November 14th (Recipe: Browned Butter-Buttermilk Pie)

I'm back!  Honestly, I was kind of shattered, emotionally, after that reception.  Do you ever get that way after a big project finishes?



Saturday was a driving day for me.  I can't remember the last time I drove that much in a day!

• 8:30-10:00, receive produce at the co-op site, divide it into basket.  Go home and see my baby.
• 10:30-11:30, take the girls to the library.  Go home and see my baby.
• 1:00-2:00, use my two-day coupon at Michael's for loads more wire.  I cleaned them out, actually.  I took E with me.  Go home and see my baby.

The rest of the day was chores, and shooing Wonder Daddy out the door to his last dress rehearsal.  Oh yes, he's been a busy boy- rehearsals were once a week, and then twice a week, and this past week they had him Thursday, Friday, AND Saturday.  Plus a two-hour curtain call before the show on Sunday.

BUT.  His show, He Is Jesus Christ (a cantata with soloists, choir, narration, and FULL orchestra written by Rob Gardner) was Sunday evening.  It was amazing.  Eight years of marriage, and I've never seen my husband perform.  Do you know any performing artists?  If you've never seen them on a stage, you've never seen them.  

My husband really, REALLY doesn't like to dance.  When he was in high school, his dad got an electric guitar for Christmas- Wonder Daddy took it to his basement bedroom, and didn't come out for weeks, except to eat.  He lived and breathed guitars when he was in high school.  While everyone else was building gun racks and boxes in wood shop, he built a new electric guitar.  When everyone else was dancing at the church dances, he put together a band and performed the music!  (Remember?  Loathes dancing?)  

Wonder Daddy sang the part of Pilate, the Roman governor who gave the Jewish citizens permission to crucify Jesus.  He made me bawl like a baby- luckily for me, a show about the Savior, in a church building, makes a lot of people bawl like a baby.  I didn't stand out too much :)  I was so very, very proud of him.  And so very tired from everything that's going on.  And so wrapped up in the message of the show.  And so happy for him to have this chance.  And so sad I wasn't on that stage.

That last part sounds ugly.  Yeah, I tried out.  Yeah, I didn't get one of the soloist parts.  (The ladies who DID get them were phenomenal!)  But.... you know, I feel the same way at most concerts.  Is that bad?  That I can be at a Johnny Lang, or a Trans-Siberian-Orchestra, or a Farm Aid concert...and think "Hey!  I wish I could be on that stage with them!"  I absolutely knew going in that I wouldn't have time to join the choir- they've been having nigh rehearsals since September, and that wasn't going to happen with a busy husband, and three small kids who need to get to bed on time.  I'm pretty sure, now, that I wouldn't have been able to do a solo part either without a looot of difficulty, and a lot of stress on my  kids.  I'll have time later.  I think.

 

Anywho.   I really came here today to talk about pie.  You need this pie, but if you eat this pie...eat nothing else.  With three eggs, 2 egg yolks, and 3/4 of a stick of butter, there's no messing around here!  BUT (and this is a big but.  Ahem.) You need this pie.

 I cook a lot.  A lot, a lot.  And this is the best thing to come out of my kitchen in a long time!  Crispy pie crust.  Soft custard.  Nutmeg that floats to the top.  Add this to your Thanksgiving line up, folks.

(If you don't subscribe to Martha's "Everyday Food" magazine, PLEASE do.  It's that good.)

Brown-Sugar buttermilk pie
from Everyday Food originally, in my own words

3 Tbsp flour
3 large egg eggs, plus two more large yolks, beaten
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1. Press your favorite single-crust pie crust into a glass pan, and bake at 425 for about 10 minutes.
2. Put 6 tablespoons of butter in a small sauce pan on the stove, over medium heat, for 8-10 minutes and let it melt and cook.  It's going to froth up, and it's going to turn brown.  Swirl the pan occasionally, especially towards the end.  When the froth subsides, and it's nut-brown, it's done!
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, eggs, and brown sugar until smooth.  Whisk in buttermilk, nutmeg, and cinnamon until combined.  This pie, with such small amounts of spices, is already heavily spiced.  I wouldn't recommend increasing them at all.
4. When the butter is done, immediately whisk it into the buttermilk mixture.  It will foam up dramatically, be prepared!  Pour mixture into baked pie shell, and bake at 425 for 25-35 minutes, until the custard is set but still jiggly.  This will continue to cook a bit as it cools.
5. Let cool completely, 2 hours, before serving.  Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

(If you use this pie crust recipe, you won't be sorry!  It mixes together with a fork, IN THE PIE PLATE.  Then you just smash it out with your finger tips.  No rising, either, so it's perfect for this.  My  mom has always, as long as I've known her, left her pie crust behind when she eats pie.  It's just wasted calories, when she could be eating more filling! She ate this crust, and relished it :)