Cooking and Driving

GREETINGS!

A pleasant Sunday to you. Things are pretty laid back around here today. I've got a pork butt in the crock pot so we can have pulled pork, mashed potatoes and cole(d)? slaw for supper. To go with what's left of this georgeous apple pie - that will NEVER come out of my kitchen again!

I made this from a recipe on the Pioneer Woman cooking show. You talk about making a mess! I usually don't make my pie crust - why should I when it comes in a box all rolled out? - but decided to give it a whirl. I'm sorry I didn't capture the "mess" while doing this! The filling was great, using brown sugar and white sugar and lemon juice and the spices. But the crust was/is sinful! 3 cups of flour, 1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, 3/4 cup of shortening, an egg, some water and salt and vinegar. I think that's it.....my arm got tired breaking the butter and shortening into little gravelly pieces so hubby had to come help. Then I had to wash the rolling pin cause it's been in a bucket on top of the fridge for 2 1/2 years as decoration. Then try and roll the dough out on a piece of parchment paper to save a mess on the drain board. It was so rich it was very hard to turn over and especially hard to pick up and put in the pie pan. Which wasn't supposed to happen anyway, it was supposed to just be a circle of dough on a cookie sheet and then folded over the apples. The recipe made for 2 big crusts to do this with, but 2 cookie sheets wouldn't fit in my oven at the same time and they didn't have edges, so I knew that would be a sticky mess in my oven! whew So that's why I made a regular pie out of it! Also had some dough left over and made little sugar/cinnamon things that melted in your mouth!

Bottom line is it's very, very good but very, very rich and very, very messy! My daughter made it the right way, but she's young and maybe has more patience and know how than her mother. :) So I'll stick to what I'll call Corporate Woman pie crust and like it just fine!

Now, you are probably wondering what cooking an apple pie has to do with driving?! Well, the answer is........nothing. It's just that I had to take my beloved van in to the Ford garage one day last week for an oil/filter change, a new cabin filter and a new motor/regulator for the passenger side window that quit working. All that lovely maintenance was $300 +. And then they tell me I need new brakes and rotors to the tune of $308 + more! I said that's nice, I'll see you next month or so or whenever my brakes are totally gone, which ever comes first!

I love my 2002 Ford Windstar van. I have over 100,000 miles on it now and hope it will keep running for a long time. We talked about what we would do when it give out, and that was interesting! Like do we really need 2 cars and the Jeep? Will it be another van, or pick up or what? Only time will tell.

That's all I know for now. Until next time, take care and Gob bless you. And give thanks for all the things big and little that shape your life!