Clinkscales Arts

I’ve been singing that song since last weekend when I made MY VERY FIRST PIE!! (If you don’t know the song, you’re too young! ) J’s mom (E) is the queen of pies - her pies are outstanding. It’s not necessarily the pie that is outstanding, it’s the crust. You see, I don’t like pie crust - it’s tough and thick and tastes like bleh. And bleh isn’t good. But’s E’s crust is wonderful! It’s flaky and thin and just fabulous - I love it! It’s the only pie crust I’ve ever enjoyed. She gave me her recipe a long time ago, and I think my dad and I attempt it…once. I don’t really remember, so that tells you how the pie turned out. J’s 40th (!!) birthday was last week, and when I asked him what type of cake he wanted, he said, “Pie”. Sheesh! How am I supposed to make a pie?! He is the son on the Queen of Pie Crust for goodness sakes! My first thought was to call said Queen and see if she had any extra crusts lying around, just waiting to be made into a birthday pie. No such luck. But she did agree to give me the recipe again.

So, Sunday, I head to the store, buy all my ingredients and come home and get ready to make pie crust. J wanted a cherry pie using a canned filling, so I would only have to attempt the crust this time around. Ingredients on the cabinet, ready to make a crust and I realize I forgot the freakin’ Crisco! Well you can’t make a crust without Crisco, so back to the store I go. 15 minutes and $4 (!) later, I’m back. I don’t have a pastry blender (hand held doo-hickie with wires across it to cut the Crisco into the dry ingredients), so I decide to cut the Crisco in with my super-duper mixer my sister got me for Christmas (thanks Po!).

You know, you can sling a LOT of Crisco and flour around with a mixer! But nevertheless, I get it mixed. And it looked just like the Queen said it would - very crumbly. So I flop it out of the bowl onto the (floured! I remembered) counter and make a loverly log o’ dough. The recipe makes 5 crusts, so I do my best to divide them. Three are wrapped and go into the freezer, and two remain there - staring up at me.

I whoop out my (never before used) rolling pin and away I go. First push across the dough and I remember you should flour it! Ok, pin floured now roll, roll, roll, this doesn’t look round, roll, roll, roll. After a few slings of flour and some rolling motion, we have a crust ready to go into the pie pan. Luckily I remembered to flour the cabinet and the crust rolls around my pin (fairly) easily. I get into the dish, patch the large tear I created in the back (you can see the patched area in the pic) and trim the edges just a bit. I’ve made a freakin’ pie crust! YAY!

Then, with flour covered hands, I grab Jeff’s camera and commence to taking pics. (By this time, he thinks I’ve lost my ever lovin’ mind!). And here we have, a crust in a pan - tada!

Next comes the easy-peasy part - putting the filling it. All it took was a simple little can opener and voila! I can’t believe my eyes, I’m making a pie!

Ok, so, you know a pie needs a top crust too. And just when I thought I was finished… So, dough ball #2 get a sling of flour on the counter and here we go with the trusty (floured this time) rolling pin. Actually by this time, just about everything, including me, was floured. Roll, roll, roll, this is kinda round, roll, roll. We have a second crust. Two crusts in one day?! This must be a record or something! I slap a patch on the piece I tore and do a fancy learned-it-on-the-Food-Network crimp around the edges, cut some vents in the top (OH, how I wish I had made a smiley face on top - they drive J crazy!) and into the oven she goes.

I then clean up the mess…and watch the clock. Tick, tick, tick. Pies take a long time to cook!

Finally, finally my masterpiece is done. Here she is proudly cooling on the table.

May I present to you, my very first cherry pie…

And just because I could, I shot this pic so you could see the crust up close and personal. It wasn’t tough and bleh, it was tender and flaky and oh so delicious! J and I fought over the last piece - literally. Happy Birthday, J!!

Greetings and salutations! No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I was experiencing technical difficulties and haven’t been able to log in to my blog for a month! But, I figured out that the problem was with a plug-in I had installed (Bad Behavior…literally!) and once I updated it, I could log in. Thank goodness!

Reflecting on 2007 makes me very grateful. My line of crochet earrings have been more successful than I expected - I have several wholesale accounts and Etsy sales have kept me busy. Other little miscellaneous items I’ve added to my shop have been well received too. Thank you to everyone that helped build Clinkscales Arts this year.

In the coming year I hope to add a line of bead-embellished earrings, a line of beaded bead and beaded cabochon necklaces and earrings and maybe a few other surprises. Also, look for more of my beaded goddess dolls to be appearing in my shop. I’ve had lots of requests for them and I have a few in the works.

So here is a huge thank you for 2007 and well wishes for 2008. May all of your dreams come true.