Getting In Touch with My Inner June Cleaver

The next time I bake a pie, I must be wearing one of these. Love this look. So 50’s housewife, June Cleaver-ish. These aprons are available at Sommer Designs for $36. The one above—my personal favorite, is the Kiwi Marseilles Hostess Apron, which is of course sold out. Bummer. I suppose I will have to settle for either the Summer Flea Market or Lime Dogwood Hostess Apron, which also feature fun retro prints. According to the site, these aprons “will keep you looking and feeling cool as a cucumber as you whirl around the kitchen during your next dinner party.” Perfect. I so want one of these.

Baked Me a Pie Last Night

Inspired by the recent purchase of a 9” Emile Henry Auberge Pie Dish from Williams-Sonoma and last week’s viewing of pie-making extraordinaire Jenna in Waitress, I decided to bake me a pie last night. Admittedly, the recipe was somewhat complicated and required much prep-work. It sent me on an endless goose chase all over town searching for quarry tiles and the ever-evasive potato starch, which by the way is apparently only stocked at Whole Foods. And of course I hadn’t realized that I had run out of almond extract, or maybe lost it in the move, so mid-baking last night realized that I needed to pick that up. I figured by that point I had worked too hard to take a chance with anything. I know what you’re probably thinking—this better be a damn good pie. Because that’s exactly what I was thinking when I finally got it in the oven late last night. Yes, I am happy to report it is a delicious cherry pie that indeed holds up to the recipe’s title of “Perfect Cherry Pie.” The recipe was originally featured in the USA WEEKEND article “Can you bake a cherry pie?” on April 3, 2005 by Pam Anderson. If you are so inclined to bake yourself a pie, let me warn you this one isn’t easy, but it's quite delicious.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and frozen
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening, in small pieces, frozen
8 tablespoons very cold cream cheese, in small pieces
1/3 cup ice-cold water
3 (16 ounce) cans water-packed red, tart, pitted cherries, drained and juice reserved
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup potato starch
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon butter, in small pieces
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Directions

1. Mix flour, 2 Tbs. sugar and salt in a food processor. Add 8 Tbs. frozen butter and pulse 4 times, 1 long second each time. Drop shortening and cream cheese into flour mixture; pulse another 4 or 5 times, 1 long second each, until fats are the size of peas and fine gravel.

2. Dump mixture into a medium bowl; rub through clean fingertips to blend. Stir in water with a rubber spatula until dough clumps form. Press dough with your palm to form a ball, then divide in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap, pressing to form thick disks. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and place a pizza stone or four 9-inch quarry tiles (from a hardware store) on rack to form an 18-inch square. Preheat to 400 degrees.

4. In a large saucepan, cook 1 cup cherry juice, 1 cup sugar, potato starch and a pinch of salt over medium-low heat; stir with a rubber spatula until a very thick paste forms. Scrape paste into cherries in a bowl. Add almond extract; stir to combine.

5. Set a dough disk on a floured work surface. Roll into a 14-inch circle. Fold in half and quickly lift into a 9-inch Pyrex pie plate (not deep-dish). Unfold. Fit dough into pie plate so it is not stretched in any way. Refrigerate.

6. Roll remaining dough disk into a 12-inch circle. Remove pie shell from refrigerator, add fruit filling, and dot with 1 Tb. butter. Fold dough circle in half; quickly lift onto filling and unfold. Trim all around to 1/2-inch beyond lip of pie plate. Roll overhanging dough under with fingertips; flute.

7. Set an 18-inch square of heavy-duty foil on tiles or pizza stone. Set pie on foil and bake until crust just starts to color, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with egg white, and sprinkle with 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes longer. Bring foil up around pie to loosely cover edges. Bake until filling bubbles, 15 to 20 minutes longer. Cool on a wire rack.

Lakeside Cinema's Picks are Truly "disasTERRACE"

Among many other things, the Memorial Union’s Lakeside Cinema series is one of my favorite local activities during the summer. Take a moment and imagine a warm summer evening in Madison, the orange sun setting over the cool waters of Lake Mendota, big sailboats slowly gliding over the peaceful waters, and the lively union terrace bustling with conversation, card games, and plenty of beer drinking. Now add yourself, a big bag of popcorn, a few friends, and your favorite movie. Now that’s lakeside cinema.

The series is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin student union film committee and features contemporary and classic favorites played on the union terrace Monday nights throughout the summer. I’ve been anticipating this summer's film schedule for quite some time now, and have been checking the Web site regularly for updates. Imagine my disappointment upon learning today that this year’s theme is “disasTERRACE.” Oh, isn’t that clever. There isn’t really one film I want to see—well maybe just one—but seriously, what the hell? What happened to last summer’s perfect picks like Caddy Shack and Ten Things I Hate about You? Now that's good lakeside cinema. Seriously, take a look at the schedule below and try to tell me that a guy didn’t pick every one of these films.

