online that shows you how to make individual pies in little canning jars, I made them while at our beach house and shared them with all my little neighbors, so nice as you can put the lid on and freeze them until you want a pie then thaw, heat and eat!
So this is my key lime pie recipe:

Pie Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons Crisco
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water or more depending on your altitude

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add crisco and blend with a pastry blender until soft crumbles the size of small peas. Slowly stir in the ice water until able to make a ball of dough. Chill, then roll into a circle, roll it up on your rolling pin and drape over your pie dish, trim the edges and decorate as you please. As you'll see in the picture of the front of the magazine, they picked my American Apple Pie as the small featurette and there it is with the apple falling into the pie...silly me cut the shape all the way around instead of just making slits, then it fell in! Didn't alter the taste at least.

Key Lime Pie
4 large egg yolks
one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of fresh key lime juice
2 teaspoons of key lime zest

Whip the eggs together until thick and creamy, but do not over-whip. Add the sweetened condensed milk. Add the juice a little at a time mixing until well blended. Add the lime zest. Pour into prepared shell (I prebake my pie crust for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven). Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes to kill any bacteria in the eggs and to set the yolk. Remove, cool and keep refrigerated until serving time. Serve with a dollop of home made whipped cream

Home Made Whipped Cream
Pour contents of one small container of whipping cream into a bowl, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and a few drops of vanilla. Whip until it just barely holds a stiff peak, again do not over-whip. Serve on top of your pie, easy and delicious.

My Parents

My parents, Tipp and Gloria McClure, September 18, 1993, posted on facebook by my niece. It's a great picture of them. My niece thinks the occasion was my Aunt Rosie's 50th anniversary dinner.

hmmm...this brings back such a flood of memories..

Peach Cobbler

1 stick (4 ounces) butter
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 peaches peeled, and thinly sliced (I used about 6...I like alot)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Melt butter and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt; stir to blend. Stir in the milk and vanilla until blended. Pour the batter over the melted butter. Toss the peaches with the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon and pour on top of the batter and butter. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 375 degrees until batter begins to pull away from the sides or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. The top will be browned. Serve warm with heavy cream or whipping cream or a scoop of ice cream. Serves 6

Three Graces

My sweet husband took on me and my three young girls many years ago. We began in a big ole barn of a house in the Historical District of Asheville. The grand stairwell was covered in pictures, one of them being The Three Graces. Soon we began to call the girls, who have now become "our" girls, The Three Graces. So the photo is a current one of our Graces and the statue pictures are the real deal from the Vatican Museum, a trip we took about six years ago.

In Greek Mythology they were thought to be goddesses of gracefulness, the charms of beauty and cheerful amusements. I found their names in Wikipedia...from youngest to oldest: Aglaea ("Beauty"), Euphrosyne ("Mirth"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer"). In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces". Sounds like a bit to live up to....I just settled the names on my own and nope....no where near the truth of them. Mine are real flesh and blood and they fight tooth and toenail both for and against each other, they also laugh and cry together; I think that's likely normal for a trio of sisters. One thing amongst them seems to really stand out...they are all three devoted to the other's children, and that I think is marvelous.

Strangely enough, most generally in a picture of the three of them, they do have their arms draped across each other, many pictures come to my minds eye, they just are not on this computer. Here they are standing on the deck of the last place they all three knew as home, we all built it together and family life as we know it continues here in the long awaited home to our Three Graces.