I’ve decided to take your advice/lovely comments and look at this film stuff as happy accidents. Thanks, guys! Also, I love the thought of having a huge old camera with a blackout blanket over my head while holding up a huge flash that goes “POOF!” when it goes off. I would also be wearing a fedora with card that said, “PRESS” on it and it would be tucked into the satin band of my hat. I would mostly be taking photos of people smoking Lucky Strikes and people doing the Charleston.
Remember my favourite photo trick for food photography – taking the photos in the fridge? That sure worked out well with this camera:
And who could get tired of looking at lemon tarts, really? You know, I COULD do all 12 of my photos in the fridge for the Vancouver Film Marathon in a pinch. It could rain all day you know. This could be my plan B for the day.
Meanwhile, back at the graveyard…
[click to continue…]
After shooting in film for the last couple of days, I really wanted to take a photo of something not grainy. Oscar was a happy model for this event. Tonight we’re hanging on the North Side watching the last season of The Wire. It’s a really good cop show – surveillance on drug dealers and human trafficking and other social ills. While it’s entertaining, it shows compassion and understanding toward homeless people and kids dealing drugs. There’s also all the corruption in government. It’s scandalous!
I’m looking forward to the weekend. I’ve got more baking planned and I’ll be trying out a new recipe that Mike’s mom gave me – lemon curd. I thought I’d use up the rest of the pie pastry I made a couple of weeks ago and make lemon tarts – it’s recipe fusion! Also, I have a 911 call from my cousin about how to properly make Puffed Wheat Squares, so I’ll do a step-by-step for her and my Uncle Bill. It’s a cry for help! I feel compelled to answer them.
And in the film shooting department, I shot another roll of film, but didn’t use the attachment needed to make the viewfinder work correctly – another incident of not using all the pieces. Again. Consequently, I picked up a roll of film with grainy photos of 1/2 a basket of flowers (just the bottom half) and part of the cathedral steeples (both crosses at the top cut off) but got one pretty cool photo of the meteor sculpture over by the Skytrain Station. I’ll post that later to my Flickr account. I’m making mistakes, but I think by next month, I should be okay if I keep at it.
Flapper: The term flappers in the 1920s referred to a “new breed” of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. [Source]
My Grandma is in the white flapper dress. Yay Grandma! She certainly is flaunting her disdain! Heh.
I had to post this recipe because it was such a lovely surprise. I don’t remember having this type of pie before, and that’s one reason why I baked it. I had to know, what is Flapper Pie? It’s sweet and lovely, and as far as I can tell, it’s lemon meringue in a graham cracker crust. It’s a little complicated, but worth all the steps.
First, start by making the pie crust:
Graham Wafer Crust
1 cup graham wafer crumbs (about 18 squares) *I cheated. I bought the crumbs in a box.
4 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Method:
Mix the cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon; add melted butter.
Press the mixture firmly into a greased pie plate; make 1/4 inch thick.
(Save a tablespoon of the mixture to sprinkle on top of the meringue).
Bake the pie crust before filling. Bake 8-10 minutes at 375°.
Place in refrigerator and leave for at least 45 minutes before filling.
Next, make the filling:
4 Tbsp cornstarch
5 Tbsp flour
1 cup sugar
1 & 3/4 cup boiling water
3 egg yokes (keep the whites for the meringue!)
1 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 & 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (optional)
Method:
In the top section of a double boiler, mix cornstarch, flour and sugar; add boiling water, stir and cook until there is no taste of raw starch.
Beat egg yolks; add to hot mixture, first adding a little cornstarch mixture to the eggs. Blend thoroughly. Stir over boiling water until egg thickens. Remove from heat; add butter, lemon juice and rind. Cool slightly, pour carefully into pie crust.
Cover with meringue:
2 or 3 egg whites and 2 tablespoons of sugar per egg white
Beat egg whites until stiff then add sugar and continue to beat mixture until stiff.
Spread over pie filling, sprinkle crumbs on top and bake at 300° until meringue is golden brown. (that took about 12-15 minutes. But keep an eye on it!)
And THAT is Flapper pie. DEEEELISH!
I hope you enjoyed the Grandma Wilson recipe series. I know I sure did. The cookbook is finished and in line to be printed. You’ll be the first to see it when the hard copy arrives in the mail – estimated time of arrival is the week of August 23rd. About a week before we go to Toronto for Grandma’s birthday.
I baked the blueberry pie and the raisin pie at the same time the other day. The blueberry pie (also known as the faux Saskatoon Berry pie) turned out great, but the raisin pie? I burned it. While I can forgive an overly browned crust – hey, it happens – it became terribly clear that it was the filling that was extremely overdone. How could I tell? Well, I stuck a knife in it to cut a piece to see if it tasted burnt and this is as far as I could put the knife into the pie.
I could put the tip of the knife in and that was it. I couldn’t move the knife down or over any further. What happened?
I have 2 theories – or CSI Pie, as I like to call it.
1) the oven rack was not on the centre peg, but on the one above the centre peg – therefore, it was too close to the top element. However, this does not explain a charred filling and an overly brown crust. But it could have been part of the problem.
2) I may have overcooked the filling before putting it in the pie crust. You combine raisins and brown sugar and some other ingredients so it’s like a thick caramel sauce with raisins in it. If I cooked it too much on the stovetop and then had it too close to the element, that could have produced the black, charred mess coating the pie – much like a burnt marshmallow over a campfire.
Thank goodness I still have 3 more pie crusts to use up. I’m going to make another raisin pie and make sure it’s baked to a golden brown finish on top, with a perfectly cooked pastry this weekend. Also, I’m going to make Christmas cake. It just has to be done.
I’m taking the rest of the night off from baking today, but I’ll be back at it tomorrow. I made a 7 minute frosting for Mike’s birthday cake and overwhipped it. I realized it when the frosting turned from a meringue-y constancy to grainy one in front of my very eyes. NO! It still tasty good, though. Marshmallowy with a sugary crunch to it. Oh well.
Meanwhile, I brought a bunch of the balls from yesterday and the date nut loaf to work today. I must say, they were all a big hit – especially the loaf. It was all gone by lunch time.
And in other news, the Chinese Chews may actually have a Chinese background for real. My work buddy is Chinese and he said they eat treats like those at Chinese New Year – he said it’s less cake-y, and more date-y. He’s going to bring me the name of that treat after to talks to his mom about it.
More happy accidents…
by Carol Browne on August 25, 2010 · 0 comments
in Family and Buddies,General,Photos,Vancouver
I’ve decided to take your advice/lovely comments and look at this film stuff as happy accidents. Thanks, guys! Also, I love the thought of having a huge old camera with a blackout blanket over my head while holding up a huge flash that goes “POOF!” when it goes off. I would also be wearing a fedora with card that said, “PRESS” on it and it would be tucked into the satin band of my hat. I would mostly be taking photos of people smoking Lucky Strikes and people doing the Charleston.
Remember my favourite photo trick for food photography – taking the photos in the fridge? That sure worked out well with this camera:
And who could get tired of looking at lemon tarts, really? You know, I COULD do all 12 of my photos in the fridge for the Vancouver Film Marathon in a pinch. It could rain all day you know. This could be my plan B for the day.
Meanwhile, back at the graveyard…
[click to continue…]
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