11 September Sunday

The wicked spell that was California´s worst heat wave so far finally being broken, the kitchen was open and in full swing. After the sobering trip to Lig´s, I returned home with not quite enough time to do everything and not quite the right ingredients. Never mind, I made a few adjustments. First, I decided to make tomato basil soup to start, which I did exactly the way I had in Ohio. It´s hard to go wrong with that one folks, especially if it is based with your own homemade chicken stock. Instead of the Polish Honey Cake I had planned, I made an apple pie, which I´ll share some thoughts on momentarily, when I am ready. I bought the beautifully on sale pork loin, rubbed with a spicy mix of the avocado honey, cayenne, Tabasco, vinegar, shallots, thyme, rosemary, and garlic. I let ´er soak for a good eight hours, then I roast that baby on a bed of sliced onions for no less than four and a half hours in a slow oven. We made hoagies with these, which were delicious. I´m putting a few more together today for Opera in the Park.

OK, I´ve always had a little tip or rule of thumb, perhaps it is something my mom does, or maybe it´s common knowledge and everybody and their mother does it-

Don´t make pie crust or pastry when other things are cooking in the kitchen, particularly boiling or simmering. Why? Because the butter melts very quickly in a room with boiling water steaming up the air. Bake pies first when the kitchen is coolest. I knew this, yet I was out of time and had to. The results on the pie weren´t disastrous but it was very slightly frustrating, the pastry was a little stiffer almost like layers of croissant or oddly, something that has yeast in it. I also had to bake it in the convection oven (but didn´t turn the convection feature on!) result being the bottom crust was slightly under baked, it wasn´t raw, one of the greatest tragedies of pie baking, but it could have been crisper. Man, how many times have we said that!?

Honest to god, Benji, you need to learn to take a better photograph. Look at your foot standing there. Anyway, that is the pie. It looked so much better in real life.

Another thing that surprised me was the amount of honey I needed to use for the pork. I didn´t have enough honey for the honey cake which was the other reason I went with apple pie. It was a really nice dinner, looking forward to the leftovers today and tomorrow. I could make pork tacos, a mole or some such sauce to serve with rice, or make a pasta sauce with it. Also, I could use it as a filling for savory doughnuts. Many amazing things.