Spring Break Progress

I can't believe I'm already halfway through my spring break.  The time you want to go by quickly never does, yet the time you want to slow down winds up zipping by like a mayfly's life cycle.  Stupid bugs.

I kicked my week off with a fancy schmancy dinner for my family Sunday evening.  The menu consisted of "Perfect Pot Roast" from The Pioneer Woman, and a few selections from the Irish Pub Cooking book I scored from B&N recently, potato cakes and a chocolate cream cheesecake!  Yum.

I was fully prepared to chronicle my cooking extravaganza, but thought a few snapshots would suffice instead.  Cue snapshots!

Despite its commercial appeal, the recipes looked fabulous.  And so far have proven to be just as tasty.  

P-dubs' Pot Roast- thyme, rosemary, carrots, onion, and a chuck roast was involved.  Oh and love.  Sheer love.  My house has never smelled so amazing.   

I count this a major success in my book- it's the first roast I've made el solo, and I didn't burn the house or the meat to cinders.  Win.

Perhaps the source of my feeling like it was me who immigrated from Ireland rather than my great grandfather- potato cakes.  Curiously delicious.  

The dinner ensemble

... Never forget dessert... 

It might not look like much but it tasted... well... how to describe?  

Close enough.  

I'm still recovering from the sheer deliciousness of it all.  Unfortunately, due to a series of poorly timed events, I haven't been to karate yet this week which isn't helping me feel any less sluggish after such a rich evening.  But I digress.  

With this beauty from California Pizza Kitchen, Hawaiian BBQ!

Monday proved just as fabulous when Lakota and I indulged in some of that amiga time I spoke of, and what better place to do that than CPK?  

Status quo?  I've eaten some fabulous food and spent time with even more fab friends so far.  More amiga time tomorrow with my girl Amanda!  Not too shabby!  

I really have been filling in the holes with productive activities, I promise.  I'm just highlighting, well, the highlights.  Spackling isn't exactly a highlight.  Nor is a puppy watching.  

Due to the copious amounts of wet weather I've experienced lately, my outdoor plans will unfortunately have to be put on hold this week.  Le sigh.  

Happy midweek to one and all,

RF

Spring Break 2011

With each passing semester, my graduation draws closer.  I've come to appreciate how few spring breaks I have left.  That would be two, to be specific.  Now I don't have the money to take a fabulous vacation to some exotic beach, but that's not the only way to spend a spring break. 

Au contraire, not every college student is programmed to seek sex and alcohol at every chance he or she gets.  No, I plan to make the most of my spring break doing the things I want to do.  

I'm not a compulsive list maker or anything, but this is what's coming up in the world of Running Fish.  
1.  Cooking Marathon!

I've got my eye on a couple of recipes from my Pioneer Woman cookbook I got for Christmas.  I also added an Irish Pub cookbook to my repertoire recently care of a Barnes and Noble St. Patrick's Day themed display.  I couldn't resist the delicious looking recipes it contained. 

This week I plan to make a couple of recipes from these books and, of course, chronicle them in the Closet Cook section.  

2.  Vegetable Garden!

Last season I tried my hand at gardening, container gardening that is, and loved it.  This year I have come into a forlorn corner garden that has seen better days, and I have many plans.  As much as I wish I could start my seedlings, alas I cannot.  I can, however, get the garden prepared.  

This week I plan to work through my sad little garden and, as it's on a slight hill, tier it into segments for optimal vegetable planting.   
 
3.  Compost box!

This is just one more nail in my geek coffin, I suppose.  I've had lumber waiting to become a compost box since last fall.  It will become one this next week.
 
4.  Amiga Time!

This is the best part of my week!  There will be much amiga time!  

5.  Writing!

I haven't done a whole lot of personal writing in a while.  I have quite a few stories and their characters who've been relegated to the extended history space on my hard drive, probably wondering if they'll ever see daylight again.  I plan on bringing them out for a bit this week. 

Happy Spring!

RF

The Pioneer Woman and Me

Ree Drummond a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman a.k.a. P-Dub made a stop to St. Louis last weekend on her book tour.  Of course I was there.  I have photographic evidence.  P-Dub is darling.  Her husband, Marlboro Man, was there as well.  MM is darling too.

Photographic evidence.  That's me hanging out behind P-Dub.  Somehow Lakota and her Momma snuck in there too...  Just kidding, I love you ladies.   

