Merry Christmas from the Beach!

Ok, so I'm not really AT the beach. I'm a few blocks from it, but it's kind of weird being so close to the ocean for Christmas. Not that you'd ever want to go swimming today, as it's cold enough to snow, but still. It's the idea of the thing.

Anyway, happy Christmas eve! While eating breakfast, I got to watch the pie queen in action. If you don't remember the pie queen's apple pie, I suggest you refresh your memory, because I have hints straight from the queen herself.

First of all, I melted butter for her. I was honored to be a participant in her pie making.

She also sprinkles corn starch in the bottom crust. I don't know if it helps the caramel thicken or not.

Also, she piles it WAY high with apples. And it bakes down to what you would expect a pie to look like. I apparently don't put in enough apples.

She also puts a little milk and sugar on the top crust to make it brown nicely in the oven.

Finally, I learned that it makes sense to cut a large-ish hole in the top crust so you can see the apples bubbling or not. I did the top crust and didn't make a big enough hole. Oh well. And in the shuffle of making my tree on top, we forgot to crimp the edges. Oh well. It will still taste just as good.

It's odd being at someone else's house for Christmas and not playing semi-hostess. Mom and I fulfilled our baking responsibility by making a pumpkin pie. I am ashamed to say that we went back to using canned pumpkin. There is actually leftover pumpkin from Thanksgiving in our freezer, but it was too much of a bother to try and keep it cold on the way down. And I didn't have the time or resources to cook the pumpkin here. We have a limited supply of knives and such here.

But this is about as easy as pumpkin pie gets. It is also (theoretically) is healthier because it doesn't have a crust. That also makes it basically foolproof. It's easy stuff.

Here's the recipe from Weight Watchers Magazine.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground allspice

2 eggs

1 can pumpkin puree

1 can evaporated fat free milk

Spray a 9 in pie plate with nonstick spray.

Combine sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and allspice in a small bowl.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, and stir in the pumpkin and dry ingredients.

Stir in the milk gradually until well combined.

Pour into pie plate and bake 15 minutes at 425.

Reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes more (or until a know comes out clean).

Cool, cover and refrigerate.

Between mom and me working on it, that went pretty fast. I feel weird not having a lot of baking to do. I've already been assigned potatoes for tomorrow.

My other amusement today (besides walking to the beach!) was fixing the hole in my shoe.

Unfortunately these shoes are the second pair in two years to end up with a hole in them. But they are sooooo comfortable and I can't bear to part with them.

Obvious solution: sew a patch over the hole. A cupcake shaped patch, of course!

Anyway, Merry Christmas! May you have a blessed day, and find the true meaning of Christmas: that over 2000 years ago, a baby was born in Bethlehem to die for our sins.