Rhubarb Pie

Jim is a huge Ska fan, and one of the random song he likes is Rhubarb Pie by Five Iron Frenzy. So now every time I hear "Rhubarb Pie" I get the song stuck in my head forever! So this prompted me to try my hand at making rhubarb pie. My first time was for Pi day (I know, I'm a nerd). 

I learned a lot and now have the recipe down pat :-) Received loads of compliments on this recipe, and it was the first pie to disappear both times I made it!

Start by preheating the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Chop the rhubarb up into small pieces. I sliced them lengthwise then chop. I read that you want skinnier rhubarb stalks because they aren't as tough!

  Combine the sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of this mixture over bottom crust in pie pan.

Heap rhubarb over this mixture. 

 Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. 

Cover with top crust and crimp edges. Cut a few slits or a design in the top crust before placing over pie filling. 

Place pie on a foil lined baking sheet(it will most likely bubble over) and cover crust edges with foil or a crust cover if you have one (My edges got a bit crispy because I forgot until half way through!). Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.

Serve warm or cold! 

  
Here is the condensed version of the recipe:

Ingredients

• 6 cups(1.25lbs) chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/3 cups white sugar
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie, or a package of store bought

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Combine the sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of this mixture over bottom crust in pie pan. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. 
3. Cover with top crust and crimp edges. Cut a few slits or a design in the top crust (before placing over pie filling).
4. Place pie on a foil lined baking sheet(it will most likely bubble over) and cover crust edges with foil or crust cover if you have one.
5. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Building a Raised Vegitable Garden!

As the wind howls and the snow blows I sit here dreaming of a garden full of fresh veggies this summer, so I figured, why not begin the planning now! I did a pepper window garden last year which worked pretty well.

My family growing up had a huge garden and rarely bought veggies during the summertime, so I figured I'd like the same! After some research I've decided to make a raised garden going along the east fence in the backyard(they recommend a North to South orientation). This project will required sawing(or the store can do it), drilling, digging, and rearranging the sprinklers so I'll be involving the resident engineer for some assistance :-) We teamed up to tackle the front flowerbed's sprinklers last summer, so I figure this should be pretty straight forward.

It will be a 12ft by 4 ft garden, mostly because I want to have room for all the zucchini and squash(because, yum!). To begin with, Here are the supplies needed:

2 16-foot-long 2-by-12s (Cedar or redwood)
90 degree metal corner piece (we used these)
12 3½-inch #14 wood screws 
Box of 1½-inch  #9 wood screws
48 cubic feet planting mix
4x12ft Landscaping fabric
Various sprinkler parts (we set up a drip line and added mini sprinklers called drippers)

To begin, cut 4 feet off both of the 16-foot-long 2-by-12s, so you have 2 12ft and 2 4 ft boards (or the hardware store can do this for you). On a flat surface, screw the 2-by-12s together to create a rectangular box, using the corner brackets with the 1 1/2inch screws and the 3 wood screws on the outside.

 
Position the bed in the area it is to be installed. This is the tough part where we decided how to re-route the sprinklers and remove the sod(that stuff is heavy!). We have an extra unused sprinkler zone set up in the yard right next to where the garden was going, so we just added a drip line onto that. They have nifty kits to do this at home depot!

If needed, this is the time to level the area, then dig a shallow area to slightly bury the sides. We moved the metal siding and created a border of rocks around the outside of the garden.

Once the bed is positioned and the sprinkler situation figured out, put down the hardware cloth and fill the bed with a planting mix and rake it smooth. We are weirdos and did this at like 10pm...

Once the soil is all situated, lay out your drip lines and stake them down. Plant seeds in rows, being mindful of what needs sun/shade. If you aren't planting yet, still go to the next step!

Give the garden a nice soaking to weigh down the soil and bam, you now have a kick ass veggie growing machine! or a garden, or whatever...

Next book review- The Fault in our Stars!

So I just finished The Fault in Our Stars(quite early this time, book club meeting isn't until June 8th!). It was a fast read and not exactly what I thought it was going to be! I'm going to try and not spoil anything...

