Got My Aretha Back in a Banana Cone

I had a banana sorbet during lunch today. I also had some leftover (best in the world) mac and cheese and buttermilk fried chicken but the highlight was the walk along the park with a sorbet on a cone that I had seen and wondered about but suddenly fell in love with during a slow impromptu walk along Central Park.
Ciao Bella was out of my raspberry sorbet. And as I perused the options next to a trio of Upper East Side young ladies who lunch, who were clad in crisp Oxfords and khakis, I decided after I watched them opt for mint chocolate chip and hazelnut, I would go freaky on them and get the banana sorbet. While the beloved, but sadly absent today, raspberry sorbet tastes like the very essence of the lovely little bombs, (sidenote-favorite raspberry moment? Eating a carton of the lovelies on the Champs Elysees with three of my favorite people in the world—Framboise et al), the banana sorbet immediately reminded me of an overripe banana flambéed, carmelized and heated up, then frozen. Lovely. Made me want to make a sandwich of nutella, banana and Italian bread pressed and melted in my George Foreman tonight. I am all about indulging myself these days.
Funny how I have been eating better and enjoying eating, drinking, perusing the city but not feeling like sharing it at all.
Here we go, self-conscious blog moment. It’s the jumping the shark moment, isn’t it?
So soon?
Perhaps not. Maybe I just needed a break. And I needed a jolt of new, lovely and new.
I am in rediscovery mode, bitches. It's fall and I feel it again, as Lavern Baker would say.
I went through my CD collection and loaded all the R&B and soul I had all but neglected for nearly a year. Now, I am back and up to the challenge of listening to Aretha Franklin daily again. Praise her.
And I am off to the gym so I can eat a large piece of the apple pear pie I made this past Sunday.
I made the pie crust with just butter and added some sugar as some recipes suggested. But I fear the sugar made the crust less flaky than I would have hoped. I want flaky.
I am on a mission to find some lard, as Aretha blares in my headphones.

Apple Pear Pie

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water

In the pie:
4 peeled pears
7 peeled apples
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
¼ cup brown sugar
A few pats of butter
Some salt

Mix flour, sugar, and salt together in bowl. Add butter and mix with fingers until coarse meal forms. Add 3 tablespoons water. Mix together just until moist clumps form, adding more water by 1/2 tablespoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 1 hour. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling.)

Slice up pears and apples. In a large bowl, mix fruit with cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg and salt.

Roll out half the dough, place in buttered pie dish. Place fruit on crust. Roll out the rest of the dough and place it on top. Pinch bottom and top dough together.
Cook at 400 for about 45 minutes.

Comments

[Judy]

I am busting into your apartment and stealing myself a piece of that pie! I hope you made whipped cream to go with it, or this intruder is going to be pissed!

[rose]

judes, i thought you knew me. i don't like whipped cream....well on pie.