Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Behind The Scenes With Anne & God: That Little Old Lady

I hate being late.

Almost nothing in the world will set me fuming (and cursing) more than the fear that I will not be on time to work.

Or an appointment.

Or dinner with friends.

Or the airport, the train station, the boat dock etc.

Which means I usually leave my house freakishly early for anything with a set arrival time.

But you know what?

Sometimes stuff happens.

And the best-laid plans go out the window.

And you find yourself becoming one of those people who changes lanes a lot and who’s trying to hit every traffic light while it’s still green.

And maybe driving just a teensy bit over the speed limit.

And every single time I find myself in this situation, there they are:

THE SLOW PEOPLE.

The guy who can’t decide if he’s turning at that next intersection.

Or maybe the one after that.

Or the one after that.

Or the one after that.

The mom who keeps speeding up and slowing down, drifting out of her lane while she turns around to yell at her unruly kids.

The driver in the van with the tinted windows who enjoys sitting in the passing lane whilst going just about exactly the same non-passing speed as the car in the slow lane.

Oh, and the railroad gate that drops (just before you get there) for the 2 mile long train that you forgot crosses this road.

And finally, the little old lady who can barely see above her steering wheel and may even have forgotten where she’s going.

I used to inwardly curse these people.

And sometimes not so inwardly.

Until the day that somebody driving like a bat out of heck crossed the yellow line, passed both me and the little old lady, and got stopped a half a mile later for speeding.

I think I’d always figured that God was putting the slow people in my way on purpose.

And not in a nice way.

No, in more of a “you should have left the house earlier” sort of way.

But that day I decided to maybe give God a little more credit.

Maybe he was doing me a favor.

Saving me from traffic tickets.

Or worse.

©Copyright 2020 Anne Morse Hambrock All Rights Reserved

If you enjoy Anne & God illustrated poems please visit anneandgod.com and if you would like to buy the book collection that contains the poem at the beginning of this essay please visit the store in the menu bar up above.

 

Back To Betty - The Cherry Pies

I used to hate Cherry Pie.

Seriously.

Hated it.

This is because, during all my formative years, the only cherry pie I ever met contained canned cherry pie filling.

Gloppy, cornstarch thickened, sickly sweet, canned cherry pie filling.

Blech.

Then I met two things.

1) A friend with a tree bearing fantastic sour cherries

2) The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook with a great fresh cherry pie recipe.

Betty offers 3 real cherry pie recipes and 1 "mock cherry pie" (More on that one later.)

All use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

1) Fresh Cherry Pie - pictured above and found on page 304. (Look down to the bottom left of the page under the master recipe.)

This is the recipe I've been using for years now but I do NOT add the cinnamon. It competes with the almond extract. You might think it's odd to add almond extract to a cherry pie but it strangely brings out more of the cherry flavor.

Just as not every apple makes a good apple pie, not every cherry makes a good cherry pie. Please note that the recipe calls for SOUR cherries.

With the right cherries this is a FANTASTIC pie.

The only negative thing I will say about making fresh cherry pie is that pitting the cherries is a royal pain - even with a cherry pitter it is time consuming - and you should always check the cherries for bugs as you pit them. No matter where the cherries came from - market or home tree - bugs like to live in them :-)

2) Canned Cherry Pie. Found on page 303 I have never made this pie because A) I never read the recipe closely and thought it used canned cherry pie filling (see previous rant) when, in fact, it uses canned cherries packed in juice. B) I never really noticed that you can actually buy canned cherries packed in juice here and now in 2020.

In the full spirit of the Back To Betty project I am now armed with two cans of cherries and plan to make and review this recipe.

3) French Glace Cherry Pie. This is a single crust pie found on page 321.

"Glace" is French for "glaze" and French Glace pies all require you to make a sort of jam glaze out of half of the fruit you will use in the pie. I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of glace pies and also that after reading the recipe thoroughly it sounds as though the end result will be a lot like a pie using canned cherry pie filling. (Again - see rant above.)