6/11 Twister
6/18 Airplane!
6/25 Space Camp
7/2 Independence Day
7/9 King Kong vs. Godzilla
7/16 Armageddon
7/23 Mars Attacks!
7/30 Dante’s Peak
8/6 Shaun of the Dead

A little disappointed today. But that’s okay, I will bounce back. Maybe I can create my very own outdoor cinema in the backyard and play only my favorites. I will certainly come up with some kind of alternative programming. So back to these awful movies. King Kong vs. Godzilla? What is that? And what is with all of these punctuated movie titles? But, Armageddon–ahhh..., that one brings back some classic memories. I believe that was my first date with my first serious boyfriend in high school. And remember that soundtrack? Aerosmith’s “I don’t want to miss a thing?” Beautiful. And those emotions so real to me at the time as my slighly-older heartthrob was getting ready to go off to college. Loved Aerosmith back then. Back to the movies. Honestly, I might actually end up checking out Shaun of the Dead, only because a friend recently recommended it, but even then I still have my doubts. Overall, I think the picks live up to their name—"disasTERRACE."

Knitting Turns Gangsta

Who knew that knitters could be such gangstas? Knitta Please (http://www.knittaplease.com) is a team of eleven women and men from Houston who began tagging urban landscapes with remnants of their unfinished knitting projects in August 2005. Bike poles, street signs, door knobs, and other urban artifacts are all viewed as blank canvases waiting for snuggly and vibrant wraps. Over the past two years, the team has tagged the Great Wall of China, Notre Dame Cathedral, Harlem, Seattle, and most recently, Hollywood.

I love these knitting gangstas and their colorful bombing. Knitta Please is led by two women in their early thirties who go by the aliases AKrylik and PolyCotN. AKrylik admits that "there's really no message or point, it's not an ideological experiment or anything—just something we thought would be fun and funny at the same time." And that’s what I love—that there’s really no greater artistic meaning, it’s just simple and playful urban art. And unlike more traditional forms of graffiti, you can just unbutton it if you don’t like it. As AKryik describes, "We're taking graffiti and making it warm, fuzzy and more acceptable. I like the duality there. Also, I really think there can be a lot more to the new, alternative knitting craze than meeting at the local coffee shop every Sunday afternoon to make scarves together—not that I don't like to do that, too.” It’s as if Knitta Please has taken knitting, a craft that despite a recent revival is still somewhat synonymous with stale old ladies, and given it a breath of life and an element of danger. And that reminds me of my obsession with TPing in high school. My friends and I used to TP and candy cane everything in sight. Gotta love the rush. Anyways, I sure do hope that Knitta Please comes soon to bomb a city near me. Maybe when I learn to stitch and bitch, which I hope is very soon, I can join them. But first, I must think of the perfect alias.

Kobayashi, Say Goodbye

Twenty-three year old Joey Chestnut, a part-time San Jose college student and construction project manager, set the new world record for hot dog eating at a Nathan’s qualifier event on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona. The performance guarantees Chestnut a spot in the upcoming Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest and the chance for a much-anticipated rematch against his biggest rival, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time world champion who previously held the world record with a performance at last year’s Coney Island event of 53 ¾ hotdogs, beating Chestnut in the competition by only one dog. Chestnut shattered that record on Saturday with 59 ½ hotdogs in twelve minutes.

Chestnut has his eye on the prize—the coveted Nathan’s Famous Yellow International Belt, the World Cup of competitive eating, which has been held by Japanese competitors for nearly a decade. He’s been training intensely for the past six weeks, using a method that incorporates periods of fasting and “hot dog runs,” in which Chestnut consumes as many hot dogs as possible in 12 minutes. During a typical week of training, Chestnut will complete two hot dog runs, preceded and followed by two days of fasting, and then one day of normal eating and plenty of vitamins and supplements throughout. He'll continue with that routine for the next four weeks leading up to Coney Island.

I’ve always thought I’d be a pretty good competitive eater. Not only do I love to eat, but it also seems like competitive eating and endurance sports require a similar training philosophy and race mindset. I don’t think I could stomach fifty hotdogs, but maybe a couple dozen pies. I did do a few Fourth of July pie-eating contests as a young girl growing up in the Ford. And I kicked butt. I could eat my way through those things like you wouldn’t believe. The biggest challenge was that you couldn’t use your hands, so I literally had to put my face in there and just go at it. Very messy. I always placed very well and brought home prizes of baseball tickets and CD’s. Maybe I do need to take a hiatus from this whole running and biking thing and give Chestnut and Kobayashi a real run for their money.

Race Reports

Here is a quick recap of the two races I did this past week.