I recently found myself presented with an unexpected day off.  With that extra time on my hands, and in honor of meeting P-Dub and Marlboro Man themselves, I decided to do some baking.  What better way to celebrate meeting a cookbook author than to make something from said cookbook?  

Enter said cookbook. 

The Closet Cook strikes again!  I decided on Cinnamon Rolls.  I also decided that Ree's original recipe was better suited for an army.  Seeing as my family of three probably would drown under the sheer amount of cinnamon roll goodness the original recipe would produce, I created a halved recipe.  Rather, I divided the ingredients in half which isn't nearly the same creating a recipe.  I digress. 

The original recipe is available on Ree's website, of course.  

The modified version for people who don't have an army to feed:

Dough:

2 cups whole milk*

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup sugar

 1 package active dry yeast

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon salt

Filling:

1 cup melted butter

1/8 cup ground cinnamon 

1 cup sugar

Maple** icing:

1 pound powdered sugar

1/4 cup whole* milk

3 tablespoons melted butter

1/8 cup strongly brewed coffee

Pinch of salt

1/2 tablespoon maple flavoring or maple extract

 * I have to make a confession.  I didn't use whole milk.  I used 1%.  Because that's what we drink.  And I didn't want to buy whole milk.

** I have another confession to make, I didn't make maple icing.  I pretty much just didn't add the coffee or the maple flavoring.

They tasted delicious still, I promise.

Following Ree's faithful cookbook, I started with the dough.  I heated the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar, taking care not to allow the mixture to boil.  Just shy of boiling, I removed it from the heat.  The cookbook instructs to allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm before adding the yeast.

Or you can just remove from the heat and add the yeast on top right away like I did.  I then allowed the yest to chill on top for a minute.  One minute.  Not one second more or less.  Because I like to pick and choose which directions are more important than others.

Next is the flour.  3 1/2 cups of it.  I stirred until just combined and then covered the bowl with a dish towel for an hour.

Then I had an hour to fill.

So I went and twiddled my thumbs.

Actually, I went and burned some brush out back.

When my hour was up, I recruited my brother to watch the fire while I attended to the dough. 

To the ruminating dough I added the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the rest of the dough (1 cup).

At this point, the dough can actually be refrigerated for up to three days.  I chose to use it right away, which is allowed per Ree's recipe.  It's also at this point I would advise to chill the dough for at least another hour, because I found the dough could have been easier to work with if it had had time to firm up a bit.  Details smetails. 

The next step, regardless of whether it's three minutes or three days after the last step, is to melt some butter and swish is around the desired baking pan.  Which is what I did.

This looks nothing like a rectangle.  

This was the (messy) fun part.  I rolled the dough, attempting to follow the "rectangle shape" instructions.  I obviously failed geometry.

Sniff.  I did the best I could.

Now, the original recipe directs you to work with half of the dough at this point.  I did this, but, long story short, don't.  In this shortened recipe, I should have used the whole blob of dough at once.  Pretend I did this.

I added about half of a 1/2 cup of melted butter next.  Then sprinkled the cinnamon and the sugar EVERYWHERE.  Then I added the rest of the butter.  And then added some more cinnamon and sugar again too.  Yum.

Once the filling was perfected to all of its buttery sugary cinnamony glory, I started rolling the dough.  The goal was a rolled dough log.  I had a rolled dough blob.  I tried to keep each layer as tight as possible, because it would make more rings in the rolls and more rings means... I don't really know what it means.  But it's important.

This.  smells.  amazing. 

The next step was to cut the log into strips.  This is the point I realized I wish I had chilled the dough.  The dough circles I cut didn't retain the circular shape that seems to be the norm for cinnamon rolls.  I had cinnamon blobs.

Despite its unruliness, this.  looks.  amazing.

Let me introduce my cinnamon blobs.  I assure you, however, they tasted fantastic no matter what their shape.  I would also suggest to cut the rolls wider as opposed to thinner. 

I then placed the rolls into the baking pan and preheated the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  I covered the pan with a dish towel and set aside for 20 minutes to let the dough rise.  Once I finished twiddling my thumbs for 20 minutes, I removed the towel and baked for the suggested 13 to 17 minutes.  Make sure the rolls are baked through enough.  I didn't and I almost ruined the whole thing. 

While the rolls were baking, I made the icing!  I whisked together the powdered sugar, butter, and salt.  If they're not crazy like me, one could go ahead and add the coffee and maple flavoring too.  This is what makes it maple icing.  I just had butter and sugar icing.  Whisk whisk whisk.

Action shot!