If you decide to try it yourself please note that this recipe uses sweet cherries and that you have to boil half of them instead of mashing them the way the master recipe says to do.

4) "Mock Cherry Pie" - page 309

I'm rather suspicious of this recipe - the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook has a number of "mock" recipes where the chief requirement seems to be that the resulting food looks like something else but does not actually taste like it.

It's hard to imagine what the raisins add to this recipe in terms of "cherry pie imitation essence."

However I may try the recipe someday because fresh sour cherries are hard to find where I live.

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Pic Of The Week: How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

"Don't mind me. I'm just gonna hang out here casually and wait for the mail."

Back To Betty - Recipe Review: Blueberries And Cream Pie

Review: First Impression -  I will probably not be making this pie again. (I would stick with the regular Betty Crocker Blueberry pie recipe found on page 304 or click here.)

But I'm going to go through the recipe blow by blow so that you know why.

Found on page 314 of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook this recipe uses the standard vintage Betty pastry recipe for a one crust pie. (page 310 or click here if you do not yet own the book.)

If you look at the photo above you will notice there is extra crust in the form of cutouts. This is because I stupidly forgot the first rule of following a recipe - to READ the recipe first.

Because all the Betty Crocker pie recipes use the same basic crust, I had jumped in and made a two crust batch just assuming I would need both crusts. When I opened the cookbook and realized my mistake I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to add some cutouts on the top :-)

And I still had some pastry left over so I sugared it and baked it up and we ate it quick as lightening before the pie was even done :-)

This recipe calls for you to make a cream, sugar, flour mixture that you will pour over the berries after you have put them in the pastry shell.

Before baking it looks like this:

Other adding that small extra bit of crust I followed the recipe exactly.

I put the oven at precisely the temperature specified and left the pie in the oven for the recommended time. I even made a note that it says to bake until the filling is "set".

And I thought it was.

But after letting it cool for a while and then cutting into it I discovered a gluelike mess - rather like porridge. The bottom crust was super underbaked and you could still see the cream and flour in the filling.

And when I tried to lift out a piece I got this:

Never one to give up on a pie I threw on a pie shield (to keep the already very brown edge crust from burning up completely) and tossed it back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

The result was a much firmer pie and the flour and cream have disappeared into the blueberries to make a thick filling.

Now when I cut a piece it looked more like a proper slice of pie.

But, as I said in the beginning, I probably will not make this pie again. After the second bake I imagine I got the pie that you are supposed to get from this recipe but, to me, the end result was as gloppy as if I had used canned blueberry pie filling rather than fresh blueberries. At $4 a pint (out of season) that was a waste of some terrific berries.

I'm sad.

Betty almost never lets me down :-(

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

Back To Betty - The Blueberry Pies

The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook features 4 recipes for Blueberry Pie.

All of them use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

The first thing to note is that all for recipes four blueberry pie are what I call "sub-recipes". Meaning you will find them in subsections of other master recipes.

For instance, Fresh Blueberry Pie is found on page 305 right under the master recipe for fresh berry pies.

Another note - almost all fruit pies in the Betty Crocker cookbook call for adding cinnamon to the sugar mixture you will use in the filling.

I do NOT do this.

I tried it the first time I made each recipe but decided I only like cinnamon in apple pie. The blueberry pies taste much better when the true blueberry flavor can come through without the adulteration of cinnamon.

1) Fresh Blueberry Pie. Found on page 304, this is the recipe I have used most often and it gives great results. There is a small note in the recipe mentioning the addition of lemon juice for tartness. I find that whether or not to add lemon juice depends a lot on the time of year you are making the pie and the overall quality of the blueberries. Berries available out of season are often quite tart and do not require extra lemon juice. Berries at the height of summer tend to be sweeter and you might want to add the juice.

2) Canned Blueberry Pie. Found on page 303, I have never made this recipe and, frankly, am unlikely to because the right kind of canned blueberries are pretty hard to find.

