Archive | December 2010

Boxing Day deserves a pie.

This was the best pie on the PLANET, people, and Dawg and I made it from SCRATCH!

For any extra filling or crust dough you notice you have, set it aside to make mini pies or apple pie empanadas another time. Today you’re making the most delicious cinnamon apple empanada crust pie.

Filling:
6 Macintosh apples, peeled and sliced
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1.5 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons water
3 tablespoon butter

Place butter and water into pan, heat on low. Add rest of ingredients, stirring to coat apples. Continue heating on low for 6 minutes, stirring often. Let rest.

Crust:
4.5 cups flour
1.5 cups milk
3 tablespoon sugar
1 cup melted butter

Add all ingredients in bowl, mix on medium until combined and a firm dough consistency. Cut dough in half, roll out half of dough with rolling pin. Line bottom of pie tin with rolled dough, covering sides of pie tin with dough. Place apple mixture in pie crust, filling to brim of the tin. Roll out the other half of dough, place on top of pie. Pinch edges to make the pie look like a pie! Slit top of pie to vent, preferably in the shape of a smiley face. Place cookie tin under pie tin to catch the bubble-overs.

Bake pie at 425 for 15 minutes then 350 for 30 minutes. Cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Yes, our Christmas was absolutely fantastically amazing. We spent it in sweatpants on our couch then later in sweatpants on Dawg‘s mom’s couch. We had Christmas Crunch, hot cocoa, pigs in a blanket, and filet mignon. Zomg. Hope your day was spectacular too.

And for all my Boxing Day celebrators: HAPPY BOXING DAY! Make this pie. :)

I am lazy but not too lazy to send you a letter!

I haven’t configured forms on my blog but I did go to the store and buy holiday cards finally! I’m poor this year so I bought the Hallmark 20-pack kind, but that doesn’t mean I’m in any less of the Christmas spirit than usual.

Yes, I celebrate Christmas.

I also celebrate St. Nicholas Day.

I don’t celebrate New Year’s.

Back to the point: If you’d like a Christmas-y card from me please send me an electronic letter telling me so.

poppy

-at-

poppycede

dot…

com

and if you really want to send me a card but don’t know my address please tell me so that I will send it to you.

ok, bye. :)

Evolution of a blogger

Earlier today I was standing at the kitchen sink realizing how many things have happened to me or closely around me this year that I didn’t mention here.

I think that means I’m now a seasoned private personal blogger. I’ll tell you what I know it’s ok to share, and I won’t tell you the other stuff.

If I told you about it I’m not sure you’d believe me anyway, but living in NYC sure does provide a lot more stories to just accept as part of daily life than back in Vermont where any little thing that happened to me was OMG I GOTTA TELL THE BLOG ABOUT IT SO EVERYONE KNOWS MY BUSINESS CUZ IF I DON’T THEN I’M NOT SHOWING THE WORLD ALL OF ME.

I’d rather focus on other stuff than making sure you know I am a complete human being. If you don’t know by now that I am a complex, complicated, stratified bag of water just like you then I suggest you meet me at an event and have a conversation with me.

If you’re new here: Hi, I’m Poppy. I blog when I feel like it, about what I feel like blogging about. And you look pretty today.

I think this thought might be so profound that I won’t be able to write it down properly

This is not a passive-aggressive cryptic post in which I hope you’ll think “this post is about you” or “you’re too stupid to know it *is* about you, ya big jerk!”, or any of that bullshit.

I don’t play that game.

Sometimes we humans put our own spin on other people’s words and don’t even care what the original communicator really meant and I’m sick of being misunderstood, so I’m spelling out, to the best of my ability, something about me.

There are certain things that offend me. Like, to my core. Like, make me question why the person is in my life if s/he thinks something or even jokingly says it.

I used to just attack people and say “how dare you say such things?” But lately I’ve realized that my offense is based on my life experience, which is completely different than any other person’s life experience, even if we’ve had some similar experiences. And who am I to tell you that you have offended me in an effort to make you stop saying such things? Because, this is America, fuck yah, and we’re supposed to say whatever the hell we want!

And then instead of addressing my offense of it I just navigate away from the “offender” for a while until I can forget they said what they said or when it no longer stings quite so much…

But my offense remains.

So, I’m giving myself some questions for when this happens:
Why are you offended by that topic?
What would it take for you to no longer be offended by that topic?
Is the work to no longer be offended worth the effort?
Would you rather remain offended by the topic?
Are you able to look past that friend or family member’s enjoyment/conversation of said topic?

Curious: what do you do when someone offends you? Looking forward to your methods.