Madison Half-Marathon
5/27/2007

This one went pretty well. We had perfect weather—sunny skies and breezy, with temperatures in the mid-70’s. The race started at 7:30 a.m. on the capitol square and finished near the Aliant Energy Center. My goal was to use it as a tune-up race for Grandma’s Marathon and run pretty hard—not painfully so, but a solid effort and perhaps a PR. I ended up running a 1:41:01, which was a PR by more than eleven minutes. I felt stronger and stronger as the race continued, and am pretty sure it was a negative-split effort. As far as placement, overall I was 259th of 2153 runners, 50th of 1209 women, and 13th of 276 in my race division. As most of you know, although always my favorite sport and portion of the triathlon, running has never come easy for me. Throughout the years I’ve been plagued with multiple injuries, and only the last 1-2 years have things come together for me. I’m finally seeing injury-free seasons and results that I’m proud of.

I did enjoy the Madison half this year. It was a well-run race and I really liked the slightly modified route. I still think the entry fee of $55 for a half-marathon is absurd—especially when I’m running it in neighborhoods that I run through for free every day. But I did cave into peer pressure on that one. I’m not sure I will ever run the full Madison Marathon. I just think there are so many other marathons out there I would rather run. Not to knock on the hometown marathon, but I think it's a little lame. But who knows, maybe someday.

Aquathon
5/31/2007

Extremely painful is the only way I can describe this one. Ouch. Still in pain. Over the last five years, competing in primarily long-distance endurance events, I have become accustomed to a “comfortably fast” pace that I can basically maintain all day. I seriously don’t have any fast twitch muscle fibers left, which makes short races like these very challenging. I actually have to sprint. The swim wasn’t so bad. I felt really out-of-shape, but got through it okay. The run was the part that kicked my butt. Twenty-three minutes of hell. And I’d like to think I’m in pretty good running shape right now. Transitioning from the swim to the run killed me and the run course evilly begins with a gigantic hill. I tried to ease into the run, and then kick it in hard at the half-way point. That gave me a little time to get my form together and somewhat catch my breath. Those twenty-three minutes felt so much more painful than a marathon or even Ironman—or maybe the pain is just much fresher in my mind. I ended up finishing in 36:44, with a 12:56 swim and a 22:49 run. That left me in 20th overall, 4th female, and 2nd in my race division. Surprisingly, the lake water felt very warm. Of course I enjoyed several Potbelly cookies after the race as well. They were delicious as always.

My Mom: Brave Enforcer of Cell Phone Etiquette

The following is another example of a situation in which my mom deserves an award. A few weeks ago, my mom was sitting at a small, crowded post office waiting for her turn in line. The woman sitting next to her started chatting very loudly on a cell phone. My mom watched as the few other people sitting near the woman slowly moved away, clearly annoyed by having to listen to her loud and gossipy personal conversation. Instead of taking their passive aggressive approach, and the road of least resistance, my mom courageously decided to tell this woman a thing or two. If you know my mom, she’s not at all the kind of person to tell someone off. In fact, she is very kind-hearted, optimistic, and more than anyone I’ve ever known, a firm believer in the idea that everyone, good or bad, “means well.” Well at that point, my mom had apparently reached her tipping point. Completely fed up with listening to long, intimate cell phone conversations in small, public spaces, my mom leaned over and politely and quietly asked the woman if she could take her conversation outside. With a death stare toward my mom, the woman quickly ended her phone conversation, and then proceeded to berate my mom, telling her that she was extremely rude, and how could she possibly embarrass her in public like that. My mom calmly explained to the woman that she was speaking very loudly, and that not everyone in the post office wanted to hear her personal conversation. My mom suggested that she take a look at some rules of cell phone etiquette. At that point, the woman lost it and started hurling all kinds of insults at my mother. Through the duration of the disagreement, my mom kept her cool and held her ground. The best part is that after the woman left, at least three people at the post office came up to my mom to thank her for what she had done.

Was it worth it? Maybe. One has to hope the woman learned something from the encounter, but of course there will be annoying cell phone talkers pretty much anywhere you go nowadays. More importantly, however, I’m proud of my mom for bravely standing up for something she believed in, and for her cool and calm approach to handling the confrontation. I’m glad she was validated in the end by the other post office goers who thanked her for standing up for all of them. I have to admit it was pretty ballsy of my mom, and probably something I wouldn’t have had the guts to do myself.

I think everyone could benefit from a quick read of Dan Briody’s “The Ten Commandments of cell phone etiquette”, published several years ago in InfoWorld. Commandment number one reads, “Thou shalt not subject defenseless others to cell phone conversations. When people cannot escape the banality of your conversation, such as on the bus, in the cab, on a grounded airplane, or at the dinner table, you should spare them. People around you should have the option of not listening. If they don’t, you shouldn’t be babbling.” Mom, thank you for giving those around you the option of not listening. Your courageous act makes me proud.