Fordham Miller Fare

upstaged

i was walking home the other night, after our first significant snowfall, and came upon our neighbors, three young female undergraduates, trying to get their car unstuck from a small snowbank (you know the snow bank at the intersection of the driveway and the road that gets formed when the plow comes by?  yeah, that one).  i offered to help, and went to get some cardboard for under the tires, and some sand, and a shovel.  when i came back, i asked if they had tried rocking the car, or if they even knew how to rock the car (forward, then reverse, then forward, then reverse).  really they only had to get unstuck and then take a wider turn into the driveway, and i think they would have been fine.  i was all set to teach them a few things about how to get yourself out of sticky snow situations, when an SUV pulled up behind us, and a guy popped his head out the window and said, 'i've got a strap, you want me to pull you out?'  they were delighted, of course, and the kindess of strangers is certainly a good thing. but all my hopes of teaching these young women a little self-sufficiency went down the tubes.  ah well...

in other snow related news, i love my ergonomic shovel.  it took a little while to get used to, and it's no good for digging out a tire, but as a back saver goes, it's awesome.

thanksgiving question

i know there probably aren't many of you out there reading this anymore, but for those that remain, and that can successfully make a pie crust from scratch, answer me this:  why do i always need more (much more) than the called for amount of water to make the dough come together.

i made an apple pie this thanksgiving, but because i was not in my own kitchen, and did not haul my food processor from home, i had to resort to the truly by hand method for crust making.  usually i use the food processor, fitted with the sharp blade, to cut in the butter AND incorporate the liquid.  i never had really successful pie crusts until i tried this method.  i know that the secret to a crust that isn't tough is to handle the dough as little as possible, use very cold butter and water, and let the dough set up in the fridge for a few hours before rolling it out.  but when i add liquid to the flour/butter mixture, it always takes WAY more than is called for.  so this time, without my trusty cuisinart to rely on, i had to mix in that water by hand, a tablespoon at a time, as the recipe directed me to, and i ended up with a pie dough that was less than ideal.  but even with the cuisinart, i always have to add lots more water to get the dough to form a mass.  any ideas, ye cooks out there?

we had some surpise snow in lake placid on friday.  i kept checking the weather via the internet, and the forecast just got worse and worse and worse.  from snow...then to wintry mix...into sleet/rain...into just plain rain.  but the altitude and that artic blast must have done something, because on friday morning, we not only awoke to snow, but it snowed pretty much all day.  we spent a little bit of time walking around town with our friends jimmy and rhonda, and their two boys, who had arrived mid-day thursday.  then in the afternoon, while rhonda cooked a fabulous turkey pot pie (with, i have to say, a fantastic crust courtesy of their CSA farm store), jimmy and i took the kids to the adjacent golf course for some sledding.  it was a little dicey, as the sledding hill led pretty much straight into the road, save for a few trees that were just as menacing.  and the ground beneath the snow was the icy build up that had been coming down the two previous days.  but it was great to be sledding so early in the season, and about halfway into our adventure, the snow started coming down in earnest, and we had a view of the mountains and that quiet blanket of sound that comes when the snow falls, and it was really just ideal.

april fools

    

it's quite pretty, actually.  the tuplips, the crocuses, the daffodils...the snow. (btw, i did not put my mittens and gloves and hats away early, so you can't blame me.)

the forecast for thursday...

...chance of snow, little or no accumulation.  happy thanksgiving.