quince pie

Been so busy these past few months. 
Quince fruit

Had a great time at OLC Expo!

Turned 35 and had a wonderful weekend showing off my new city to ChicagoBoy.

Work has been crazy busy; my newest hires are doing fantastic, and our patrons love them. Thing 1 and Thing 2 (my code names for my new hires) Jerry Maguire complete us--everyone gets along fine, and already after only 3 months has a comfortable repertoire and great bantering spirit! Going to work is ALWAYS fun these days.

About 2 weeks back, Thing 2 gave me some quince, which then promptly moved to my kitchen counter, where they sat and grew more aromatic. Today I noticed that a couple were beginning to spoil, so I Googled until I settled on this Allrecipes recipe for the pie, and decided on using Mark Bittman's Flaky Piecrust recipe from How to Cook Everything. Warning: the Allrecipes recipe takes forever! Quince are extremely hard, and peeling and cutting the fruit was hard work, but this pie smells delicious! Can't wait to take this in for my staff tomorrow!

Extremely bitter, quince MUST be cooked.
The honey liquid, leftover from poaching, gets set aside.
Later it gets boiled with sugar, cinnamon, flour, and
butter, making a delicious roux that gets poured over the
poached quince before the pie top goes on!

Pie ready for the oven.

My beautiful pie.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"howl the eternal yes"

Image
Just read a CNN article this morning about the Aurora Borealis making an appearance. It reminded me of Northern Exposure and Chris the DJ. So, thought I would share a quote as I reminisce about the Aurora Borealis, a.k.a. The Northern Lights, which I saw my first year at the Farm in Massachusetts, which I actually saw on my 23rd birthday!--the best birthday present I ever got!! "There's a dark side to each and every human soul. We wish we were Obi-Wan Kenobi, and for the most part we are, but there's a little Darth Vader in all of us. Thing is, this ain't no either-or proposition. We're talking about dialectics, the good and the bad merging into us. You can run but you can't hide. My experience? Face the darkness. Stare it down. Own it. As brother Nietzsche said, being human is a complicated gig. So give that ol' dark night of the soul a hug. Howl the eternal yes!" ~ Chris, Northern Exposure, "Aurora Borealis (A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups).” It feel...
Read more

sample retirement acceptance letter

Image
The hardest part of being the Director in a small library is that we don't have an HR person, so on top of everything else we do we also get to do the paperwork for the new hires, and retires. Thank God for the internet or these processes would take a lot longer!  One of my board members pointed out that though I'd been informed of staff retirements, I had to officially accept them with a letter...I am finding that a paper trail is an important thing. So, I found a short and simple letter on one university's HR website (sorry forgot which!?) and honed it to work for us. Attached is my sample of a retirement letter.  Is anyone else out there going through this process too?
Read more

eggnog with lighter fluid and other cherished Christmas memories

Image
I started digging to find my favorite Christmas-esque scenes/lines from movies and I was pleased with what I found. In spirit of my 14's lists, here goes: 1. Charles De Mar: "Ah, come on! It's Christmas Eve! I could be home right now, drinking this *monster* eggnog my brother makes with lighter fluid." ~ Better Off Dead I also love the present opening scene on Christmas day, where his mother is dressed like a reindeer, his father gets an ardvark jacket and the kids get freezer dinners. Pan out to the neighbors Christmas when the French foreign exchange student gets a framed picture of Ricky. I LOVE THIS MOVIE! 2. When Zuzu says to George Bailey, "Look, daddy! Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an Angel gets his wings." George quietly agrees, "Attaboy, Clarence," as "Auld Lang Syne" rings out. That scene makes me cry everytime. (I also love that if George had never been around, Mary became a spinster librarian--see pic) ~ It's a W...
Read more