Canned blueberries from 1950 are NOT to be confused with today's canned blueberry pie filling. The 1950 canned blueberries were precooked berries in a juice or syrup as opposed to canned blueberry pie filling which has thickeners like cornstarch to create a precooked gloppy filling. I personally NEVER use canned blueberry or canned cherry pie filling because I am not a fan of glop.

I imagine in 1950 canned blueberries were much more readily available than fresh - how times have changed  - fresh blueberries are now so plentiful, and available almost all year, that I never use frozen blueberries either.

3) Blueberry Rhubarb Pie - page 306.

I have a confession - I never noticed this recipe until I started this project but last year I started adding rhubarb to my blueberry pies of my own volition for three reasons. First, I was out of lemon juice and wanted to add a little tartness. Second, I have MASSIVE amounts of rhubarb growing in my backyard and am trying to find more ways to use it creatively. Third, my husband pretty much refuses to eat rhubarb - I snuck it into the blueberry pies and he never noticed and wolfed them right down :-)

The Betty Crocker version is half blueberry and half rhubarb. Mine is only about 1/4 rhubarb.

Overall the blueberry/rhubarb recipe is pretty much the same as the fresh blueberry pie on page 304 but I have found that you do have to be careful with the rhubarb.

To avoid a soggy gluey pie be sure you have let the rhubarb "sweat" for a while in a separate bowl. Do this by sprinkling some sugar over the diced rhubarb and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Drain all the juice and then sprinkle the diced rhubarb in amongst the blueberries. You can add plenty of sugar to the rhubarb after it is mixed into the rest of the filling but do NOT add flour to the rhubarb - it gets gluey if you do. Only add flour to the sugar mixture that will coat the blueberries.

4) Blueberries and Cream Pie - page 314

I have never made this and it looks pretty interesting so, in the spirit of this project I will make it and post a review.

Final Note: If you are a pie novice looking for your first fruit pie, nothing could be easier than blueberry - just wash the berries and check for stems and you are ready to go! No coring, peeling, slicing, pitting etc.

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.

 

 

YouTube Videos - #1 Vinnie Goes To Washington

To keep myself busy while I (and everyone else on the planet) sit at home for the next two weeks I've begun sharing some of my harp music here on the blog.

The other day I posted a short new composition as part of the category "Act Of Creation", and after that I posted I video from home as part of the category "Concerts From Quarantine".

Today I'm adding a video from my performance as a headliner for the "Jean's Jazz" concert series.

This one is an original composition titled "Vinnie Goes To Washington" - it's sort of my homage to Harpo Marx :-)

If you like my music and want to hear more I have two albums available for download in my store - just click the store tab in the menu at the top of the page.

The music is available via downloads of the whole album or individual tracks. When you click on any individual track you can hear a sample for free - downloads are .99 each or $10 for the whole album.

Note: The store button takes you to my other website - the most direct way to get back to this site from the store is to use your "back" button.

Thanks for listening!

 

 

Pic Of The Week - Perspective

In an effort to stay sane I'm trying to think of my need to stay home as a "snow day".

Rather than the apocalypse.

Pinterest Interest: Knitting - Purl Soho

A Pinterest account full of amazing knitting patterns and ideas! I think I'm going to have to make one of these rainbow afghans....

Pinterest Handle: Purl Soho

Click on any image to be taken to Pinterest page for Purl Soho

Back To Betty - Recipe Review: Cheese Crust Apple Pie

Review: OK - straight out of the gate - this might be my new favorite apple pie recipe!

Found on page 302 of the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, this apple pie is super easy and amazingly delicious!

It uses the basic Betty vintage crust, tart apples, cinnamon sugar, butter, and grated cheese.

Reproduced here for educational purposes and to encourage people to go buy a copy of the original book.

If you need the master recipe for the crust click here and the recipe referred to in this one click here.

