Foodie Friday-- Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

 

 I've been really busy making the various fillings for my Christmas candy. Fillings are finally made. Christmas decorations are up. And now, I can finally catch up on my blog posts before I start the candy molding process on Monday.

Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Pastry for single-crust pie (9-in.)

Pumpkin filling: 

 

1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

½ cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 Tbls. flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ginger

Cream cheese filling:

1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg, slightly beaten 

Topping:

¼ cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 Tbls. flour

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbls. cold butter, cubed

¼ cup chopped walnuts 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with pastry: trim and flute edge. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, milk, sugars, eggs, flour, salt and spices until blended; transfer to crust.

In another bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg; beat on low speed just until combined. Spoon evenly over pumpkin layer.

In a small bowl, combine the first five topping ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts; sprinkle over filling.

Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 50-60 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate covered, until cold.

Tips & tricks:

·         I got none. Sorry.

·        Okay, you can buy pie crust in the freezer section or you can make your own. I made a Pâte Brisée from a Martha Stewart recipe that I happened to have. Just google ‘pie crusts’ and you will get a plethora of selections.

·         If you do make your own crust don’t be afraid to add enough ice water. Yes, too much is a problem, but too little makes for a dry, crumbly crust.

·         The key is to have the fat in miniscule amounts that it causes a ‘mini-pocket’ to form from the melted fat when the crust is cooking. This helps the flakiness of the crust. Overwork the crust, or allow your hot hands to melt the fat pre-baking will result in a tough crust from the overworked flour.

·         I wasn’t much of a fan of this pumpkin pie, but then again, I’m not much of a fan of ANY pumpkin pies, which is why I usually try to make a pumpkin cheesecake!

 Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Cranberry-Orange Tart

For Thanksgiving 2014, I made four desserts that I never made before. I posted the pics on FB and here are the tweaked recipes, as I tend to not follow the original exactly. This tart was the favorite by most of the crowd. It does have a lot of sugar in it, but the tart cranberries keep it from being overly sweet.

 

Cranberry-Orange Tart

 

Crust and Crumb topping:

2 cups crushed cinnamon graham crackers (about 14 whole crackers), divided

½ cup sugar, divided

6 Tbls. butter, melted

¼ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar, packed

¼ cup cold butter, cubed

 Filling:

 1 large naval orange

1 cup sugar

3 Tbls. quick-cooking tapioca

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. allspice

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed

2 Tbls. Grand Marnier 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Crust: In small bowl, mix 1 ¾ cups crushed graham crackers and ¼ cup sugar; stir in melted butter. Press onto bottom and up sides of an ungreased 11-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Turn oven temperature up to 400 degrees.

Topping: Mix flour, brown sugar, remaining ¼ cup crushed graham crackers and ¼ cup sugar. Cut cold butter into the mixture until crumbly. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Filling: In large saucepan, mix sugar, tapioca, baking soda, cinnamon and allspice. Add rinsed cranberries and toss. Zest and juice orange, add to cranberry mixture along with Grand Marnier. Cook on medium-high until mixture boils and cranberries pop, stir constantly to help dissolve sugar, about 3-5 minutes.

Pour filling into cooled crust. Sprinkle with topping. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until topping is golden brown. Cool on wire rack.

 Tips & Tricks:

 

·        Fold a piece of aluminum foil in half and place under tart pan. Press the edges to the sides of the pan, but don’t fold over the top edge. This helps in two ways, 1) it keeps you from popping the tart crust out of the pan while taking it in and out of the oven, 2) it catches the excess butter that will inevitably leak through the tart pan’s rim, preventing grease from burning in the bottom of the oven. . . don’t even ask me how I know this . . .

·         Even if you have some excess crust mixture, restrain your urge to add it to the topping. See note on above tip. Don’t ask questions and I won’t have to explain my stupid mistakes . . .

·         If you don’t have Grand Marnier, you can use brandy, cranberry juice, or any other orange flavored liquor.

·         The original recipe called for the oven to be turned up to 425 degrees, but that was when I managed to set the smoke alarms off, okay, not really, but I did smoke out the kitchen and had a grease mess to clean up in the oven. Try the lower temperature, since you aren’t ‘cooking’ the tart as much as browning the topping.

 

Enjoy!

Figment contest

And who could resist logging onto a website called Figment. Sorry, guys, but I have a soft place in my heart for Disney's Figment dragon!

 

Through  a weird roundabout way (a writer mentioned it, but didn't give any details and I went to work googling the internet, took me less than 2 minutes to find it.) I discovered this Bandon Sanderson contest on Figment. Brandon Sanderson is the writer who finished Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, but also has a bunch of his own books.

