For the next 59 years I used the basics I learned and started to expand my repertoire.  I love to learn new things and I’ve watched a lot of cooking shows, but I rarely tried a new method of doing things.  I baked the way I was taught.  But who says you can’t teach an old dog a new trick.  One of the things I like to bake best is fruit pies, but mixing the flour and the butter (I don’t use lard anymore) was so time consuming and as I get older harder on my hands.   So I didn’t bake as much, besides without a family to feed I would slice away at the pie until it was gone, because as mom used to say there are starving children in this world and we shouldn’t waste anything! That was counterproductive to my womanly figure. Now I bake and cook for the joy of it and give it away.  Who wouldn’t appreciate a piee of warm apple pie anyway! 

As we were preparing for Thanksgivng, I was watching Martha Stewart make a pie.  Now I’ve heard others say they make their crust in a Cuisinart, but poo-pooed the whole idea. Well, if Martha can do it, so can I!  So I tried it and was amazed at how easy it was and the results were as good as or better than the painstaking process I’d used for 50+ years.  This morning hobbeling around on my good foot, I made an apple pie with the help of things I learned from my Grandma, mother, and Martha and me.  Let’s call it The Family Apple  Pie and here’s the recipe.

“The Family Apple Pie”

Crust

1 cup all purpose flour & 1/2 t salt into cuisinart and pulse , add 1/3 cup cold butter cut into chunks and pulse about 5 times until the mixture looks like small peas, add 3 Tbl of ice cold water one at a time pulsing until it starts to pull away from the sides. Remove and press into ball.  It will look crumbly but will press together easily.  Pat into flat ball and store covered in fridge while preparing filling. Double recipe for two crust pie.

Apple filling

6 large apples peeled cored and sliced. I used granny smiths today, but my all time best pie used winesaps and northernspies that Fred brought back from Michigan.   1-1 1/2 cups sugar depending on your sweet tooth and the apples, 1 tea cinnamon (Jill’s contribution) 1/4-1/3 cup flour.  Mix together and let set until juices start to flow.

The ingredients must get familiar with each other in order to make a good union,just like people.  Take dough from fridge, flatten onto floured surface and beging to roll out from center to edge, turning over several times to prevent sticking. All my life I used the handmade(in the Michigan State Prison) birdseye maple rolling  pin I received from my mom as a wedding present to roll my crusts.  It’s in Montana and I’m in Seattle ,so I’m using a marble one my daughter-in-law gave me and I like it quite a lot. It’s heavy and cool and does a great job.  Place in pie pan.  I like glass.  Pour in filling and dot with butter(mom’s addition- everything is better with a little butter) squeeze in a little lemon juice to brighten up the flavors and top with other crust.  Trim edges, seal with a little water, Crimp the edge and make several cuts in the crust and add a steam vent.  This is important because otherwise when the apples cook down and the steam accumulates the crust stays high and becomes moist from the steam and not nearly as good.  Now for grandma’s addition, she always took the crumbles left from the crust and mixed them with a little sugar and made them into little ribbles and sprinkled them on top the pie.  It looked so beautiful when it came out of the oven and I would always pick off the tasty little ribbles when no one was looking.  Bake at 400 degrees for about an houror the filling is thick when it bubbles in the vents.  Enjoy!

I haven’t been blogging for a few days and to be truthful I’ve been rather depressed.  My foot is recovering quite well, but psychologically I’m going downhill.  I can’t tell you how hard it is for me.  Being sedentary is not my gig!  And this scooter makes every action so complicated that it’s exhausting and I end up sitting on my behind watching movies or practicing my Hebrew ( I’m getting better.)and it gets old in a hurry.  I need physical exercise.    The bright spot is that this Thursday I get to put my foot on the floor with equal pressure on both feet and next Thursday I can walk a little bit each day.

Currently, I’m house/cat sitting for Colby while Jill, my daughter, and Emma, granddaughter, are spending winter break in San Francisco with Koki and Rocki.   Emma calls and texts me frequently bringing me up to date with all their adventures.  So far, they have ridden the Bart, walked the gauntlet of sidewalk pee-ers to the hotel, ate pastrami at David’s, got stuck on the Trolley and experienced the rainforest in the Science Center. They are having a lot more fun then I am. 

