bored, dodging school.
Feb. 5th, 2002 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saint_monkeynope
not dead yet. (just checking.) isn't it funny how i persist in doing that? (don't worry, i'm just bored.) i have a plate in ferric chloride now, trying to do a "White ground" (a partial resist copperplate etching.) this will be the third try. it has failed on two other occasions. since i have nothing else to work on, i'm hiding from my instructor in the computer lab..
while i was waiting i made this picture:
made an apple pie last night. just to break the monotony of work/school/home/work/school/home. mystery's allergies have forced us to abandon our bedroom for our foldout couch in the livingroom. we really need to move from our basement mold experiment.
would you like to make an apple pie? it's very simple.
preheat the oven to 425 Farenheit
for the crust
sift the flour and salt into a bowl. pour the oil into a measuring cup, and then add the soymilk (don't mix.) the trick is to add them both at once, but mixing them up in a cup first will make lumps. so add the oil and milk to the flour and stir till it comes together in a ball. the texture should be like playdoh that's drying out a bit. divide this into two balls. smash one between two layers of waxed paper, and roll it till it's 12 inches in diameter. then put it into the bottom of a nine or ten inch pie pan. greasing the pan is not necessary.
for the filling
so you peel the apples, okay? then you slice them up. take out the CORES. you don't want them i your pie. you wouldn't think i'd need to say that would you? but hey, can't leave anything to chance here. if the apples going brown is the kind of thing that ruins a pie for you, then add the lemon juice now. since the apples are only oxidizing, and not rotting, it isn't necessary, especially since they are going to get brown when you cover them with cinnamon, but it's your party. but if you are cool at all, you'll withhold the lemon juice because you don't want to cook it for any longer than you need to. take all the apples and put them in a pot with a little bit of water. (I KNOW, i didn't put that in the ingredients. i forgot, so sue me! but if you don't have water, what will you drink with your pie? whatever that is, add some of that, (brandy, borboun, milk, coffee, cranberry juice, beer, anything you like and would drink with pie.) a quarter cup or so.) cook this stuff for about five minutes on medium heat, until the apples begin to shrink, and give off some moisture, if they disintegrate into applesauce, you have cooked them WAY too long. so stop before then, silly rabbit.) white the apples are cooking a bit, add a little water to the arrowroot powder in a cup. add the water to the powder, not the other way around. you only want to add a tablespoon at a time, and then stir. the arrowroot will be stiff and hard to stir, but stir for about three seconds, if the arrowroot doesn't smooth out and become easy to stir, add another tablespoon of water and repeat. do this until the arrowroot all of a sudden becomes smooth and easy to stir. stir out any inconsistencies. it should look like thin elmer's glue. if you mess this part up, you will have slick lumps of slimey tasteless arrowroot in your pie, so it's pretty important to be careful about this part (as opposed to being careful about the apples getting brown. on tv they go on about apples being brown all the time, but they never show you how to thicken things properly.) anyhow, with one hand add the honey and the other add the lemon and with the other the arrowroot to the apples, all while stirring the apples constantly with your fourth hand, or your foot, or your prehensile tail, whatever you happen to have appendage-wise. This will thicken right away. while stirring add all your spices and lemon zest. put this into the pie shell. at this time, take the other half of the dough and smash it between two more pieces of wax paper and roll it out (with a rolling pin, did i say that before? it should be obvious, but hey. actually, before i had a rolling pin, i used a kitchen fire extinguisher, and once a baseball bat, so long hard things of all types will work.) to about 13 inches or so. cover the pie, press the crusts together, pierce the top a few times. now, before putting the pie into the oven, put a foil covered cookie sheet on the lower rack. then putthe pie above it. if your apples are really juicy, they may bubble out the vent holes and go overboard. the pan catches them and keeps them from congealing on your oven floor. this stuff can't be cleaned hot, it is like napalm, and once it cools, it may set to an epoxylike substance after carmelizing on your oven.
bake your pie for 30 minutes at 425.
let set a few hours before cutting into it. serve with vanilla ice cream. (one egg beaten, add 3/4 cup sugar, beat, add 1 cup of cream, then one cup of whole milk, and the seeds of one madagascar vanilla bean, which has been slit horizontaly and simmered for an hour in a quarter cup of rum or brandy, mix well, place into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.)
not dead yet. (just checking.) isn't it funny how i persist in doing that? (don't worry, i'm just bored.) i have a plate in ferric chloride now, trying to do a "White ground" (a partial resist copperplate etching.) this will be the third try. it has failed on two other occasions. since i have nothing else to work on, i'm hiding from my instructor in the computer lab..
while i was waiting i made this picture:
made an apple pie last night. just to break the monotony of work/school/home/work/school/home. mystery's allergies have forced us to abandon our bedroom for our foldout couch in the livingroom. we really need to move from our basement mold experiment.
would you like to make an apple pie? it's very simple.
