More pie

When I told my friend Jennifer that I had signed up for the pie crust class, she told me that King Arthur Flour was bringing one of their traveling baking demonstrations to Syracuse. I looked up the date of the demo and put it on my calendar without knowing the subject of the demo; all I knew was that the demo would take place at the New York State Fairgrounds (very convenient for me) and that is was free.

The demo was yesterday and the subject was...wait for it...pies and scones. James and I arrived about thirty minutes early and there were already quite a number of people there. We were handed a small booklet containing recipes and helpful tips, along with a numbered ticket for the door prize drawing. We scored seats right up front with an excellent view of the demo table:

The room was decorated with several large signs like this one:

To the right of the demo area was the tempting display of door prizes:

So many prizes, but no winning tickets for us.

But we did win lots of great information and had a very fun time. The presenter, Irene, had a pleasant style and voice and she did an excellent job of talking and doing, told lots of stories, and she interacted well with the audience. I found that the info she presented added to the info I learned in the class two weeks ago. The single most interesting thing I learned yesterday is to add your butter in two steps: the first half of the butter is worked into the small pieces, but then the second half is left in bigger pieces. That allows for both a tender and a flaky crust.

I tend to get fidgety during presentations but the time flew by. In addition to the pie crust demo, Irene showed us how to make scones. Both James and I have never cared for scones, but we came to agree that perhaps we have just never had a good scone. I will definitely try the cheddar, bacon and scallion scone recipe from the booklet that Irene demonstrated.

On the way out, each participant received a King Arthur bowl/dough scraper (a $1.95 value!) and a sample of cheese from Cabot, one of KA's partners.

Today I put the information I learned yesterday into practice and made an apple pie:

It looks and smells good, so let's hope it also tastes good!

On we go

Can I tell how glad I am to have Halloween over? Sure it's a fun holiday with costumes and candy, but for those of us who are introverts (and yes, people, I am actually an introvert - just ask Myers-Briggs), it can be an excruciating evening. The choice is stay home and make small talk with all the little goblins and their adult escorts, or escort Aidan around the neighborhood and make small talk with people handing out candy. It was my turn last night to take Aidan around the village but James armed me with a generous margarita in a to-go cup, so it wasn't bad at all. Our ninja had a great time and cleaned up in the candy department (and was very polite and gracious), and I got to see how much fun some of the people in the village have when handing out candy.

In October, I did as well as possible in the goals department; until Hurricane/Super Storm/Pain-in-our-Butts Sandy came along, I was able to walk three times or more each week. And while I can't say that I am back to feverish knitting, I did find and complete some fun projects.

Now it is November and we start the slippery slide towards The Holidays. In addition to trying to maintain my walking schedule, my goal is to complete the two knitting projects that will be holiday gifts; the first is an item for my mother, and the second is a buttoned cowl for Aidan's teacher. Both are small projects but I would like to greet December with them complete. Since Mom is coming to spend a week with us at Thanksgiving, I am trying to get her item done before she arrives. As long as Sandy hangs around and dumps rain on us, I will certainly have time to knit.