Apple Pie Supper

Life doesn't begin until one late afternoon, it is decided to have dessert for dinner.  The first strawberries, the local ones so sweet and fragile, deep red in ripeness shouldn't have to wait for last place on the menu.  Hull the berries after a quick rinse, slice them with lots of sugar.  Yes, sugar.  Lots.   Make your biscuits, use butter and one egg, gives the biscuit a nice crust; then whip the cream using a bit of vanilla and confectionary sugar.  Assemble: bottom half of biscuit, butter, strawberries, top half, another spoon of berries, and then whipped cream.  Hypnotize the family as you set the bowls in front of them.

This will also happen with a deeply embedded in summer peach cobbler, an Amish cherry pudding, or apple pie.  Apple pie for supper with ice cream, you will be elected president of everything for life.  Now, not that a single variety is lagging, but if you want a redolent essence permeating every morsel of crust, use a blend of apples.  Older ones were developed for flavor, not for looks; Pippin, Winesap, Russet, Northern Spy, 20 Ounce; toss those in with a mainstay, a solid Cortland or Johnathan, and if you can find one, grate a quince in as well.  Leaf lard will produce a soft crust, but good lard is difficult to find; all butter will make it snap and flake with flavor.  Do not leave out the salt--chemically, it's needed to produce a crust that browns nicely.

In years past, I could throw an apple pie together in 25 minutes by using my apple peeler and having the counter space to spread out.  Leftover pastry scraps were re-rolled, covered with cinnamon sugar, and cut into diamond shapes before baking; they were almost as revered as the pie itself, which filled the house with an orchard's incense as it baked.  Let it sit on a rack to cool for cutting, maybe twenty minutes, then ready the ice cream.  Or, if you are from New York State, a slice of sharp cheddar.  Why not both?  Blueberry, sour cherry, peach, lemon meringue, rhubarb, pecan, sweet potato; all good, but for a pie to have for supper, apple made the most sense.  Goes good with bacon in the morning as well.

Today was the first day that I came home from work and wasn't greeted by a grey and white cat, whose arrival at the door became slower, yet he pushed himself even at the last to put in a hurrying step coming down the hallway.  Kai has started looking for him, visiting the places he kept; Snowbelle has a happier countenance and chirps good-riddances.  I noticed his absence, which will happen for awhile.

Tonight I have paperwork, lots.  The fish sail back and forth in the aquarium; the corys are swimming in a synchronized triad, the angels are piloting slowly, as if the parade was in their honor.  This paperwork needs tending, (teaching people: finishing the SLO/LMA), and then I am going to bed early.  More scraping and shoveling, more ice, more schnee in the morning; maybe the cold weather stirred up memories of pies on baking racks, flour dusting the counter and floor.  Sleep well, descend to the necessary levels of somnambulance for repair, discovery, flight among dreams.  Good night.