Now for my notes on the recipe:

1) I'm ignoring that little verse about a kiss and a squeeze - it was 1950.

2) I have no idea what "sharp yellow American cheese" was - we have so many cheeses now that the cheese referred to here maybe no longer exists or is probably called something more specific. I decided to opt for a medium cheddar and it came out great. I think I'm going to keep making this recipe and experiment with other semi-hard cheeses.

3) It says nothing about the temperature of the butter - I used room temp butter so that it would not poke through the crust - it worked fine and baked up well but would have been a real mess to work with if I didn't have some great tricks for handling wet dough - see below for these.

4) Pay close attention to the fact that the cheese goes in the TOP CRUST ONLY.

5) If you have taken the time to read through the methods for rolling out dough (page 300) you will know that Betty Crocker recommends using a pastry set - this consists of a large cloth on which to roll out the dough and a "pastry sock" which covers the rolling pin. When you make a crust like the cheese crust these extra tools are really important! They help you handle the dough without adding a lot of extra flour that would make the crust tough.

I have been using a pastry cloth for years and I SWEAR by it. I also use plastic wrap as you will see in my "tips" section below. Pastry cloths and pastry socks are readily available on the internet and very inexpensive.

5) When I "rolled it up like a jelly roll" and then folded it in on itself it was pretty shaggy looking but it still worked.

6) It says to serve warm - I ate a piece that was still warm and it was heavenly - and the cheese had a slight chewiness to it that was surprisingly good. I ate another piece later that was cold and, while still very tasty, it was definitely better when it was warm.

Things I did differently:

1) I used my own personal crust recipe that is half butter and half shortening (the Betty recipe is 100% shortening) Click here for my piecrust recipe.

2) I sprayed the top crust lightly with water and then sprinkled course "raw" sugar over it. I always finish my fruit pies this way - Betty offers it as an option on page 307 in the "beauty touches for pies" section.

3) I baked it at a lower temperature - I always bake my apple pies at 350 (low in the oven to help the bottom crust brown better). All ovens are different and, over the years, I've discovered that if I bake a pie at the 425 degrees in the recipe I will have a burnt top crust by the time the filling starts to bubble up. I probably should stick a thermometer in there and see what's going on with my oven.

Because I baked it at a lower temp I did leave it in about 20 minutes longer than it says in the recipe - but I checked it every 10 minutes once I passed the 35 minute mark.

So one of my biggest tips about handling piecrusts is the use of plastic wrap (or "cling film" for you international readers). I use it at various stages of the pastry making process (you can do everything shown here with just two pieces of wrap - one for the top and one for the bottom)  - here are my tips and tricks and a couple pics of this specific pie:

I not only use plastic wrap to gather the dough into a ball, I also start rolling it out into a disk while it is still in the plastic wrap

Then, still in the plastic wrap, I flip the dough over and roll some more so it's nice and smooth with no cracks

After I unwrap the dough from the plastic wrap I lay it on the lightly floured pastry cloth and cover the top with the same piece of plastic wrap - then I don't have to use a pastry sock - lift the plastic occasionally and re-position so that the dough will continue to stretch. Another advantage of the plastic is that it keeps the dough from cracking so much at the edges.

If you roll the dough with plastic wrap on top it will stick enough to help you get the crust safely into the pan and even adjust it - remove plastic before filling the pie!

Add the apples in layers of thin slices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with butter between each layer - a layer uses about 1 1/2 medium sized apples

Here is what the cheese crust looked like when I rolled it up- notice how shaggy the edges are.

Now the jellyroll has been folded inward twice - it's VERY messy but we will fix it.

I used the plastic wrap again to force the cheesy buttered crust back into a ball and eventually a nice disk - this is how we fix all those cracks and also keep the soft butter from making a mess everywhere

Again I've rolled the crust out using a floured pastry cloth underneath and plastic wrap over the top

I've used plastic wrap to help transfer the crust and adjust it on the top of the filled pan

Gathering the top and bottom crust together and folding it over to seal the pie can be a messy business - again - plastic wrap can help with this

This is the last time I will use the plastic - to help make the fluted edge of the pie - this dough is too messy to put my fingers directly in contact with the crust - it just sticks to them and makes a giant mess.

