27.11.07

what do you mean I haven't posted in nigh on a month?!

Oh, sue me. Or not, since Hellooo! not exactly the most lucrative enterprise on the face of the earth! Nyernt nyernt.

So let's see... I'm up making interrogative worksheets. Why? Mostly 'cause I'm incredibly anal - news to all of you I'm sure! I'm certainly not doing it for the students, er rather, if I am, you KNOW they won't take advantage of them. Or at least no more than 3 or 4 will I bet. Good thing I have no way of verifying that.

I tried to watch parts of the 1996 version of Poldark this evening. Wow. I think it was probably me, but: SO uninteresting... honestly. I realized a ways into it when I finally turned to Google to do some research (which tactic I call upon occasionally when I seem to get a Netflix goodie that turns out to be less than stellar and whose presence on my Netflix list I can't even begin to explain let alone remember effecting) only to see that it's the 1970's TV series that everyone was raving about in all the stuff I read, not the 1996 TV-movie sequel/revamp. Of course the original doesn't seem to figure in Netflix listings, but at this point I'm somewhat soured on it at any rate. It'll take some little time to get the taste of this one out of my head. So much the better, then, that there is a mini-ton of work to do as finals approach (this after I thought I had got about 4 mini-tons of stuff done in advance right before Thanksgiving break last week - and really, I had, but then my crazy head came up with a bunch of those wacky Susanoverachievy perfectiony ideas of worksheets and other sundries to create and post over the next few days...) These are the times when I need to more efficiently channel the Susan who writes the bitchy teaching blog because she KNOWS those students are not, on the whole, exactly, quite, tout à fait, shall we say, worthy of such gifties and would see it a minuscule task to talk the current Susan out of all this effort. Alas, she is nowhere to be found today.

Indeed it's probably due to the current Susan that the bitchy Susan needs that outlet - she's the one who sees all the eyeroll-worthy shenanigans and gets all the guff and feels all the injustice of the years of effort in the face of student ingratitude and -yes- blatant ignorance, not to mention pretty much complete laziassness and the more and more evident egocentrism along with the apathy it breeds towards everyone and everything else, especially anything which comes even within a couple kilometers of being a Responsibility.

Dang! Now I get it! No wonder the overachievy albeit well-meaning Susan goes into hibernation in between these little labor jaunts! Who could take the heartache!?! Seriously! Maybe I'm kind of an academic Sybil or Three Faces of Eve.

Whatever. Take your survival tools where you can, I always say. The fact that they might verge on mental ill health is but a small concern...

But back to me... that is, me sans school stuff... basically not a lot is going on and the stuff that is going on gets vented/expressed/droned (pick your range depending on the non-happening) to a couple lucky souls hereabouts. And then you, Poor Reader/s, have precious little tossed your way! So sad, seriously.

There is some hope on the horizon for those of you who really have been lamenting the lack of verbiosity in these parts. My main sounding board lately, Andy, is moving to Birmingham in a few weeks and tho we are committed to visiting a lot, I'm sure it will mean more volume in HOV-land. Plus, who knows?! Something really exciting and out of the ordinary could happen next semester school-wise or something, too! Stranger things have happened. Not often, but...

Pie! Did you say pie!? I better post a pic or two... Wait a second while I go get 'em...

{hum some musak here for yourselves while I pix-search; I suggest Kevin Drew, who is playing on my iTunes right now - even tho I recently heard a concert on NPR where he was performing and it kinda made me think he's pretty full of himself and not exactly deserving of being so - still this is a fun song and is on my very first CD mix - Just call me "Susie Hi-Fi" -- g'ahead! do it!! - anyway you might prefer something else since there's a bad word in this song... }

Perhaps urging people to come up with their own musical interludes is too much. You would probably prefer a little visual warmer-upper, kind of an amuse-gueule (really that would be amuse-yeux tee hee seriously a wired linguist is a terrible thing to waste on fucking worksheets especially when she could be putting all that razor-sharp verbal wit to work in her blog and making ganga pies and quiltin' an' all kin'a fun create-y type doin's but whatever - again I ask: Where's my frigging sugar daddy!?! Who was supposed to be working on that?! I haven't seen a progress report since I-don't-know-when... ) while you wait for the pièces de résistance. So here's Miss Lucy doing her impression of a stack of bathtowels...

