a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance

People, it was time. I've been avoiding this for years. Ever since A Auntie's superior South Indian son once scoffed at me about it, I have longed to make a pie crust from scratch. "It's easy," he sniffed, in response to a remark I had made about how tricky it seemed, when I was 23 and visiting the family during Thanksgiving. "All you really need is a good pastry cutter."

Well, all these years later, I still do not own a pastry cutter, but I think I have finally decided to man up and figure out this whole pie crust business, what with the amount of time I have on my hands at the moment. What with the prior failures and prior declarations that wound up amounting to wimp-outs, pies & I do have a kind of troubled history. Still, I was thinking today that I had recently figured out how to use a rolling pin passably, so I might as well put it to the test.

Everything went a lot more smoothly than it did the last times. For all the knowledge you can amass in the world, it seems like nothing replaces a good instinct. It is as true in the kitchen as it is anywhere else- you can often just feel whether something is going well or not. The same thing happened this morning with Attempt #2 in the Caramel Chronicles, except against my favor- I knew something was not quite right, and this time instead of burning it, the caramel didn't quite go all the way caramel enough. I know that makes no sense, but let's just say at this point, the Caramel Chronicles are starting to resemble Goldilocks and the Three Bears- maybe on Attempt #3, things will fall into place.

The pie, on the other hand, appears to be okay:


It came out looking a bit sunken, but that is just because I had to be stingy with the filling, as I was only given a small amount of fresh cherries from my dealer my friend. But of course, as everyone knows, looks do not count for everything, especially when it comes to baked goods. I happen to have a real problem with cherries, so I am going to have to force someone else to taste test this for me.

I'll leave you with the most emotional conversation the broseph and I may have ever had with each other:

me: (answering phone call) Hey, man, I was just thinking of you.
broseph: Really (weirded out), why?
me: I was just giving some friends these brownies I made with a peanut butter frosting on them, and I always think of you when I'm using peanut butter.
broseph: Oh! I just came from a coffee shop where I had the most unsatisfying peanut butter cookie of my whole life. I was just thinking, sh*t, my sister would not have stood for these.

In other news, I see my godson tomorrow! I predict he will not recognize me and cry with absolute commitment.