I’m going to sound like my mother right here, but I can’t believe how fast I’ve grown up. I miss my babysitter Gina, and the Mac and Cheese she so willingly made me every single day of third grade summer. I miss the days I read over summer for enjoyment, instead of for assignments. But most of all I miss creativity being encouraged. Which is why, yesterday, I busted out the scissors, construction paper and sharpies and then proceeded to do the only socially acceptable thing a teenage girl with scissors and construction paper can do: street art.
We left everything up: A cluster of balloons taped to a blank wall downtown, a lightbulb in a thought bubble high on a bookshelf in the library, under a rusted green bridge next to colorful jagged graffitti- someone else’s art. Sometime someone will end up taking the art down. But before they do, I hope they smile.
Life and food are directly linked. One could not exsist without the other. If the best kind of fun is a simple kind of fun, then what if the key to baking is simplicity, too?
Pumpkin Pie
Crust Recipe
allrecipes.com
(I doubled this recipe, so if you’re only going to do the bottom crust, use this recipe. But if you want to make a pumkin or design on the top of the pie, you can double it!)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water
1.In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2.Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate. Place crust in pie plate. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.
Pie
You can take a person and dress them different. You can put different makeup on them, a wig even. You can have them change the way they talk or the way they walk. But at the core, they’ll always be the same person. And if you’re taking all this time trying to compress who that person is, then their true flavors can’t shine through. The point is, let pumpkin pie be what it is. It’s one of the very few you-can’t-mess-with-it foods in the culinary world.
However, if you have a burning desire to do something different with pumpkin pie, do it with the whipped cream. I kid you not. It’s super easy, and there are so many things you can do with whipped cream. And not just for pumpkin pie! You can add spices while you’re whipping the cream. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve read you can infuse the cream with a simple syrup that you’ve boiled down with fruit puree after straining. The possibilities are endless! In the end, though, the whipped cream should make the simple star of the dish shine even brighter.
Livin' in the Kitchen 