Popcorn

Product of the USA - packed in UAE...strange isn't that?

Popcorn in a pop-top can...love it!

I have a love affair with popcorn. Is it heriditary? Some sort of wierd genetic mutation? No clue. What I do know is that popcorn is meal in my family. My mom has this ginormous metal bowl that is used for popcorn and making cookie dough at Christmas. She has no secret recipe - its airpopped corn with butter. I think my cousin, Tina, has this gene as well and maybe a new coworker. I think you either LIKE popcorn or you never really think about it.

Eric is the cook in our relationship and when he runs out of ideas or is in no mood to cook we have "fend for yourself" dinner usually some random assortment of bits and pieces that we call dinner. And because Eric is who he is - we dont have "fend for yourself" very often - maybe 1-2 times a month. My all time favorite "fend for yourself" dinner is a bowl of popcorn.

It was no surprise to me that when I went to make popcorn for Halloween yesterday...the popcorn container was almost empty. Only about a scant 1/2 cup left and, as any popcorn lover will tell you, that is not enought popcorn. Good thing I have a husband who looks after me - like some magician in a big top circus - he pulls from the closet a can of popcorn. I take a look at it and it cracks me up. Product of the USA but packed in UAE - I have visions of a large cargo ship with popcorn in the hull. Is that really what happens? Who knows...all I know is this...Eric saved the day and orange popcorn balls were made with crisis averted.

Cooked Fruit

It almost feels strange to start typing here again. I have a love hate relationship with this blog. I love that its here and that my family and friends can take a look and see what we have been up to but on the flip side its not easy. Our Internet connection often times sucks, I tried uploading a 32 second video the other day about 50 times and it took so long that the computer timed out. I still have not been able to load it and let me tell you its a cute video of Orion riding his new birthday balance bike. Damn, that kid has no fear, he rides it down the hill of our driveway like a bat outta hell and uses his "brakes" aka his feet to stop. But alas, I digress. I write a million and one blogs in my brain and I actually thought about keeping a note pad with all my ideas but that never materialized either.

What has got me lately is this. I went to a dinner at a friends house a couple Saturday nights ago. It was a small little gathering - 5 of us in all - with lots of great conversation. She had prefaced the email dinner invitation stating that it was going to be a sllllloooooowwwww dinner, with tipsy croquet, new wines and long leisurely eating. It was! We chatted in the kitchen, sipping new kinds of Virgina wine (who knew??!) snacked on nuts and Oreos (a rare gem here in Kigali) and yes, indeed, we did play tipsy croquet. I was so horrible at croquet that I made it my responsibility to knock everyone else's balls out of line (bad girl, bad girl). Then we had dessert and out they come...a chocolate zucchini cake and a strawberry rhubarb pie. Now if you know me, you know I have a serious aversion to cooked fruit. Its so weird and has such a strange consistency...but alas, the pie was what I envision being handed at the pearly gates. You know like, "welcome to heaven, have some pie". I still really can't believe that I am writing that I liked a cooked fruit pie. So now that I have had this awakening, I need to make myself some pie. My mom sent me her favorite recipe which is this:

MB's No Fail Pie Crust

4 cups flour
1 3/4 c shortening
1 T sugar
1t salt

cut together with a pastry blender

mix 1egg beaten
1T vinegar
add enough water to make 3/4 cup of liquid.

mix the two together...makes 2 pie crusts...
just until the ingredients "ball"

this is the best one I have ever used..
the key...do not handle it to much.
roll out once and gently

good luck

hugs, mom

MB's recipe looks all fine and good but where the heck am I supposed to get shortening? Not available here and, honestly, its always kinda creeped me out. So my next thought was, lets google it and see whats out there. Well, you can tell where this is heading...there are a million and one recipes for pie crusts out there. Scrolling through a few and they all basically have the same ingredients...then I laid my eyes on this one and I think I fell in love with her pictures of pie. Those close up of the lattice work really got to me and thus this will be the winner in the "which recipe for pie crust to try" competition. Wish me luck!