I must have had too much time to think during this recovery period, because I’m coming to the conclusion that we, the people, have lost our autonomy.  The independence or freedom of will of ones actions has been slowly eroded by marketing techniques developed by corporations and the government to make us think that we want what they are offering.  Maybe that’s part of the plan.  Keep everyone so busy accumulating things and paying the bills that we really don’t have time to think. Granted I feel very fortunate to be able to experience the life I have, but I find myself being slowly taken in by what others think is right for me.  It seems that individuality is not respected as it used to be.  Can’t let that happen.  Gotta be me!  Enough philosophizing for now..

9.  You don’t know whether it’s time to get up or go to bed because it’s cold,wet, rainy and grey in Seattle and those pain killers mess with your mind.

8.  I would really like to make good use of my time at home, but what my mind can conceive, my body can’t achieve at this point.

7.  People stop by on the spur of the moment and I look like hell!  There goes my image!

6.  The dishes don’t do themselves

5.  I hate yo go in the bathroom because the bathtub chair I rented from the medical supply company makes me feel like an old woman.

4.  My daily ritual of a glass of wine is kaput(the MEDS)!

3.  I would like to take a bubble bath and I figured out how to get in the tub and let my leg hang out.  Then it occurred to me that I couldn’t get enough leverage with one foot to get out by myself, so I would have to call a friend …and I’m naked , my skin doesn’t fit my body anymore , and I only have a small patch of  grey hair DOWN THERE! That’s not an option.  I’ll suffer.

2.  Everyone else is out socializing and eating out and I have Lean Cuisine for dinner, because I don’t want to have to buy new pants  when I’m released.

1.  It’s no fun staying home if you can’t go anywhere!

My foot can’t have any weight on it for 4 weeks, so they gave me this scooter ,a large version of the Tyke Bike my son, Peter,  rode around on when he was 2.   I decided  my purse needed to be cleaned out and hopped on and went on what felt like a safari!  The scooter is unwieldy, the floors thickly carpeted and the apartment small, so just getting from one place to the other is a workout in itself.   I’m thinking what in the &%$#@* is wrong with this thing and where is my purse?  I’ve been to every room in the house at least twice and I get stuck going around the corner and look back and see that I have dragged my purse behind me all this time!!!   I did have to laugh,  and thought it would make a great cartoon for AARP magazine.  

Three days later I’m not so loopy and I want REAL food!  Let’s see…I think I’ll make Hungarian Goulash.  It’s simple, comforting and filling.  Now the kitchen floor is 4 1/2 ‘ wide and 8′ long.  It’s compact to say the least and I’m now 3′ square with the scooter.  I definitely have a new found respect for people managing physical challenges.  They make it look so simple and it’s not. You have to learn to do things a different way and everything becomes complicated.  Like getting the pot out of the back of the bottom shelf of the cupboard!  I might as well be driving a “big rig” in this space. Back up, move forward, turn left, no right.    I was wishing I was one of the Five Chinese Brothers by now… the one with the arms that stretched! I think that’s the right story…mmmm must be the meds!  The pots retrieved, and I’ve cut the check roast into chunks.    I locate a plastic bag  for the flour, salt, pepper and paprika and notice that the oil is now smoking on the stove.  My timing must be off!  I shake the meat in the bag and the flour starts flying all over the place. The plastic has touched the hot pot and is littered with holes and I have a big cleanup job ahead of me.  The meat is browning nicely, so I cut up a big onion to add to the pot.  Have you ever tried to cook in the kitchen riding a bike with handlebars and brakes  between you and the stove?  Well,  I lift the cutting board to add the onions to the pot and the cutting board gets caught on the handlebars and the onions go flying onto the stove, floor,into the bike basket and some even get into the pot.  The trick is to get them off the floor and into the pot without causing anymore damage to anything else.    I did give them a quick rinse under the faucet if it’s any concern to you.  The potato project went better. I learned a few things!  Then I  brought it to a simmer, turned it on low and took a well deserved nap! 

Things are looking up now.  I’m off the meds and just in time .  I had withdrawal symptoms for about 3 days, but today I seem more like myself.  I finished reading 2 books:  Case Histories by Kate Atkinson an English detective mystery, and The Sound of Language, by Amulya Malladi about an Afghan women immigrant in Denmark and an old Danish beekeeper.  I would recommend them both.