I was putting towels away and turned for about 7 nanoseconds and when I looked back, Presto! It's Lucy! Akin to Sammers' unworldly sense of when the toaster is out of its little hole on the kitchen shelves so it can be used on the counter. Even if things might not be happening in my own world much, obviously there is plenty of To Do'ing in the feline plane.

Anyway... I hope you enjoyed your musical/visual interlude... Here's some pies.

First the blueberry test pie I made the week before Thanksgiving - or at least a few days - it's all kinda foggy now... Anyway it was my first pie of the fall and I just wanted to make sure I remembered how to make crust. I had a couple pieces, about a third went to John, and the rest to Andy. So check with them if you need further opinions but I found it quite yummy. Poor Eric was to receive a bit but alas, it will have to be for another pie...

I was invited to Andy's family dinner in Eufaula so I took... PIES of course!! (Hence the urgency of the pre-Thanksgiving test crust.) Standard pumpkin, 'cause, you know, you just gotta, at Thanksgiving and all... and apple - the BHG recipe that I love, altho I loaded about an extra pound of apples into it. Enough gab; feast yer eyes...

The only problem is in the photo you can't tell that the cutouts are leaves. It looks more like a space alien pie. In fact if you turn your monitor upside down some of you might hear those faint strains of the X-Files theme... OK that could be my inner buzz again... Anyway this pie is mighty interesting. See, I've made a handful of these impromptu deep-dish apple pies and never had any problem. HOWEVER last week I was meandering thru this year's Cook's Illustrated "Holiday Baking" issue and they had this big article on DDAP's where they were supposedly answering all the heartache experienced by Oh So Many Sad Piebakers who had their poor DDAP's fall down in a huff instead of staying nice and big and puffy and meaty (ok well apple-y anyway) and I thought, (seriously these were my exact thoughts) "Geez I have NEVER had any problem with DDAP's doing any of these scary things!" And I have a sneaky (no, not "sneaking," "sneaky") suspicion that the completion of this humongous and staggeringly obvious self-jinx was my follow-up thought. I can't remember it as well as the initial thought but it was something along the lines of "Holy shit I bet I am the rockingest piebaker in the history of the universe or somethin' because I've never had trouble with DDAP's and even Cook's Illustrated thinks they're challenging!"

Yeah. I know.
How could I not see the Fate I was Tempting?!?!?!?
I ask you!!
How??!???!??!???!!!!!

Good thing I took that pic when I did because about 13.2 minutes later I glanced over and all the apples and filling had settled down for a long winter's nap... faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr below the space alien face holes. The top crust was kinda like one of those hugeass stadiums they have... oh you know... wherever they have them, like the Astrodome or something altho I'm sure the Astrodome is small potatoes in today's world of bigger and better sports arenas... You get the idea at any rate - lots of wasted space with neither sports nor apples goin' on. Like the reverse of the iceberg thing - the majority of the pie being air instead of submerged ship-crushing ice that is, and kind of inverted from the iceberg model.

Whatever. It was yummy.

And not a little bit interesting to someone in the household...

Is she attracted by the yummy aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg and apples or is she entranced by the space alien eyes mojo? You be the judge.

I just remembered I have yet to take any Cranberry Sauce pix; I made it to take to Eufaula, too, plus to give to John, and it is super perty (as usual - uh oh tempting the fates again - the "D" stands for "Daring" - didn't you know?!) plus there's a whole nother story there. Rest assured it contains a healthy amount of Susan Culinary Ego. No big. I think the kitchen gods will be content with their apple pie offering for a while.

Bai.

3 commentaires:

Jessica a dit…

I better not show space alien apple pie to Harland - he'll get ideas that he needs one and since I just got to making pies that are edible, I will not be tempting any kind of cooking fate anytime soon with mile high apple pie.

I am sorry I missed out on my favorite cranberry relish ever (although I could make my own I suppose!) and I love blueberry pie (did you use fresh berries? frozen? something else I don't know about?)

I got yarn today!
sweater season!!

Unknown a dit…

Long time no see, little lady. Good news: You just might be lucky enough to be seeing me again le semestre prochain. Oh yes... I'm coming back for round two. Be excited!! And have fun with finals!

Applecart T. a dit…

Yay for pie! Even for us kittens who have lost their mittens...I haven't, but it's a fear of mine.

Heard from an artist in Florida today. . .85 degrees. . .my brother in Houston was dealing with a frozen AC. I'm like, why is it necessary!? I would give things for weather like that. Of course, then summer would come. . .

Happy end o' semester!