Month: April 2019

This past week was rough on me. I need a little something sweet to soften the blows. Nothing makes me feel better after dinner on a bad day than an ice cream sundae with my darling Jeremy. Remember that leftover pie crust dough sitting at the bottom of the fridge? We broke it up and put the pieces on a baking sheet in the oven at 475 degrees. Oops! Some of it burned! That smell is impossible to eliminate from the kitchen. Okay, next time 450. Let’s not burn down the kitchen like Shady Pines.

Caramel ice cream, that’s brilliant! We made an apple pie sundae. Rainbow sprinkles are one of my staple sundae components because I love colorful edibles. After all, they were invented by the French as a decorative touch to everyday desserts. We skipped the dry sugar-made sprinkles -which don’t really work with pie- and went towards the fruit drawer. I sliced up a ripe red apple -much more appropriate for pie crust- and threw out the core.

Caramel is a browned mixture of different sugars, and butter and/or cream heated at 340 degrees. Werthers Original makes the best caramel lozenges, but Hershey does have a very appetizing caramel sauce too. But what’s the difference between caramel, butterscotch and toffee? It BOILS DOWN to a science, like this.. https://www.finecooking.com/article/the-science-of-caramel

Guys, I’m REALLY trying to be good and not eat a ton of sugar. Even though I had a frustrating stressful day too, I don’t want to eat my feelings to try and make them go away. We’re going to skip the sauces too.

Darn it! We’re out of heavy cream to whip for the top! That’s my favorite part!! 

YAY! I won’t get whipped cream on my face! Lauren can’t be trusted not to smear whipped cream on my face. But if we don’t have whipped cream, then I can’t try and get her back. Oh, Man!! 

As much as the pie crust pieces looked like chips that could scoop up some ice cream like an edible spoon, it didn’t work out that way. Our crust was thin and flaked as we dug in. It’s easiest to use your apple slices if you don’t want to make your spoon wet and sticky.

I have to tell you, I was in HEAVEN when I took that first bite of the trio: an apple slice dipped in caramel ice cream with a pie crust piece on top! MMMMM!!!!! Lauren is a genius in the kitchen, I tell you! I could eat up her ideas all day long! Om-nom-nom! Jeremy, if we do this one again, I could bake the slices and add some cinnamon and nutmeg. You know, give it a deep filling apple pie flavor instead of just bare bones basics. What did I just tell you? She’s a GENIUS!! and she’s all mine…okay, I share her with her family.

This is our first anniversary of our blog, and 3 years for us as a couple. We decided to spend our dating anniversary (March 25th) watching our movie, “Beauty and the Beast” from 2017 (We saw it in the theater 2 years ago and stuck with the tradition like candle wax) and bake a berry-lemon tart on our blogging anniversary.

My mother has a Betty Crocker cookbook which shows the basic Crisco crust, great for pies and tarts. Usually she uses her tried and true half butter half Crisco crust so it flakes but still has that real buttery flavor. Crisco crusts give it that flaked texture with the added bonus of it’s packaged softened in a giant can instead of 4 hard sticks per box. Butter gives it that irresistible flavor that makes you crave it more and doesn’t take up as much space in the refrigerator. Flour, butter, Crisco and a few tablespoons of ice-cold water are all you need.

Here’s a tip for measuring cups of lard-like substances. Fill a liquid measure of water with the amount you need of the Crisco. Add in your Crisco until the water is twice as high as you started.

Example: You need 1 cup of Crisco…put 1 cup water in a liquid measure. Keep adding Crisco to the water until it reaches 2 cups all together. 

Oops! We have an extra ball of pie crust dough unused! Oh well, We can roll it out and put it in the fridge for another time.

Just a few minutes in the oven at 475 degrees and we were ready to go.

This turned out to be much simpler than I had imagined it to be. All you do is make the filling in one bowl and the pie crust onto some wax paper. My mom, Cindi gave us a gift card to “Whole Foods” so we picked out a jar of gooey lemon curd to try. It was extra sour and thin in comparison to the depth of our pie. We tried adding berries to sweeten it up, plopped them in one by one without care. Not exactly our best idea. In hindsight, I think we should have made a syrup or maybe a compote. What if we tried making a mixed berry curd and used a smaller pan? Those are good questions, Lauren. Let’s keep them in mind for next time.

We thought things would improve if we chilled it in the fridge over-night, but nothing happened. To make matters difficult, we made too much crust dough and had to keep it in the fridge since we were up until midnight and could barely keep awake.

In the end, we gave it to my mom as a just-because gift. She loves sour stuff. It’s better than wasting edible food, especially if the ingredients were expensive.

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We’re very happy to have been able to share our first year of cooking with you. From apples-zeppolis, there’s plenty more to come.

Cooking is one of our favorite ways to bond as a couple. Food brings people together in ways words and music just don’t understand.

Thank you all for supporting us here and on our Facebook page. Keep the stove warm. See you soon! After all, we still have extra pie dough! Check out our next post to see what becomes of that.                       The best is yet to come!