 
The story is written from Hazel's perspective, and I love the gallows humor which keeps everything surprisingly upbeat, considering the topic. Hazel is a 16 year old who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 13. She was miraculously brought back from the verge of death by an experimental drug which has extended her life temporarily. With her uncertain future she decides to live her remaining time causing the least amount of pain and suffering to others as possible(including animals). Her defeatist personality causes her parents to put her in a (very depressing) childhood cancer support group. All of this changes when Hazel meets Augustus Waters one day at support group. Hazel is determined not to cause him pain, and tries her best to keep him at arms length.
 

Their friendship grows through the sharing of Hazel's favorite novel. The book is written from the perspective of Anne, another terminally sick girl, and ends mid sentence as though she passed away while writing. Hazel has read the book a million times and really wants to hear the end of the story before she dies. Augustus takes it upon himself to get the end of the story for Hazel, and the story follows this adventure.

The book really gets you thinking about what impact we leave on the world, how small a single life can be, and how the ones we love will remember us. Overall - a quick read for me, and yes, it was a tear-jerk-er. As a follow up on my strategy to not cry - the finger pressing up under the nose works a lot better when upright(not lying in bed) because then you can occasionally look upwards(which also helps). Well, on to the next one right? So much time until the next book club (The Book Thief is up next!) so I get to pick a book in the mean time. I've had The Casual Vacancy sitting on my shelf for a while.

Yes, I got it because it was written by J.K. Rowling... Haven't heard the best things about it, but I suppose I should give it a shot.

The Other Boleyn Girl and The Comfort of Lies - Review

So this is kind of late, but I did end up reading The Other Boleyn Girl and The Comfort of Lies for book club. SO here are my belated impressions of the books, lets start with The Other Boleyn Girl.

I really liked this book. A brief summary - King Henry VIII married an older women(Katherine), she was unable to produce a(live) male heir to the throne. This resulted in the King sleeping around a lot, which I found funny because he ended up as the head of the Church of England. Basically this book follows the Boleyn family and how the men in the family scheme for the favor of the King and his gifts of titles, land and wealth through "Whoring out" of the 2 Boleyn girls, Mary and Anne. The book is written from Mary's point of view. Pretty interesting to put yourself into that time period and think about the role of women, religion, marriage, politics and all the power struggles. I also was strangely curious about the food of the time period. Lots of boiled eggs, cheese and bread for breakfast apparently...

I really liked the Other Boleyn Girl, and I am now wanting to read just about every other book the author has written on the time period. Unfortunately, due to book club's monthly reading assignments, I'm not sure when I will have the time, since I'm having a hard time finishing one book a month. Well actually I flew through this book, which is impressive since its 500+ pages! I suppose I found it exciting because I know some of the history on King Henry VIII, and the anticipation was killing me! I've added the Constant Princess to my to-read list. Its about King Henry VIII's first wife, Princess Katherine of Spain. Sounds like she had a pretty interesting life from what I gathered in The Other Boleyn Girl.

All-righty, now for The Comfort of Lies -

Not a huge fan, perhaps if was meant to be a very uncomfortable book, not really sure. This book took me longer to read than the previous, though it was significantly shorter. Basically its about Tia, a young women who has an affair with a married man, Nathan, and gets pregnant. She decides to give the child up for adoption to a very successful couple, Carolyn and Peter, who would be able to provide a great life for her child. The story then follows Nathan's wife, Juliette, as she finds out about the affair and then later about the child, and how terrible this whole experience is for everyone... The story is mostly written from the women's perspectives, with a couple of the chapters coming from Nathan. It was kind of interesting to get the view from each perspective on the topic. I do feel this book played up stereotypes a bit though - all of the characters are what you first thought they were going to be like, no surprises. Definitely wouldn't have picked this book for myself, but now I can say I've read it. The next book is way more enticing, The Fault in our Stars by John Green, which promises to be a tear-jerker since its a love story involving childhood terminal cancer...

Bring it on!! I've been meaning to try out my Anti-Crying Technique - apparently if you press up on the cartilage at the bottom of your nose(see below) it prevents tears from coming out of your eye ducts. Just in case, probably don't want to read/test at work, who knows what rumors would start...

P.S. - The library thing worked great for the first 2 books, but apparently a movie is coming out on The Fault in Our Stars, so now everyone and their mom is on the waiting list. Its a bit ridiculous - the library district has about 20 books and a wait list 200 people long! Ended up buying the book, along with the next one(The Book Thief) so I wouldn't have to worry about getting it in time. I am hoping to host the July meeting and I've picked The Mermaid Chair since its been sitting on my shelf for a while.