(cooking, observe, watching notes)

[elainegrey]

Thank you to yourlibrarian who simply wrote that episode 3 of season 2 of The Mandalorian was a better story line. We watched it last night (along with starting The Two Towers) and i was so relieved.

Yesterday was mostly dreary, and my sister had had heightened concern about the virus. We stayed masked at my sister's, and my parents did not come due to the damp. Then we stopped off for a brief visit at my parents. My dad is not going to go to Florida, which relieves me mightily (as i wasn't sure if he would need to.)

This morning my brother called via FaceTime and i had a nice visit with him and the boys.

After much mist this morning, it's now clearing. That should help my mood and energy.

Breakfast was inspired by tx_cronopio's mention of deviled eggs a few weeks ago. I have since acquired a tube of wasabi and made deviled eggs with wasabi and my own pickled ginger. Pro tip: don't slice the ginger along the grain, no matter how finger prserving it seems to be. The wasabi eggs were yummy. Probably will make again.

My apple pie turned out unexpectedly: none of the apples disintegrating into sauciness, no juicy or gooey bits. Not quite dry, but thinking about it. The bottom crust may have absorbed all the juice: at least it was good tasting butter. On the other hand, i may have not split the reduced juices from before baking at the correct ratio, with half the juice with the smaller collection of apples. The top crust hadn't really baked all the way through: i wonder if that's because i pressed it down onto the apples. It did look gorgeous. And it tasted fine just fine: nothing was rock hard. Someday i may have apples from my own trees and become familiar with how they behave. It seems consistent apple types may be just as much a part of the mystery of consistent apple pies as anyting else.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Glad you took the plunge on Mandalorian. The following episode seemed at first to be a sidenote, but I expect it's laying some important groundwork for later. I'm looking forward to today's episode since I expect it's also going to move the plot forward.

[weofodthignen]

I think you're on to something about consistent apple types. The type of apple that was standard in pies when I was growing up in the UK (and used in Branston pickle and probably a lot of other things) isn't even grown in the UK. They're inedible raw: a large, very firm apple that I remember with only a flush of red on the green. See Bramley apple (although this time I see some nurseries offering them in the US, so maybe I have the wrong type) and more broadly cooking apple.

On the other hand, this British food writer hates Bramleys, and yes, you do have to add sweetener to pies made with them.