Anyway, I discovered this short story contest, 1000 max. words, which has a log line of,

“If you were a super-villain, what would your one power be? And how would you use it to conquer the world?”

So I started thinking about my Goblin's Apprentice stories and wondered about Mike and his story.

And I started writing. . . and wrote a bunch of backstory crap that really didn't need to be written. I realized this when I started talking to Meg. I think I knew it, but she helped me 'see' what I was doing. So I rewrote it, did a little bit of editing and submitted it to this contest.

According to the rules, I can't publish it anywhere except on their contest page until after the contest, but I can provide the link.

http://figment.com/books/857497-Dragonskull-Keep

When you get to the page, just click the big red 'start at beginning' button.

Read it if you are curious about Mike and why he did what he did. I don't think you can comment or score it unless you are a member of this community.

And I don't expect you to join.

I hate the fact that so many of these contests are 'popularity' contests, where people try to force writers into reading their story just to get someone to comment on your story.

I hate, hate, HATE that. Tit-for-tat doesn't do anything but load the stories up with false scores.

Read the story, if you like it or don't like it, score it or don't score it, but don't ask me to read your story just so you'll come back and read mine. Do you really think I'll believe that you will come back to my page and score it? Really? I also have the deed to a popular bridge in New York City, just send me a moneygram for a gazillion bucks and you can have it--the deed, not the bridge.

I don't play those games, home girl.

And yes, one person asked this of me and I went all '*itchy' on her in my comment in response to her comment . . . less than an hour later another chick asked the same darn thing!

If you want to read how I went off on someone, then click the link and head to the comments. It probably wasn't professional of me, but I'm really tired of this popularity crap. I was never popular in high school and I'm certainly not popular in my crotchety old age.

I will ask one thing of you--anyone who reads this blog and is interested doing for me--read my story, and if you like it enough, then tweet it on your twitter, click like for facebook, or t+ for tumblr. It won't earn me any points, but all I ever wanted to do was to share my stories with other people.

And I can't do that without your help.

Later, Peeps!

Dem Bones . . . Gotta Have Dem Bones

No, not Halloween. It's done for the year.

I'm talking about the bones of a story. My good friend and writer, Meg Reid, and I were chatting the other day when I confessed that I had a hard time sitting down to write the next scene in my book, DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER. It's a tough scene, an emotional one, where two of my characters witness a scene featuring a third character.

Have you ever been out and about and witness an explosion of anger? Even with people you don't even know? Or been in the room where two people are arguing, getting louder and louder.

I have. Not often, thank God. I'm one of those witnesses who curl into themselves, frozen in fear. Should I even say it? I'm the rabbit who freezes, and prays that the fox doesn't see me.

Just like me, they don't know how to react or what to do. They are frozen as they watch this scene unfold, just like many of us would be if we had to witness something similar.

It isn't a fun scene. We're talking drugs, poverty, abuse, threats and violence. The two characters who witness this scene finally realize how sheltered their life is and just how horrific this third character's life has been. An "Ah-Ha" moment, if you will.

I have to write this scene. It's pivotal to all the characters. And I don't want to because it's overwhelming, brimming with emotion. And I have a very difficult time writing emotion, especially something as tense as this situation is.

So Meg suggested that I simply write the skeleton of the story. Simple facts that would allow me to place the characters in their positions, like a stop-action type of movie. Write the scene as I watch it unfold in front of these characters, but don't worry about the emotional impact--yet.

That part of the story can be told during the second draft, AFTER the story is written.

In fact, this story is riddled with bold red comments that I've made when I've thought about how to deepen one section, or delete another scene and add something more pertinent to the character. Or characterization for one of the secondary characters that seemed to know stuff she shouldn't know, etc.

That emotion/characterization is the meat of the story to lay over the bones of the skeleton.

And guess what the third layer is?

The flesh, the skin that covers everything and ties it all together, the finishing touches, the grammar tweaks, the word choices, along with the pacing, etc.

This story has taken me a long time to write, but by following Meg's suggestions, I'm not as scared as I once was to tackle uncomfortable scenes.

Time to get another cup of joe and open up my document.

Later, Peeps!

FREE!

In honor of Halloween, this little gem is free.

It's a chapter story (kid speak for 'short story' with chapter breaks).

Download the Kindle link, read the story, and give it a rating! Good or Bad. This little story hasn't had the recognition it deserves.

Read it to a younger child, or let a 7-12 year old child enjoy it at his/her own pace.

