Tips – Page 21 – Life In Limbo

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Men in Your Life

December 3, 2010

Alright! Now that it’s officially December, I am definitely allowed to start daydreaming and brainstorming about what to buy or make for my loved ones. While I believe that the best gifts are thoughtful ones, especially if you create them yourself, I realize that making presents for everyone on your list could be a bit time consuming, especially around exam season!

..Which is why I’ve put together a little list of things you could purchase for any guy in your life: brother, father, lover. These items really spark my giving spirit: they’re all beautifully made and would (hopefully!) make the receiver’s day just a little bit brighter every time they were used. Voila:

Music by Andrew Zuckerman – $31.50

Bormioli Wine Decanter – $59

Cotton corduroy shirt from Banana Republic – $69.50

iPod Nano 6th Generation – $159

Leather bound journal – $23

Bodum Bistro juicer – $69.95

Personalized M&Ms – from $8.49

Burberry Cashmere Check scarf – $335

Ralph Lauren Big Pony Colognes – $50 each

Plus anything that pertains specifically to the man you’re buying for. For example, my Dad loves to read, so maybe I’ll get him the latest Grisham or Connelly thriller. Or an universal remote for the flatscreen he’s thinking of buying. Or a really, really nice pen. For my boyfriend? Vintage comic books or gourmet coffee or a wooden guitar pick. Choose something personal and awesome!

Okay, that’s all for my inspiration. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking of buying for the men in your lives! Let me know, if you want.

I’ll be posting a list for the women in your life soon, so stay tuned. :)

xoxo,

Pie That Made Me Cry

November 26, 2010

Happy American Thanksgiving!

I’m so lucky, I got to have two Thanksgivings this year: one with my family in October, and one with my friend-family yesterday night!

There was: turkey, tofu, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberries, jello, pumpkin pie (with chocolate swirls and without), brownies, blondies, chocolate pie..

We sat around in food comas for a long time after.

It was awesome!

I didn’t take any photos, since I was too busy stuffing my face and proclaiming my exasperation about not having seen HP7 yet (jeez!). But I do have a few photos of the pecan pie that I made a couple days ago with my besties.. :)

We used Pioneer Woman’s Pie That’ll Make You Cry recipe, and it was..delicious.

It’s basically all sugar. And pecans. And amazing.

You want some?

Okay do this:

Make 1 pie crust. Pioneer Woman suggests a specific recipe, but since we were without internet, we used a basic pastry recipe in one of our basic cookbooks. Use whichever you want. Feel free to dip the extra pieces of pastry into the extra filling and then eat it. Yay salmonella!

It should look something like this..

..But potentially more pretty.

Then mix up the following, it should take approximately two minutes.

1 cup white sugar, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup corn syrup, 3/4 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup melted butter, 3 eggs.

Pioneer Woman explains in her post the reason for chopping the pecans and putting them in the crust first: so that they rise up, triumphant, and distribute themselves beautifully throughout the filling. I would like to say amen to this. It was perfect!

So you follow her recipe, you hear? Put the 1 cup pecans in the bottom of the pie crust. Then pour the filling overtop. You can (like me) try to recreate Pioneer Woman’s awesome action shot of this process and (like me) fail miserably. Wanna see?

Fail. Gotta get my head out of the way. Sorry guys, I tried!

Then the pecans will rise. It’s beautiful. You should watch it happen, it’s like a magic trick.

Then bake that sucker.

Pioneer Woman says bake it at 350 for 30 minutes covered with tinfoil, then to remove the tinfoil and bake for 20 minutes longer. We tried this method, but since it was still jiggly (and PW says NO JIGGLING) we put it back in, covered with tinfoil and checked periodically until it was finito. Yes!

Look how beautiful it is..

YUM.

Happy Thanksgiving indeed.

I am thankful for: pie, food, friends, family, love.

How about you?

xoxo,

Get Well Soon

November 18, 2010

Ugh, guys, I just recovered from a cold.

Twas like death, warmed up.

Last Wednesday morning, I suddenly awoke with a sore throat. Thought it was nothing. Went about my merry business. Was repeatedly slapped in the face and sent to bed with my tail between my legs for the better part of the next four days, clutching my aching head, rubbing my swollen lymph nodes, painfully swallowing and gargling with salt water. LAME.

I discovered the practical applications of Advil around day 2.5 and spent considerable mental effort thereafter adhering faithfully to the bottle regulations. I didn’t exceed 6 in 24 hours! It worked miracles. MIRACLES I SAY. When I called my mother to A) assure her I wasn’t dying and B) listen to her tell me I might have strep throat, she herself even proclaimed: “Advil is a great drug.”

There you have it people. Great drug.

Anywho, I just wanted to come on here and let loose my mouth on the subject of the common cold. My mother has versed me well in her cures for this mild affliction, and I would like to share my little bit of knowledge to try and help prevent you from feeling as bad as I was feeling. (I thought it would never, ever end!)

Feel Better Again..

