is this a brilliant save, or what?

[bunrab]

So the apple pie had problems - the crust started falling apart 10 minutes into baking, and after an hour, some of the apple slices hadn't cooked all the way through. I think I didn't add enough liquid to the pie. So anyway, rather than bake another whole pie, what I've done is scoop all the apples and stuff out of the wretched pie crust, put them in a casserole dish, and thrown away the crust. And what I will do to them is make an egg (well, egg substitute) custard, pour it over the apples, top it with a bit of nutmeg, and bake it, so that we will have baked apple custard (sugar-free, low-fat, no cholesterol) as one of our desserts. Am I brilliant, or what? What I am not is a good pie baker - I have the occasional success with pies, but mostly I don't do well; something usually goes wrong with the crust. Even though I am otherwise a decent cook and baker. My cobblers are always good. But pies? No. Once I did a very successful pumpkin-pecan pie, and a few years ago I had a cranberry-walnut pie that turned out nicely; one of the things those two pies had in common was no top crust, which may be the secret. Perhaps next time I try making apple pie I'll make a topless apple tart. Easier to watch the moisture, test the done-ness, etc.

The potatoes and parsnips are boiled, for mashing tomorrow; the cranberries are cooked for the cranberry sherbet; a loaf of bread is made and the frozen parkerhouse rolls are thawing. After dinner I will finish that custard and the sherbet, bake the rolls, and assemble all the ingredients for the stuffing and the sweet potato casserole in one place, so that they are ready to be deployed first thing tomorrow. The roasted veggies and baked potatoes take no particular effort, and the corn pudding (the clear winner!) likewise takes little effort, since I am using canned corn.

I am making the stuffing in casserole dishes rather than inside the turkey, so I guess technically it's dressing rather than stuffing. Whichever you call it, it's safer that way, germ-wise, than actually stuffing the turkey. One keeps it moist by covering it with foil, and basting it a bit whenever basting the turkey (every half hour or so.) Chestnut-mushroom stuffing, if anyone's wondering.

Comments

I can't do double crusted pies either

[fritzsmomma.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Yes! That's what you are!
And I am thankful to call you friend.
Happy Thanksgiving Smiles!

[nentikobe.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to make pie crust to save my life. I think yours sounds much tastier!