Once the cinnamon rolls were baked sufficiently, I promptly removed them from the oven and poured the icing EVERYWHERE.

Then I sat back and drooled.

Then I located a bowl.

And a fork.    

Bowl of love. 

This is a bowl of love.  It is love in a bowl.  With a fork.

Make these.  As soon as possible.  Eat them for breakfast.  

Or you can make them in the middle of the day if you want.  Like I did.  Whatever floats your boat.

I'm no Pioneer Woman, but I'd like to think of this as an adventure of the Pioneer Woman and me.

Signed,

A Closet Cook

11 for 2011

I'm going to make a statistical generalization and say that a vast majority of New Year's resolutions wind up in the garbage (or the cookie jar depending on the resolution) by February.  Instead of a resolution or two, I've made a list of goals for this year.  So here are my 11 for 2011:

1.  Secure a commission in the Navy

This is first and foremost.  I've put much thought over the past few months on what my next step in life will be after I graduate university and I've repeatedly arrived here.  I've got a lot of work to do, but I'm ready.

2.  Set monthly fitness goals

While a ridiculous amount of flopped New Year's resolutions are fitness related (gyms and book store featured tables across the country can attest to this), having routine goals is more realistic.  For example, my January goal is 20 minutes of exercise every day (this is in addition to karate).  Furthermore, I've found another running program to work with that I really like, so this is completely doable.  Next month I intend to re-evaluate where I'm at and what I need to do to get better.

3.0  Add some happy hip hop music to my repertoire

Yes, miss classic/hard/gothic rock is actually branching out.  I have slowly come to realize that not all hip-hop is obnoxious and the "happy" variety makes me, well, happy.  It's also great workout music! (For the record I still abhor rap music, just had to put that out there).

3.1  (Because, well, 3.0 needed some more substance.)  Get better at sending greeting cards (i.e. actually do so).

This is a general correspondence goal.  I'd like to start sending actual cards/notes/etc.  Who says my generation is losing touch with "old fashioned" communication?  I intend to fight this gross generalization! 

4.  Tackle an MFA reading list

Okay, start tackling one (most are hellas long).  It's going to be a while before I'm going to be able to go back to school and get another degree, but someday I'd like to consider getting an MFA in creative writing.  In the interim, there's nothing like rounding out my reading to develop my writing skills. 

5.  Go skiing again

I tried skiing for the first time over my Christmas holiday and had a blast.  I intend to hit the slopes again this year. 

6.  Write a blog post a week

While I'm stealing some of my goals from my reinvention list of a few months ago, it's something I want to bring into 2011.  A second part of this is to chronicle my goals as I work towards them.  Writing material!

 7.  Expand my container garden

Last year I cultivated some pepper and cilantro plants, nothing too fancy but it was a success.  As soon as the frost is clear, I intend to start it up again.  I'm looking into what other plants I might add.

8.  Collect my favorite recipes into one cookbook. 

I've mentioned Ree (Pioneer Woman) and her blog a time or two in the past few months.  Someone got the hint and I received her cookbook for Christmas.  I've already found a few recipes that, after rigorous testing (i.e. taste testing!) I will add to the book of life accordingly.  In the mean time, I intend to locate the recipes for my favorite foods.  Many of these are either recipes from my mother, her mother, etc. and recipes that I've happened upon over the years and/or have created (modified) myself.  The bottom line is to have a collection of those tried and true, yummerific foods (it's a technical term). 

9.  Thrift shopping for funky clothes

Again inspired by a blog, this time New Dress A Day, I'd like to hit the estate/garage sales/ flea markets/etc. and try my hand at revamping some old stuff.  This is both friendly to my budget and my personality.

10.  Take some shooting courses

I'm not too shabby at target shooting, but practice never hurt and I'd like to look into some more action oriented courses.  At the very least, if I get to the range more this year I'll be a happy camper.

11.  Karate

I will make my final point in a moment, but before then enjoy this long introduction to my finale!

One thing that scares the living day lights out of me is that my home base will be changing a little over a year from now.  While change is the only constant in life (I really despise that saying, for the record), I have always been a creature of habit who detests said habit to be interrupted.  I'm talking about major stuff such as where I live, where I go to school/work, etc.  I'm the kid who cried at the end of every. single. school year from oh maybe 2nd grade on because I didn't want a new teacher and new classmates.  I feel comfort in what I know (most people do, I suppose).  Well that's all changing again as I shift from student to career woman (that's scary), which in my case will involve a geographic change.  For the record I am bound and determined to get through said change with as few to no emotional breakdowns as possible, I have to grow up sometime... Ahem.

