Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Weather Obsessed

Day: 494
High Temp: 66F

It is time that I fess up... I am OBSESSED with the weather here. It's not necessarily a positive or a negative thing. It is just so vastly different from what I grew accustomed to during my many years as a midwesterner. I cannot get over how strange it is. The fact that I must announce the day's high temperature at the start of every blog should only go towards proving my obsession. The subject is endlessly fascinating to me. And in an effort to prevent myself from musing about every day where the weather is unseasonable my my midwestern sensibilities, I am writing this little post.

So, it may interest you to know that it was 80 degrees yesterday.  Should you not totally understand the significance of this, I should also point out that yesterday was December 21- the first day of WINTER! We still have lettuce, beets and carrots in the garden. I wore a sleeveless dress, without stockings, to take Homer for a walk last night.

I am not sure I will ever get used to a warm winter, but I also have a hard time complaining too heartily about it. Besides, with Thanksgivings spent in the snowy Sierra's, and Christmas in the chilly midwest, I suppose I do get enough winter to meet my ingrained expectations.

And as I am not coming to terms with my obsession, I would also like to apologize to my siblings-in-law for the many times I made fun of and rolled my eyes at their enthusiasm and elation over even the smallest snowfall at the cabin. Too many years of heavily snowed-in winters made me jaded, and I had forgotten the magic of snow. I hope you will all forgive me.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Family Food Memories/Traditions

Day: 478
High Temp: 56F

With the recent frequent mentions of pies on my blog (and one more to come!) I was so excited to check out my cousin Molly's blog, A Foreign Land, this morning to see that she has recently posted a video paying homage to one of my absolute favorite family foods from back in the day: the smoked oyster. Molly's video blog can be found here. Please watch it, if only to see how adorable she is.

Every word of Molly's story of the smoked oyster tradition is true. And I am not too proud to admit that I would scarf pretty much as many of these as I could, often until my mom would yell at me to lay off. We always had these at extended family gatherings, but sometimes my mom and dad would buy some for us us. I remember eating them alone (on a toothpick), or on a cracker, with a fairly thick coating of cream cheese. To die for.

You may think that smoked oysters are an unlikely candidate for the favorite foods list of an eight year old, but I can guarantee you that these gems would have made my top ten back in the day. And now I can thank Molly for inspiring me to revisit this beloved family culinary memory. They are on the grocery list for next week for sure!

Any odd or not so odd family food traditions you want to share?

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Chocolate Cream Pie

Day: 476
High Temp: Honestly, I cant find anywhere to tell me how warm it was today, but trust me, it was warm. I was wearing a tank top to water the garden and was getting sweaty.

Chocolate Cream Pie is a Becker family tradition. When I started celebrating Thanksgiving with Tom's family far away in California, I took the tradition with me. Honestly, I think it is the sole reason the Horans love me as much as they do...

Ingredients
1 baked pie crust
1 1/4 C Sugar
1/2 C Flour
1/4 C Cocoa Powder
Dash of Salt
4 Egg Yolks
2 C Milk (go ahead, use whole milk!)
1/4 C Butter, melted
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 C Whipped Cream (I like to make it from scratch, with a bit of brown sugar in it, but from the tub or the spray can is fine... I just think that stuff is a little too sweet to truly serve this pie)


Mise en place!!!
1. Combine Sugar, Flour, Cocoa and Salt in a medium sauce pan, and set aside.

The dry stuff...
2. Combine Egg Yolks and Milk in a bowl.

...and the wet.
3. Add the wet stuff to the dry in the sauce pan, and whisk together. Then add the melted butter. A whisk will break up most of the lumps, but the rest will cook out.

4. Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken and just starts to boil. It will thicken up even further as it cools.
Be careful to scrape the bottom well while cooking, so the
milk doesn't burn. I recommend a silicone-coated whisk.
5. Remove sauce pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract.

6. Spoon hot filling into baked pastry shell, and chill in the fridge until the pie is completely cooled and set.

The action shot!
And that, my friends, is it. You can make the pie up to a day in advance, just keep it in the fridge, lightly covered with plastic wrap. When you are ready so serve, top the pie with a thick layer of whipped cream. It is so amazing.  And if you don't like pie, make the filling and just eat it out of a ramekin with some whipped cream. For reals.