Start washing your hands, all the time. Use soap. Never touch doorknobs. Carry hand-sanitizer with you and use it before you eat finger food (aka all the food I eat). This is a preventative measure. Thumbs up.
Tons of water/fluids
Vitamin C and Echinacea every 4 hours
Tons of sleep
Zinc tablets for your immune system
Gargle with salt water if you have a sore throat
Citrus fruits (Vitamin C! Vitamin C!)
Garlic & ginger as much as possible in your food
Avoid dairy and meat (bad for immune system!)
Sleep
Don’t do any strenuous activities! Your body needs its energy to fight off the cold.
Listen to your body and do what it says. Like sleep.

Alright, I feel that I’ve done my civic duty. Please don’t get sick you guys! It seriously sucks.

OFF TO WATCH GLEE!

xoxo,

Apple Pie

November 12, 2010

A word up front: this pie is VEGAN.

Ooh, big scary words. Them’s fightin’ words.

Let me assure you, however, that this is one of the most delicious pies I have ever consumed, ever. Period. Vegan or not, it was marvellous, delicious, outstanding. I ate it warm out of the oven, giggling away in delight. Om nom. Nom.

So, why vegan? Well, for one thing, the boyfriend is lactose intolerant. And for another, why the heck not? I’ve been trying to move myself in the vegan direction for quite a while now, with little success (Damn you cheese. Why do you have to be so irreplaceable?) but I’ve been perusing some fantastic websites lately, like Vegan Dad and Vegan Yum Yum that are giving me tons of delicious inspiration. I may be throwing some more awesome vegan recipes at you in the very near future, so if you’re a squeamish carnivore: watch out! Rawr.

But for now, please just make this wonderful pie.

I used two recipes in hybrid: Joy the Baker’s With Love, Apple Pie for the apple prep + Savvy Vegetarian’s Vegan Pie Crust

I rolled out my pie crust with a wine bottle, since my mother refused to buy me a rolling pin at the beginning of the year since, when she was in university, she rolled things out with a wine bottle. Granted, I think her wine bottle would have been a) empty and b) had the label removed. Since my wine bottle had neither, it is a miracle that this pie turned out at all. I was so afraid that at any second its cheap twist-on lid would somehow pop off and turn my pastry red..and winey..

Here we go!

First things first: obtain some apples. I know that so many apple pie recipes specify not to use McIntosh apples, but since they were accidentally all I bought, and since I was fighting a cold and just wanted some apple pie, damnit, I decided to risk potential mushiness and go ahead with my macs. Verdict: not mushy! Delish! I don’t know if that was just good luck on my part, but I loved the consistency of the pie using these babies.

Here I am! Looking my best, as usual..peeling some apples.

Ta-da! Yummo. Now slice those babies up into small, equal slices.

Like so. Now go ahead and toss them with 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 cup each of brown and white sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp salt.

‘OOH, HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH’

Pause here to eat several slices. Consider the possibility of giving up on the pie entirely and just eating these.

Fine. We will continue. Reluctantly.

Now here is where I differed from Joy the Baker’s recipe: she uses a cool technique of caramelizing the apple juices with butter, which I was too exhausted to attempt. Instead, I just mixed the apples with a couple tbsp of flour (I didn’t have cornstarch, my grocery store seems to be, for all intents and purposes, hiding it from me, along with cornmeal. Both are probably hiding together in the same aisle, giggling as I walk past for the fortieth time..) and let them hang out while I made the pie crust. Which was awesome. And easy.

Around this time, preheat the oven to 425 and put a cookie sheet inside! This is a special trick I just recently learned from Joy the Baker. I think it helps to cook the pie from the bottom as well as the top. Who knows. All I know is, it works.

For the pastry: I didn’t have Earth Balance, so I used Becel Vegan margarine. Same diff. I stuck 1 cup of it in the freezer for about 1/2 an hour, and chilled my 2 1/2 cups flour in the freezer as well. That’s what the recipe said to do!

Basically all you need to do for this recipe is mix the margarine with the flour until its crumbly, then add a few tbsp of cold water until it all sticks together and you can form a ball with your hands. Then plop it down onto the floured counter, whip out your wine bottle and go at it. Unfortunately, I did not take photos of me rolling out the pie crust with a wine bottle. I will leave that up to your imagination.

PRESTO!

Fill the pie shell with apples and any juices, roll out the top crust, put it on top, crimp the edges so they look pretty.

Then cut some vents in the top. I was feeling lovey dovey so I cut out hearts.

..It sort of ended up looking like a creepy mask. I was okay with that. Mainly, it was cute.

Guys, it was really cute! Okay??

I sprinkled some sugar on the top, but didn’t have a brush to brush it with egg wash or water. I was okay with that too.

Now take the baking sheet out of the preheated oven, put the pie on top of it, put it back in. For 45-55 min. Warning: your entire house will start to smell absolutely divine. Resist the urge to yank the pie out of the oven and eat it as is, immediately. I promise, it’s worth the wait.