In Which We Travel South, See Covered Wagons, and Discuss Pies

DH and I recently spent a couple of lovely days in Ashland. I try to get down several times a year, one trip per season (except winter, when I'd prefer not to play roulette with the Siskiyou Pass), and I'm always grateful that I live close enough to do this. For 60 whole hours, I was able to set aside the burden of grief over my father's recent passing and enjoy myself with theater and good people.

The Drive: was great all by itself. My husband is a gear-head and I'm an audiobook narrator. This means that on road trips (well, at other times, too), it's a match made in heaven. He drives, I read. On this drive, we started Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. Our last two books were Alfred Lansing's riveting (if you will) Endurance and Doug Stanton's riveting (as it were) In Harm's Way, which we knew would be tough acts to follow. But we shouldn't have doubted Hillenbrand, and this story (subtitle, A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, so there's your synopsis) is, well, riveting.

We also discovered a roadside gem that I can't believe we've missed for the 15 years it's been around: The Applegate Trail Interpretive Center. Exit 71 was always just the Sunny Valley General Store Pit Stop. Now we know it as also the home of a wonderful little museum of Oregon Trail history, complete with a collection of original covered wagons. But if you only visit it to experience the presentation of co-founder Dennis Gaustad, it will be worth it. I'll leave it at that.

The Plays: We saw August, Osage County and The Pirates of Penzance. Since I'm no longer an underpaid drama critic, I won't take the time to write scintillating yet incisive reviews. Instead, you get the nutshell. Osage: great play; unevenly acted; directed in such a way that it managed to miss most of dramatic beats, rises and falls. Penzance: so good it almost made me forget that this repertory company and the outdoor Elizabethan stage were made for Shakespeare, not Gilbert and Sullivan. We loved it.

The Meals: Delicious Asian fusion food at The Dragonfly Cafe with an old family friend, and coffee that was tasty but too weak at Noble Coffee with one of my favorite people from Bee Audio. At Pasta Piatti, we had dinner with two of the bestest producers a girl could ask for (thanks, Blackstone Audio!). If the conversation hadn't been so fun, I'd have been moaning over the eggplant parmigiana and crab cakes.

Pies: I'd brought a fall-harvest rhubarb pie to give to the aforementioned bestest-producer friends, which started the conversational topic of how to make pies, which led to the important point that it's the method, more than the recipe. So I'll end this post with my method. My approach is unconventional, but unless my friends and family are big fat liars, it makes delicious pies with flaky crusts!

Heather's Pie

1. Buy a pastry cloth board at Kitchen Krafts (formerly Maid of Scandinavia). I bought my first one from them 30 years ago, and they still make them.

2. Rub together 1-1/2 cups softened (that's right, softened) butter with 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon each salt and sugar until it's all about the texture of oatmeal. Gradually add cold water, maybe a tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until the whole thing will stay together if gently squeezed into a ball. It's tempting at this point to squish and squeeze it like it's modeling clay. You'll get to do that in Step 9 -- for now, don't overwork it.

3. Prepare 4+ cups of fruit. (We're just talking fruit here; don't mix in flour or sugar or anything.) Clean, pit, peel, slice or cut as needed.

4. Set your flour, sugar canisters out on your workspace. (Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and/or allspice, too, if they'd go well with whatever fruit you're using.)

5. Divide your gently-compressed pastry ball into two gently-compressed pastry balls. Spread a handful of flour around on the pastry cloth and roll out the first ball, lightly flouring and flipping the widening circle of crust frequently as you roll it. This keeps it from sticking and allows you to get it rolled out without too much pressure.

6. Lift the edge of the crust to fold it in half, then fold again to create a quarter-circle packet. Lay this in the bottom of the pie dish and unfold, centering it so it hangs over the rim of the dish.

7. Spread a handful or two of flour on the bottom of the crust, and then a handful or two of sugar. (Use more or less of each depending on how soupy your fruit gets and how tart it is. More flour and sugar for rhubarb; less for apples; etc. Trust your instincts!) Sprinkle with spices if desired.

8. Spread a third of the fruit over this. Then repeat layers of flour/sugar and fruit, ending with one last sprinkling of flour and sugar.

9. Roll out the top crust, fold it in quarters, and unfold it on top of the pie. Trim or cut-and-paste the crust so that it hangs fairly evenly over the edge of the bottom crust. Now here's where you get to play with clay: squeeze and press the edges together to make however decorative an edge you can manage. Make a few slashes in the top with a knife, and you're ready to bake it.

10. Place the pie on a baking tin to catch any drips, and bake it for 15 minutes at 400˚, then turn the oven down to 350˚ and continue baking another 30-45 minutes. This is one of my secrets to a flaky but not over-browned crust. The pie will be done when it's bubbling up through the crust. If the crust does start to brown before the interior is done, cover it with foil.

And now I'll leave you to eat your pie and contemplate nice fall getaways for yourselves. Until next post,

-Heather