Please spread the word and share the link, A Maze of Monster Mix-Ups. This is the US link, but this story is free in all the countries that support Amazon. The picture is also linked.

Thanks!



 



Half-bath Update

Hubs finished the half-bath.

I don't know why they call it a 'half-bath', they should simply call it 'toilet and sink' room since that is all that fits in there. This room took him a little longer, but it was mainly due to the color choice we made.

We chose poorly.

We thought a deep red (the swatch is stuck in the mirror) would look good. And in theory, it would have. When he painted a splotch on the wall, we stared at it for a few days. It just didn't grow on us. Then he painted a splotch of Mount Tam--the green-gray we used in our bathroom--and we both breathed a sigh of relief.

The red was simply too stress-inducing.

Then I went to the paint store and brought back about ten swatches. I found four of them that I liked--and quietly placed a dot on the back of the swatch. And then let the hubs pick the colors he liked.

We were in agreement, finally settling on a color called, Beaver Pelt, a lovely deep brown.

Again, hubs made crown molding for the ceiling.

Before:

I actually loved this pattern as I imagined the 'leaf men' dancing . . . no, I'm not intoxicated. Can't you see them? Wearing their little green crowns??

After:

 

Again, I will state that it's very tight quarters. We opted to keep the gold fixtures, which looks really nice with this brown. If you notice the light fixture in the before picture was a verdigrises--greened 'copper'. Well, there's all sorts of spray paint to fix that problem. We picked up a 'hammered' gold paint and painted the light fixture.

 

I think it turned out great. 

 

Hubs will be painting the rest of the house, but we are simply repainting and not doing anything spectacular. So don't worry that I'll be posting remodeling pics all the time.

 

Later, Peeps!

Dworked up Knee

For those of you who happen to be on FB with me will know that I managed to tear the meniscus in my right knee.

How did you do that?

You might ask, but as much as I want to brag that I was skiing down a double black diamond and wiped out on a monster-sized mogul . . . I can't. For one, most ski resorts don't have enough snow, and the top of the mountain is usually the last place the snow seems to stick--wind, ya know.

Or maybe I was riding a wild horse and the darn thing bucked me off. . .  I could happen if I didn't have so many neck issues that horseback riding for me is seriously off-limits. I want to ride again, but I don't want to take the chance.

Or I could simply say that I was standing and turning at the same time . . . and that would be the truth.

I dworked up my knee by standing. It's right up there with tearing my rotator cuff while doing yoga. True story, I managed to do that during May of 2013.

Since I crippled myself on a Sunday night, I decided to take the 'wait-and-see' approach to the problem. I didn't have much pain, but my knee popped every time I stepped on my right foot, especially walking down stairs. And it felt 'off', not painful, just not right.

Monday morning, I could barely walk downstairs to get my coffee. The knee was hot, slightly puffy and painful. I saw the doc at 11:30. After some manipulation, and x-rays (simply to rule out anything obviously cracked or whatever), I got some anti-inflammatories, told to ICE it (ice, compression, elevation).

It's better, but since I write on a desktop computer I couldn't get anything done. Just sitting in the chair with my leg on another chair caused every other joint in my body to hurt.

So I gave up on writing this week. I'll be writing, but I have to monitor my time.

Anyhoo, that actually isn't what this blog is about. It's about technology advancing, but the attrition of those older folks who refuse to learn.

About ten years ago when I 'retired' to become a stay-at-home mom, the hospital that I worked at was trying to implement a system which featured laptops at every patient's bedside. The doctor would simply type his comments in the computer as he evaluated his patient. This would free up the nursing staff to actually do some nursing, instead of data input. So much of a nurse's time is wasted doing menial tasks that they shouldn't be doing. It was a crazy waste of the workforce.

The doctors hated it. Let me qualify this--the older docs hated it. The younger docs love the concept. Nurses didn't have to try to read the pathetic handwriting of the docs to try to type in their comments into the computer. There was no issue of miscommunication. IF there was a screw up, there was no one to blame but themselves.

Fast forward ten years.

Yes, my friends, it has taken this long for the system to be implemented, plus they have taken it to the next step.

Patients can sign up and have access to their records, their doctors, their lab results. They can sign up for their own appointments, update their information and do virtually everything on the computer using My Chart.

I logged onto the site, picked the "make an appointment" tab and scheduled my own appointment for a selection of openings, commented on the problem in as much or as little detail as I wanted, and got a confirmation all before the office even opened their doors for the day.

It was totally awesome!

Technology is a good thing, but if you don't keep up you might just be left out in the cold. . . unless you have a teenager hanging around the house, then they can keep you in the loop. Just saying!

Later, Peeps!