It's face stuffing season, did you lock your car?

From SF Gate (the online edition of the SF Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/11/24/dip.DTL

The baboons of Cape Town, South Africa have no qualms about jumping through open car windows, or opening unlocked doors, for that matter.

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We had a small potluck at work for lunch. One of the girls in dispatch surveyed the half picked carcass of a rotisserie chicken and said to me, "How hard is soup?" "Big pot. Water. Chicken stock. Chopped veggies of your choice. Chicken. Egg noodles if you want noodles. Salt and pepper to taste." She seemed amazed it was that simple, then packed up the carcass.

It's not that she can't cook either, I just think it's a case of growing up believing soup comes out of cans, bread comes in a plastic bag and baking involves two eggs, some water and a box of mix. I've been there too, and as a single dweller, quick and easy is often the default course. But homemade, well. It just tastes good, you know?

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Whoever coined the phrase "Easy as pie" never tried to roll out a crust on a 10' x 14' cutting board in the bottom of a kitchen sink. My odd little kitchen has very little in the way of counter space - though the big Wedgewood range compensates for other inconveniences with its awesomeness. So my "scratch" pies will have store-bought crust and I will not have barked knuckles.

It was just going to be one pumpkin pie, but one of the guys at work brought in a bag of fresh persimmons off his tree and not many people wanted them. I don't want to leave them here for the long weekend and they're too nice to throw out, so I'll slice them up and try a recipe for persimmon pie I found on the 'net. After all, with the judicious application of sugar and spices, it'll probably be decent.

Tanka challenge 11/25/09

Blazing pumpkin rinds
Join eggshells and persimmon
Peels in a bucket.
I read the recipe twice
Why is so much filling left?

The pumpkin pie recipe says it's enough for two pies. I just poured some into a shell and there's EASILY enough for two more. I suppose I could freeze what I don't use today....

Pumpkin pie 1.0 is made of fail.

Recipe said to crisp the pie crust in the oven before adding filling, bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350 for 45.. I now have a pie with a burned, black crust, though the filling looks OK.

Version 2.0 went in to crust that was not previously put into the oven. Came out with crust is dark, dark brown, but at least doesn't look like a pumpkin filled lava tube. .

I don't have this problem with my fruit pies, they haven't required the lengthy cooking time the pumpkin filling seems to need to set up. And possibly the aluminum plates are giving me a different result than my ceramic pie dish does.

I am now out of premade crust and I don't have any shortening in the house to make it. I'll have to make a store run early tomorrow - the persimmon is going in the pie dish.