FINALE:  One of my most beloved aspects of my current home base is karate, and I'm going to miss it terribly next year.  I could very well have one of those breakdowns if I think on this too long.  In short, my final goal for 2011 is to (continue to) work as hard (and harder) during the time I have with karate. 


So there it is, my 11 for 2011!  Here's to a great year full of life, love, and growth. 

Cheers,

RF

An apple (dumpling) a day

Okay, so most doctors wouldn't prescribe an apple dumpling a day. But that's because they've probably never had one of these puppies that I made tonight care of The Pioneer Woman. Communists.

I've made two of the Pioneer Woman's recipes before, a modified version of her Raspberry Cream Pie and her Pineapple Chicken Quesadillas with my friend Lakota (that post can be found on her blog here). Wow that's a lot of links! Anywho, I've become a huge fan of Ree's recipes (that rhymes, ha ha, ahem) namely because they are delicious and also because she makes them virtually idiot proof by using step-by-step directions complete with pictures. I'm not completely hopeless with cooking but I wouldn't mind learning some new things, either, so thus I love her website and thus the other night, after I walked stinking and sweaty out of my dojo, I went to the grocery and got the ingredients for Ree's Apple Dumplings.

Hm, I was just thinking about why it is I haven't cooked that much in the past. I even wrote a really long little tirade that somehow branched into my view on feminism. But I deleted it. In short: I think I've avoided the stereotypical idea that women are expected to be the cooks and I'm not your stereotypical woman. However, I have decided that I can both be bad ass and cook. So that sums that up, moving on.

Pardon the darkness of the pics. I was cooking by night. My kitchen lighting isn't superb. I had my camera set to no flash. I have no excuse. Sorry.

I assembled the hit list: Sugar, vanilla, Pillsbury crescent rolls, cinnamon, a Granny Smith apple, butter, andddddd (wait for it)... Mt. Dew! Seriously, just hang on.

I cored and skinned the apple. Chop chop, slice slice.

I have never buttered a pan this way. I always just use cooking spray, but Ree showed how she just takes the end of the stick of butter and "colors in the pan" with it like a marker. Neato!

Ahh, the crescent rolls. Stingy college student note: I almost bought the store brand because they were almost a dollar cheaper. But then I remembered Ree was particular about them being from Pillsbury and I was worried the store brand wouldn't have these awesome perforations. I know, I suck. I spent a whole dollar more for perforation assurance.

Then I wrapped each of my apple wedges into the crescent triangles like little blankets! Aww, aren't they cute? My little sleeping apples.

Next the bundled up apples got placed into the buttered dish. Sidenote, Ree's recipe called for twice the ingredients I used and she might have mentioned how, for her full recipe, it will ruin your life to use anything other than a 9x13" pan. It kinda ruined my life that I used a smaller one (incidentally the same size she used) for mine, but more on that in a bit. I decided on a half batch simply because I forgot to buy two packs of crescent rolls. I said oh sh*t and moved on.

For reasons beyond my ability to understand, I didn't snap shots of the next few steps. I will explain without the use of pictures, apologies. Next I melted my butter in a sauce pan and very loosely stirred in the sugar. Ree says to not stir it in completely. I added this yummy vanilla to the mix next. I would like to point out that this is in fact Mexican vanilla. Oh ho! I've used it for years. I got it in (take a guess) Mexico around 7 years ago. It came in this huge water bottle sized container. And it's lasted me this long. Okay, I'll go ahead and point out the elephant in the room: yes I've been using the same store of vanilla for 7 years. Somehow, I haven't managed to kill anyone off or send them to hospital.

The granular mixture was then poured over the sleeping apples. This is when that Mt. Dew came in. I poured a small amount (around 3oz) down the sides and up the center of the rows. The recipe told me so! Don't worry, it will be fine.

The last thing before sticking them in the oven was to add the cinnamon! I may have put more than was called for, but I absolutely love cinnamon so I was quite generous with it. Doesn't this look amazing?

Into the oven you go! Wow, I sound like the hag from the Grimm's Hansel and Gretel. Ha ha, into the oven my little sleeping apples!

Timer set. Now the waiting begins!