preheat the oven to 425 Farenheit
for the crust
- you need two cups of flour.(i use one cup of whole wheat pastry flour, and one cup of white. something about gluten, i forget the exact reasoning. it's really just tradition. in any case, i have used straight white flour before, and nothing horrible happened)
- you need a half a cup of soy oil or canola oil, perhaps you have some other oil in mind? i mean really... it's none of my business. but it must be an edible oil. i don't think that motor oil would work, and then maybe only robots would eat your pie... (just a hint)
- a quarter cup of cold milk or soymilk or chai or something (as long as it's cold)
- a teaspoon full of salt.
sift the flour and salt into a bowl. pour the oil into a measuring cup, and then add the soymilk (don't mix.) the trick is to add them both at once, but mixing them up in a cup first will make lumps. so add the oil and milk to the flour and stir till it comes together in a ball. the texture should be like playdoh that's drying out a bit. divide this into two balls. smash one between two layers of waxed paper, and roll it till it's 12 inches in diameter. then put it into the bottom of a nine or ten inch pie pan. greasing the pan is not necessary.
for the filling
- you need three sweet apples, like a fuji or a red delicious
- three tart apples, like granny smiths
- the juice and zest (that's the yellow part of the rind, you scrape it off with a wood rasp... it works great.) of one lemon
- three tablespoons of arrowroot powder (cornstarch will work, perhaps one or two tablespoons will be all you'll need of that, and flour works too.. two tablespoons or so. arrowroot tastes the best though, so don't blame me if you use something else and the inside tastes like one of those nasty pies in the convenience mart.)
- a half a cup to three quarters of a cup of honey (this depends upon how sweet your sweet apples are verses how tart your tart apples are. more lemon for more sweet, more honey for more tart. it's a science that takes ears to understand and you should give up now. i have a VBA macro written in Excel that tells me how much to use.)
- anyhow,
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon,
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground allspice,
- a dash of freshly grated nutmeg
so you peel the apples, okay? then you slice them up. take out the CORES. you don't want them i your pie. you wouldn't think i'd need to say that would you? but hey, can't leave anything to chance here. if the apples going brown is the kind of thing that ruins a pie for you, then add the lemon juice now. since the apples are only oxidizing, and not rotting, it isn't necessary, especially since they are going to get brown when you cover them with cinnamon, but it's your party. but if you are cool at all, you'll withhold the lemon juice because you don't want to cook it for any longer than you need to. take all the apples and put them in a pot with a little bit of water. (I KNOW, i didn't put that in the ingredients. i forgot, so sue me! but if you don't have water, what will you drink with your pie? whatever that is, add some of that, (brandy, borboun, milk, coffee, cranberry juice, beer, anything you like and would drink with pie.) a quarter cup or so.) cook this stuff for about five minutes on medium heat, until the apples begin to shrink, and give off some moisture, if they disintegrate into applesauce, you have cooked them WAY too long. so stop before then, silly rabbit.) white the apples are cooking a bit, add a little water to the arrowroot powder in a cup. add the water to the powder, not the other way around. you only want to add a tablespoon at a time, and then stir. the arrowroot will be stiff and hard to stir, but stir for about three seconds, if the arrowroot doesn't smooth out and become easy to stir, add another tablespoon of water and repeat. do this until the arrowroot all of a sudden becomes smooth and easy to stir. stir out any inconsistencies. it should look like thin elmer's glue. if you mess this part up, you will have slick lumps of slimey tasteless arrowroot in your pie, so it's pretty important to be careful about this part (as opposed to being careful about the apples getting brown. on tv they go on about apples being brown all the time, but they never show you how to thicken things properly.) anyhow, with one hand add the honey and the other add the lemon and with the other the arrowroot to the apples, all while stirring the apples constantly with your fourth hand, or your foot, or your prehensile tail, whatever you happen to have appendage-wise. This will thicken right away. while stirring add all your spices and lemon zest. put this into the pie shell. at this time, take the other half of the dough and smash it between two more pieces of wax paper and roll it out (with a rolling pin, did i say that before? it should be obvious, but hey. actually, before i had a rolling pin, i used a kitchen fire extinguisher, and once a baseball bat, so long hard things of all types will work.) to about 13 inches or so. cover the pie, press the crusts together, pierce the top a few times. now, before putting the pie into the oven, put a foil covered cookie sheet on the lower rack. then putthe pie above it. if your apples are really juicy, they may bubble out the vent holes and go overboard. the pan catches them and keeps them from congealing on your oven floor. this stuff can't be cleaned hot, it is like napalm, and once it cools, it may set to an epoxylike substance after carmelizing on your oven.
bake your pie for 30 minutes at 425.
let set a few hours before cutting into it. serve with vanilla ice cream. (one egg beaten, add 3/4 cup sugar, beat, add 1 cup of cream, then one cup of whole milk, and the seeds of one madagascar vanilla bean, which has been slit horizontaly and simmered for an hour in a quarter cup of rum or brandy, mix well, place into ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.)
