First Pie of the Season

And just what is the season, one may ask?

First of Season Apricot Pie

Summer.
In California.
It's end of cherry - beginning of ApricotPlumPeach season in this part of the world. Bring it on.
I have apricots dehydrating in the Excalibur, apricots I've already dried, lots of apricots in my tummy, apricots waiting for me in a bag, and now - ta da! - an apricot pie in the oven. It's in the 70's outside, close to 80 in my kitchen, and the oven is on 400F.
It takes a certain kind of mind (one may consider "unstable") to think this is fun, but I certainly do.

So here's my recipe for this lovely pie:

Roughly 5c of chopped, freshly picked lovely apricots, full blush :-)
1 c of sugar (more was in the original recipe, but I *know* these apricots, and they don't need more)
1/2t of salt (because human tongues need that)
3T of cornstarch (or flour, or tapioca, or rice flour, whatever you fancy for thickening)
about 1/4 c candied ginger (because I have a thing for ginger), chopped fine
a good dose of freshly grated nutmeg (I was having issues with my grinder, so I'm betting I have at least 2t in there)
(Note: some lemon juice would have worked, but isn't required. Maybe 2T. Adds just a little bite. Depends upon your apricots, are they super sweet or do they have acid content?)

Mix it all together. Let it get soupy.

Make your favorite double 9" pie crust. Keep it in the fridge for an hour (then discover that your fuse has thrown itself and your fridge is defrosting. Choke down the panic. Go out and throw all the breakers and then try something in the outlets until they work. Sigh of relief. Back to the pie). Roll it out and try not to let it get hot. I actually put my pie plate back into the fridge while I was rolling out the 2nd crust. Pour the filling into the 1st crust, top with the 2nd, crimp the edges, brush with milk, dust with sugar (I happened to have cinnamon sugar sitting RIGHT NEXT to me, so that's what went on top). Cut a pretty design in the top.
Bake the extra strips, dusted with cinnamon sugar, next to the pie, take them out in a few minutes and eat them hot, and give them to your kids and remind them this is one of the BEST things about having a mom who knows how to bake.

Bake at 400F roughly 45 minutes, or until it's a golden brown.

Great with vanilla ice cream.
When you're an adult, you can even eat this BEFORE your dinner.
Life is good. As coach Erik Hajer says, always remember to SMILE.
:-)

Don't tell me I can't fix stuff.

I just discovered that a dreadful problem hadn't made it onto my "gettting things done" list: the peg from my KitchenSlave fell out last time I used it (it was a pretty heavy bread dough and I was making three batches of lasagne and not paying a lot of attention to it). I am in a COOKIE EXCHANGE tomorrow night. My production of cookies for said exchange depends upon my KitchenSlave working, so this needed to be rectified. Since I tried to fix it already - with dull objects including a hammer - and was unsuccessful, my gut reaction was to call a MAN.

I question this. My mother did this; do I really need to?

Note to self: Think. I may not be able to urinate from a moving vehicle, but I have pretty sound logic and teach science and should be able to figure out a basic peg-in-hole problem. Don'tcha think?

So, this time I braved taking off the entire head of the mixer, looking at the hole with a flashlight, and finding some set screws. It appeared by looking at the hole of the mixer head that when I was pounding the peg, it was hitting the BOTTOM of the hole into which I was trying to force it.

The BOTTOM. Logic dictates that this means I needed to get the head of the mixer farther DOWN on its base. But it was ALREADY all the way down.

So I sat on it.

I sat on it and pounded with my ergonomic hammer, and thirty seconds later it was fixed.

Don't tell ME I don't know how to fix stuff. HOO-AAH.