I had a real block when it comes to making pie crust. In fact, I was so bad at it I couldn’t get the crust from “rolled out” to “into the pie plate”. Forget about it tasting good, I couldn’t even get it to the oven to find out! After many years of attempts, many hands on tutorials with friends, and at least eight different recipes and moments of shame where I ran out and bought the crappy, pre-made, preservative laden, frozen crusts at the very last minute to save face, I have figured it out.

I was wandering about the Pioneer Woman site, as I am wont to do, when I found this recipe for crust. It made a lot of sense and had step by step photographic instructuion along with some very key verbal instructions that I had never heard before. I gathered my hopes and my pie making tools (stoneware pie dish, roller, baker’s mat, pastry blender, pie crust shield- I had harbored big dreams many times before, so I had all of the good pie paraphernalia, just no skill) and began to follow the directions.

I made a cherry pie. And not only did I get the crust into the pan (which, to be honest, I would have been satisfied with- “aim low” was my pie crust motto), but I made wonderful, flaky, yummy, perfect crust that made people oooh and ahhh at my mind boggling pie crust skills!

While I was pretty thrilled with this, I did have to wonder if perhaps it was a fluke, a momentary, merciful experience that I might treasure always, remembering with fondness, “remember the time I made real pie crust. . .wow.” I set out to make a pumpkin pie yesterday, and I am pleased to report that the fluke success was repeated, and so, I can only conclude that I can now make pie crust! Bless the Pioneer Woman!

I’m so proud of me!

Ok, readers, if any of you are over 40 and musically skilled at all, you should enter this fun contest!

(I copied this from the site)

Pond’s has partnered with the big screen remake of Mamma Mia!, starting Meryl Streep and coming to theaters this summer. Women 40 and older are invited to form a singing trio to perform their own take on the classics “Mamma Mia” or “Dancing Queen” and submit videos of their performances via the Pond’s website, which also houses music and lyrics you can download to rehearse. It’s like American Idol for grown ups, but designed for amateur karaoke enthusiasts who just love the music from Mamma Mia! Add two friends and a digital camera recorder, and you’re in business! The winners of the contest will win a lavish trip to London to live the life of three Dynamos at the world premiere of Mamma Mia! The deadline is April 30th.

Ok- I hope they let everyone see the entrants! How fun! I actually have a few good friends who would be awesome to see do this!

The much ballyhooed state of childhood just wouldn’t be complete without a few really good shiners, now would it? Maggie was getting off of the trampoline the other day, and I’m not entirely certain how she accomplished it, but she nailed her eye on something and ruptured a blood vessel.

I’m a pretty laid back mother, particularly in the bumps and bruises department, but if you had seen the extra eyeball bulging from her eyelid, like a pulsating red marble, and expanding by the second, you would not fault me a bit for calling Chris at work and demanding that he COME HOME NOW. Seriously, I was that unnerved. I thought we’d be going to the emergency room to lance the sucker before it popped or put so much pressure on the ocular nerve that my baby would be blinded for life.

While waiting for Chris to drive the five blocks home, I pinned Maggie down and applied a bag of frozen corn to her face. Why frozen corn? Because I was out of frozen peas. Duh. Don’t you heal wounds with vegetables? This resulted in huge amounts of screaming on Maggie’s end (can’t blame her, that third eyeball looked painful). Thankfully, in the ten minutes it took for Chris to arrive the injury had settled down and morphed from a third eye to a mass of swelling so huge she could barely open her eye.

I had been sitting there alternately freezing her face and holding up one finger, demanding that she follow it with her eyes (they followed) and tilting her to put her face in the sun to check her pupils for reactivity (they reacted). Chris arrived, assessed Maggie, and we debated taking her in, but decided that we’d just watch her closely and try to keep icing the injury. Maggie rallied quickly, wanting to get back into her usual routine of play, Dora, and being read to, only stopping occasionally to announce that her boo-boo eye hurt. Considering that she couldn’t open it all the way for two days after the fact, I wasn’t surprised.

Maggie is the kind of little girl who should have a set of fairy wings permanently pinned to her back, the way she flits about, charming and indulging in general dottiness, so the huge black eye is really out of place. She wore her big princess dress to church on Sunday. By then, the shiner had spread from the top of her eye to create a matching pool of purple underneath. She is perfectly content to have the world stare and gasp, loving the attention she is getting, and I just laugh.

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Have you ever heard the saying “The best gift a woman over 40 can give herself is a hysterectomy”? Most of the women I love who are finished having children have had hysterectomies. I even planned on going that route myself, especially since I’m anemic and Aunt Flo has become something that really wipes me out every month. I just found about about a new treatment that is availible to help women who are finished having children, and who are tired of their heavy periods. It doesn’t involve hormones or a hysterectomy. You may want to check this out and see if it is for you. The website is called Dare to Wear White. Options are good.

Also, there is a POSTED BY Lou ON 04.14.08 @ 11:58 am | 2 Comments