I wish it was that fast. Approximately 30 minutes after the DELICIOUS scent of this goodness began wafting through my house and teasing my taste buds, this beauty emerged piping hot and oh so crispy and juicy! This is where that whole life ruining thing comes in however. My life would have been ruined at this point but it was spared. Despite carefully cutting the recipe's measurements in two, I still had too much excess moisture in my pan. If I had left it, the dumplings would have been super soggy and especially by time any re-heating rolled around, the leftovers would probably have been ruined. So, in short, don't ruin your life- drain those puppies! You can save the excess juice. I didn't. I fail. But Ree says it's a perfect additive to dumplings and vanilla ice cream!

...speaking of, precisely 9 minutes after the dumplings emerged from the oven, my Momma and brother (I'll call him Tapeworm, I hope this is self explanatory) descended upon the kitchen. Momma fished some vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and here she is preparing the bowls for the amazingness that is to come!

*pause for a moment of blissful silence*

Sorry, I zoned out as I thought about that delicious dumpling. It was... I don't know if there's a word in the English language to fully describe it. I won't attempt it. You get the idea. After finishing mine, I asked the question "would it make me a complete fatty to eat another?" Having received no affirming responses, I helped myself to a second. I will wait for tomorrow for another as there are plans to cook with Lakota. She would probably not be too happy with me if I ate all of the dumplings after promising her a few. I'm a good friend. *pats self on back*

Ta da! Dumplings made! Another benefit of this recipe? My house now smells amazing and I haven't lit a single candle. There's nothing like the smells of freshly baked heaven.

Sigh. I'd eat one of those things every day for the rest of my life and it would never get old. My waist line, however, would surely explode. I guess that old saying really only meant one plain apple a day. But why didn't they say so? I feel as if there should have been a disclaimer.

A deeba deeba deeb, that's all folks!

Signed,

RF

College student by day, closet cook by night

In spirit of my new "take life by the reins" (or whatever) attitude, I made a spur of the moment decision the other day to make a pie. Stay tuned for the story and the pie making itself. If you just want to hear about the delicious pie (it was delicious) then just scroll your happy self down a bit. For those who are left, here I go.

This post is actually a recycled post I wrote to feature as a guest writer on a friend of mine's blog. At the time my own blog was naked and shivering in the nether lands of the web and I didn't feel like retrieving it. I've since reconciled myself to the idea of blogging and thus my blog is nice and toasty on my bookmark bar.

Yes, cooking was one of those "cans of paint" I've been admiring (see my previous, and first, post). It's actually something I've done sporadically, without a whole lot of thought, for a while and I have to say I feel that I can hold my own with most recipes.

About a month or so now, said friend (the one with the blog?), we'll call her Lakota, introduced me to the website of a woman known as the Pioneer Woman. Her real name is Ree Drummond and her full story can be found on her site. Do me a favor, take that link really quickly...bookmark the site and tag as "awesome site I will get addicted to"...then return here. PW.com is chalk full of recipes and gardening happenings and all sorts of other goodies and it will take positively hours, nay days to get through it all. Okay weeks. Don't even get me started on her real life love story. Oh. my. It's going to be a book, apparently. She also has a cookbook out. It can be found at Barnes and Noble and most other retail book stores. I just like B&N. This post should only take you a few more minutes to read. Then you can go sell your soul.

(time for said link following, bookmarking, and redirecting, possibly more link following to explore the cookbook dets, and then another redirect)

Back? Okey dokes. So Lakota and I were at our favorite coffee shop down by the river the other day. Pie day, coincidentally. She had been raving about this Raspberry Cream Pie that Ree had on her blog, which L tried and well, it was apparently amazing because she still hasn't shut up about it (I say this in an endearing sort of way). During the course of our discussion, one of us suggested that other berries could be subbed into the recipe in place of the raspberry-ness. An avid strawberry goer myself, I was at the market getting the items I didn't already have before I knew what was happening.

The rest of this post is my adventure with my modified version of the Pioneer Woman's recipe, though I can hardly call it "my version" as I think most people who can differentiate a fork from a cooking pot can figure the adjustment out. Anywho, here we go:

Enter the guests of honor: sugar, strawberries, heavy whipping cream, butter, vanilla pudding, strawberry yogurt*, Oreos, AND of course, Ree’s website tuned to the Raspberry Cream Pie recipe.

*I happened to only have white chocolate strawberry yogurt in my fridge. I was concerned for all of five seconds before realizing, what’s wrong with more chocolate? So there you go.

The first part of the recipe called for precisely 25 oreos. As this was said to be very crucial, I followed the recipe exactly. Here’s the first one.

Now two.

...and three. Oh you get the point.

Here's the 25 count mark!

