PIE NUMBER TWO!!!

Saturday, I spent the day with Dad (well after I ate breakfast, ran, took a shower, and drove into town). I was eagerly anticipating IHOP pancakes (staking my WW points on it all week since I made the plans with Dad) and they were delicious. Next time I will forgo the extra points of eggs and hash browns and simply choose a whopping stack of harvest grain and nut pancakes with syrup and maybe some bacon. If I have one WW vice it will be bacon (especially since it is way less points than cheese!). There are some things I refuse to give up.

I had to run a few errands and Dad accompanied me to the scrapbook store (he thought it was ridiculous, as do I) and the photo store. It was going to be twenty minutes for my prints so we wasted some time at the book store. Karrie is graduating from nursing school soon and because of her gluten-free lifestyle, I really wanted to get her a gluten-free baking book, especially since she told me she had bought a whole bunch of different flours, but was a little hesitant to use them. (Surprisingly, there are many flour alternatives for the gluten-free goddesses, they are just all expensive and made of odd things like rice, potatoes, and some other things I cannot spell.) Karrie likes to bake, and for other people. I cannot imagine not being able to eat cake, doughnuts, crackers, BREAD. It would be killing me. Bring on the carbs! I don’t think it is killing her, but I think she might miss a few things, or the ease of making and enjoying a few things, more than she lets on. Dad and I finally settled on one after much perusing and debate (there were actually several to choose from). She has already made some bread – less than twenty-four hours of finding the book on her kitchen counter. (and it seems after reading her new entry I am a mind-reading genius.)

Then I decided to see if they had a pie cookbook. They had four different pie books in varying shapes, sizes, and amount of color photos and one is the holy grail of pie recipes. Dad and I decided that it was “go big or get out of the kitchen” and the huge pie book was the way to go. Simply entitled Pie, this three inch thick tome has a wealth of crust recipes, filling recipes, tips, tricks, and variations. There are many, many pies in this book that I have never heard of (carrot pie???) and some that sound too good to last long in the fridge (chocolate pumpkin something or other!!!). When we got back to Dad’s, I thumbed through the entire thing twice dreaming of delicious pies and making a short list of must-make-soon-pies. One of those is a corn pie just because the picture looks great. More of a savory pie than a sweet pie.

Sunday, it was rainy and gray. Perfect fiddling in the kitchen pie-making weather. I told Mom to pick a pie and I would make it. She chose the cottage cheese nutmeg pie. Not something I would have picked for her or probably made anytime soon. Even Rich thought it sounded good. OK, after a trip to the grocery store, here goes.

Well I started with a simple crust recipe, but realized half way through that I would have to refrigerate it for an hour before I could roll out the dough. It was too late in the afternoon to get that going, so I thumbed to the press-in pastry recipe with sticky buttery fingers and was relieved to see it was an easy fix of additional ingredients. Pre-baking pie shells is annoying, but somehow necessary. Next time I will prepare better time-wise so not be impatient to try my new pie.

The filling tasted good before it was baked, I thought sort of like eggnog. Unfortunately, it is supposed to cool for over two hours before you eat it, necessary waiting for a liquid pie to set and be firm and not an ooey-gooey runny mess. The pie overall looks a little strange- yellowish with white curds and specks of nutmeg – it does have cottage cheese as the main ingredient. But whatever is weird about it, it is FANTASTIC. Or at least I think so. Mom, Joann, and Karrie said it was good too (hopefully they were not lying to my face).

I am making another pie later this week, so hopefully it will turn out just as good. And everytime I glance at the massive book lying on the counter, I want to make a pie. Maybe I need to hide the book. If you have a great pie recipe, I would love to have it to add to my list (unless it includes jello pudding – I think I may be in the pie-purist category).


And for the record, WW went well this week. I was way under points for the week bc of my more healthy eating habits (including a few indulgent splurges, but for the most part foregoing cheese and peanutbutter). I haven’t weighed or measured, but I feel a bit trimmer, and I am running at least half, if not more, of Cuckoo Road. I still don’t know how I feel about this program because I think healthy fats should be less points, but I think it is definitely helping me stick to more fruits and vegetables and considering what I am eating and the portions of what I am eating. As I enter week three I am more confident that I will succeed at my goal of 26 points a day, and still be able to eat pie.

Karrie and I are going to train for Mud Buddies , a hilarious sounding event of running, biking, obstacles, and a sixty foot mud pit, all in the name of exercise and sisterly bonding. We discussed it finally and I was reminding myself I needed to work a bit harder and that it would be easier for Karrie. Karrie doesn’t think so. The girl who spends six days a week in a gym (going at 3:30 in the morning to get it in before her shift in the hospital) says she is not in shape for a six mile race. Whoa. Guess we both better start training. Although I think tonight we both kind of decided it was OK to walk a little as long as we finished the race. I am already envisioning Team Jancaitis emblazoned tops with skullphabet font covered in MUD!