I keep a generic spray bottle (available at dollar stores) filled with water so that wetting down the top crust is super easy.

After I've sprayed the top of the pie with water I sprinkle brown "raw" sugar over the top for extra texture and crunch!

My last tip - whenever I make a pie that is going to bubble up and release a lot of juice while baking I put a pizza pan underneath it to catch everything. I learned this the hard way after a 'pie-juice-sugar-fire"

 

Back To Betty - The Apple Pies

The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook features 5 recipes for Apple Pie.

4 of them use the standard piecrust recipe from pages 298-299 - if you don't own the book here are some links to crust recipes:

For Betty Crocker's vintage crust click here.

For Anne's Personal Piecrust recipe click here.

 

Reproduced here for educational purposes and to encourage people to go buy a copy of the original book.

No matter which recipe you choose, be sure to read through the first one at the top of the page because it discusses different kinds of apples.

The apples you use in a pie really, really matter. Use the wrong apple and no matter how carefully you do everything else the pie will be a disappointment. In the year 2020 we have an astonishing array of apples available to us but I still personally swear by the apples of my grandmother's day - Jonathans and Macintosh. In a pinch I will use Granny Smiths but they have to cook longer because they are firmer. There is also a mention here of adding lemon juice only if your apples are not tart enough. I've never had to add any lemon juice because I use tart apples.

1) "Apple Pie"

The first apple pie recipe on page 302 is the closest thing I've found to my grandmother's. It's pretty much the only apple pie we ever had growing up and is still my family's favorite.

Amazingly simple, it consists of thinly sliced apples, cinnamon sugar and butter.

If all your life you've been eating apple pies made with nutmeg and/or allspice you really should try this simple recipe that only uses cinnamon - it really lets the flavor of the apples shine through rather than disappearing in strong spices.

The fact that the apples in this recipe are sliced rather than cut into chunks makes a big difference in the the way the apples cook all the way through.

This is just a fabulous pie - if you want to impress everyone you know, making this pie for them will do it!

2) "Green Apple Pie"

This is basically the same as the standard apple pie recipe but with more sugar to compensate for the tartness of green apples and some flour added if the apples are extra full of juice.

3) "Deep Dish Apple Pie"

Until I tried this recipe I had no idea that a traditional "deep dish pie" does not have a bottom crust! I googled deep dish pies and "voila" Betty is right! No bottom crust!

This explains years of unsatisfactory deep dish pies with soggy bottom crusts - so much extra filling makes it almost impossible to get the bottom crust properly browned.

There are really only two differences between this recipe and the standard apple pie - the lack of a bottom crust and the addition of twice as much filling.

4) "French Apple Pie"

I expected this to be a traditional French apple tart or "tarte tatin" but it's not that at all. It seems to be more of an apple cobbler with a pastry bottom crust and a "crumble" topping. Because of the amount of sugar in the crumb topping the sugar added to the apples is cut down slightly. Otherwise this is still pretty much the same as the standard apple pie.

5) "Cheese Crust Apple Pie"

Now THIS one really intrigues me! It uses cheese in the crust (the top crust only) and seems to have some extra butter as well. I'll be making this one tomorrow and posting the review of the results :-)

Final Note: There is a tiny "All You Have To Do" at the bottom of the page that mentions using unpeeled apples to:"save time and work", "also vitamins and minerals", "adds color and flavor". Taking into account all the pesticides that often get used on apples I think I'll be skipping this tip....

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

If you are just finding the blog for the first time you might want to explore the other articles on pie and Betty Crocker's 1950 Picture Cookbook. You can find them by clicking the "All About Pie" and "Back To Betty" categories in the right hand side bar.