Ahem.

Here we go, everyone present and accounted for.

I smooshed them all in a ziploc bag. PW suggests a food processor, but mine bit the dust eons ago. I also don’t know where my rolling pin is, as PW suggested alternatively. A can o’ green beans sufficed. Smash smash smash. PW's Oreos were blended very nicely while mine came out chunkier due to my method. I feel the taste was the same, so no harm done.

To the already gloriuos mixture, I poured the melted butter. This created a substance so heavenly that I could have sat down right then with a spoon and a marathon of America’s Next Top Model and be content as a cucumber. Alas, I did not.

BAD camera focus! I even dragged out my SLR cause my point and shoot decided to hate me. This wasn’t one of my SLR’s best shots, but we’ll chalk that up to operator error and digress. This is the glorious concoction. Isn’t it glorious?

While the crust was baking, I was anxious to continue (plus I had someplace to be in approx 1.5 hours time so I was in a bit of a hurry to keep things moving along). So I began smashing my strawberries.

Ladies and gents, this isn’t as easy with strawberries as it is with raspberries, I discovered. Future reference: this is another time a food processor would be handy in this recipe. I suggest a super low setting, however, as you don’t want to puree your fruit. If you’re food processor-less like me, I suggest strawberries that are almost too ripe for consumption. Your wrist will thank me someday.

One hazard of going it my route is flyaway fruit. My three legged dog, however, didn’t mind this. Like most dogs, he’s a garbage pail. So fork away!

Next I mixed the white chocolate strawberry yogurt and the instant vanilla pudding together. Again, this flavor yogurt was a fluke. I’d suggest the logical route of going with just plain strawberry yogurt as a sub for the raspberry variety called for in Ree’s recipe.

The pie crust finished baking at some point around here. Ree is clear to wait until the crust has completely cooled before continuing with the rest of the recipe. Again, I was in a hurry, and I hate to wait anyways. So I popped this puppy in the freezer. Yes, I cheated. NOTE: I waited about 5 minutes first so the pan wasn’t just out of the oven hot AND I put a hotpad underneath to protect my freezer shelf. I am not responsible for any freezer damage caused by this pursuit in any of my readers (I say this as if tons of people are reading this. Oh when will I ever stop dreaming? Never!). I’m just saying what I did.

My cats disapproved of this shenanigan. Note the second cat’s tail towards the right. Goofballs.

Next I added in the heavy whipping cream and whipped the crap out of the mixture. I pride myself in being a thrifty college student so when I was at the grocery picking up the cream and the Oreos I didn’t have, I was inclined to purchase the $1.29 regular whipping cream instead of the $1.99 heavy whipping cream. I did however opt for the “fancy” version as I was intent on sticking to the PW recipe as much as possible. This of course was nixed when I discovered the yogurt situation once I returned home. Oh well. This part at least was right.

I added the sugar to the berries that I had forgotten to do pre-mushing, waited five minutes of the fifteen suggested to let the berries soak in the sugar, and plopped them into the cream mix. Plop... This. Smells. Amazing. By the way. And tastes good too. I had to get a new spatula for the next step as I licked the first one clean.

Now nicely cool, I retrieved my pie crust and dolloped the cream filling stuff on top. I don’t have a spiffy pie plate like Ree does, so I couldn’t make the crust climb the sides of the pie as nicely as hers. Oh well. I smoothed the mixture out evenly and made sure it was nice and flat.

I retrieved another oreo and sacrificed it to the green beans can. I would like to add a disclaimer that approximately 29 oreos were indeed harmed during the making of this treat (I confiscated more than the prescribed one, for quality control reasons you understand).

In plenty of time to go fight hunger, I topped off this delicious pie with that last Oreo’s crumbles. Magnifique!

Before dashing out the door, I left this note to my fellow house dwellers. There would most likely have been no pie left had I not written such a note. I should add that I wasn't fighting hunger at all. That would have been a good way to spend my evening. No, I had a Disney movie date with a friend, Belle I shall call her (that is intentional and a complete coincidence here).

The complete pie went to the freezer, where it literally chilled for a few hours. After returning to my sleeping household, I slipped it into the fridge where it hung out until the following evening when it was enjoyed by my very happy family. They appreciate my spontaneous pie making endeavors.

Thus I made my world (and my family's, for that matter) a little brighter with this rather easy to make cream pie. Props to Ree Drummond the Pioneer Woman for the inspiration and for just being awesome.

Signed,

RF the closet cook