Gluten-Free Pie

As I am typing this, I am waiting for the gluten-free pie crust to chill in the refrigerator. I rarely make pie except once a year at Thanksgiving and I am reminded every year why I never make pies except at Thanksgiving: it's a pain.

This pie crust recipe in particular requires a perfect blend of gluten-free flours (sweet rice flour and super fine rice flour, preferably Asian), starches (tapioca and potato), and xanthan gum which replaces the gluten in its function. Other than the flour ingredients, the recipe is similar to any pie crust recipe. The butter must be cut and frozen for a few minutes. The water must be ice cold and added only at a tablespoon at a time. You blend it all in your food processor until it becomes a big wad of dough. Then you chill the dough.

Then it's time to roll the dough. I despise this part. Gluten-free dough is tricky to roll out. It lacks gluten which holds dough together. You have to carefully press slightly and roll slightly with the dough between wax paper and some flour sprinkled on the dough. If you are not careful, the dough will break apart. Transferring the dough to the pie plate is a delicate procedure since the dough is now thin and wide, easily subject to breakage. Usually, though, if the dough breaks, you can pinch it back together.

Now, I have a convection oven. The heat coil is at the top. It's hard to get the pie crust to cook at the bottom. The fan is supposed to circulate the heated air evenly but it does not seem to do well for pie crusts. Last year, I made a pie (I believe it was pumpkin pie), filled it with pumpkin, and baked. The crust was undercooked since there was no heat coil underneath to bake the crust. This year, I plan to bake the crust a bit before I put in the filling. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, yeah, I'm making pecan pie this year. It's my favorite. My cousin sent me Karo syrup and pecans in a package last Christmas and I saved the syrup and pecans for nearly a year...just to eat at Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Day, we will go to another family's home and celebrate with good eats.

Other news: I got my first haircut in this country. I've been here a year and half and just now got a hair cut. Before moving here last year July, I got my hair cut and started to grow my hair long until the following March. We went to the States for a conference and I jumped on the opportunity to cut my hair short because then, I can communicate clearly and I can spot a good hairstylist. I started growing it long again from March of this year til now. It was getting drab. So, I decided to take the plunge and get my hair cut. I took a picture of what I wanted, showed it to the hairstylist and mimed it out, asking for bangs and layers. I got bangs and a shag. I like the bangs and I'm, eh, okay with the shag. So, it's not a bad first experience altogether.

G's birthday is coming up on Saturday the 24th. I am not good at picking out gifts. I agonize over choices all the time. I like to love on people by spending time with them. I'm not good at loving on people by giving gifts. G is a motorcycle enthusiast. I once rented him a Harley Davidson motorcycle for a weekend as a birthday gift right after we got married. He absolutely loved being surprised by the motorcycle and tooling around the countryside. Now, I could just kick myself in the foot because I can't top that. Every present after that just seemed lame.

Well, my pie crust is probably ready to roll out. Even if it's not, I'm ready to roll it out because it's nearly 9:30 and I'll be ready for bed soon. I want that pie done.

Happy Thanksgiving, beloved family and friends!

Escape

We planned an escape from this abyss, I mean city, to the mountains the first weekend of November. We rented a cabin for three nights on a property that boasts 5 cabins with a loft, fireplace, kitchenette each. This property is about a three-hour drive from the city. More about the property in a minute.

We traveled on a scenic route along the sea which is enclosed by mountains (I guess it's an inlet) so the hazy mountains across the water looked ethereal in the morning sun. It was a gorgeous drive through that area (if you ignore the freight ships on the water), but on the way back after our mini-vacation, it was a dismal, gray day and the water was a dull slate color yet, it was still pretty to see all the little villages perched on the side of the mountains above the water. Wow, was that a run-on sentence?

Hard to see the outline of the mountain peaks

Pictures don't do this scenery justice

When we left the sea behind, we drove through mountains and some long tunnels before we arrived. The mountains are mainly covered with evergreens (lots of fir trees!) but there were a lot of bright yellow aspens that were still green at the tiptops. I wasn't sure if there would be any fall foliage and whether it'd already peaked and begun to wane. I was pleased to see a great deal of fall leaves but it didn't seem as bright and varied as I've seen it in NC and VA.

The property is run by an American couple who were kind and hospitable to us. Except for two men who were their personal guests, we were the only guests so we really enjoyed the solitude after the bustling crowds of the city. I was so glad that the other cabins were not being rented. My introverted self was appeased. There was a wide expanse of green lawn for A to run around in and a playground set with swings. I tell you, it was nice to let A run and play without having to chase her, keep her in sight, keep out of trouble, etc. the way we have to in the city parks.

Our cabin. That's me in pink PJ pants.

Front of an empty cabin

The owners have ten German Shepherds. Really, they have two dogs who are mates, an adult-sized puppy from their first litter, and a second litter only a week old. The father, Montana, is an intuitive, protective dog. He slept outside our front door all night the first night. He was especially protective of A and kept driving the puppy away from Ava. He seemed to sense Ava's fear of the careless, brainless, half-grown puppy who was as tall as she was.

Montana

We pretty much didn't do much while on vacation. We were just happy to breathe fresh air and see trees. Grass. Mountains. G said it was amazing to fall asleep to dead silence, instead of traffic noise. We lit a fire every night and roasted because it was very efficient in warming up the cabin. We did some walking and ran into a shepherd and his flock. He gave us fresh goat milk which G, A, and I tasted for the first time. We drove further into the mountains, taking an hour to drive 30 km of bumpy, gravel road over several mountain peaks to a national park nestled in a sweet valley with seven lakes, where we ate a small picnic that we cobbled together at the last minute.

Morning view from behind our cabin

View from the property

Tiny village in the valley below the property

We drove deeper into the mountains and saw lots of fall foliage on the way
to the national park. The evergreens were mainly lovely fir trees, not
much pine in this area. Peaks became sharper and higher as we drove.

At the national park: too cute not to post this

A flower, blooming in the fall

Picnic in the park, under the deciduous trees

A parting view on the way back to the cabin

A modern day shepherd who gave us fresh goat milk

All in all, it was a wonderful mini-vacation. We will definitely repeat this. Here's a parting shot:

Pretend she's waving goodbye :-)

The Happening

Remember this post? Click on the hyperlink and take a refresher. This year, we got a video of "The Happening"-esque event.

Note that the main street had no traffic. People were stopped. The wind continued to blow. There is a silver car in the right corner, somewhat blocked by the pine tree. You'll note at the end of the video, it takes off again and traffic resumes. There weren't many pedestrians because it's a 9am on Saturday, which would like 6am on Saturday in the States, since this is a night-owl type of culture.

Crazy, huh?

People appeared in their windows, holding back curtains, to stand still and stare down at the motionless pedestrians. Neighbors across the street came out on their balcony and stared out. It's funny how we all want to gawk at people standing still.