Rainy Friday

Two weeks ago I tried my hand at making a pie crust. I used Pam's recipe for the pie crust and I have to say, it was lovely. The filling was mediocre but the crust was heavenly. I need a great apple pie filling recipe. Folks, toss any good apple pie recipes my way. Here is a picture:

Noodle used some of her hard earned cash to buy cookie cutters at Target so we decorated the pie with bats and pumpkins. Doesn't it look great? The crust was so good I actually left the filling and ate the crust. Pam's crust recipe is right here. I did two things differently: I didn't have butter flaovered crisco so I used butter in place of it and I used a food processor to cut the fat into the flour (because I am lazy and I like to use power tools). I had been intimadated by pie crusts, mostly because my mom said they were hard and I believed her. I think maybe I questioned all the wrong things when it came to my mom, maybe not. This crust wasn't easy but it wasn't hard.

This weekend my husband's grandmother and nephew are coming to visit, next weekend my husband and daughter are joining me in Atlanta for a family party. My family: insane but fun. His family: insane but insane. They will be here for 2 days. 2 days. I love his grandmother but she drives me batshit. His nephew is 3 months older than Noodle and has been raised in a very different household than ours (he came home from the hospital in camos, do I have to say more?). We don't gel very well. But we love them so we try to gel. I guess that is what counts. They are not staying at our house, that would have been too much for me. I am selectively high maintenance and privacy is one of those things that I am selective about. I am nuts, it's ok. There is just so much tension around his family (this is a post all in of itself and isn't all my story so I have refrained from discussing it too much). My inlaws really are the creme de le creme of great blog fodder. So for the next couple of days I get to entertain family which will involve:
1. Breaking up the spats between the kids
2. Trying to ignore my husband's grandmother talk about:
his parents (whom we are not speaking terms with and haven't been for 4.5 years)
family dirt
death
disease
pestilence
horrible weather

Do you get the idea? Yeah.

Monday would be my mother's 72cnd birthday so everyone needs to toast her with something sparkling and something chocolate! She would say champagne but some readers are knocked up and some readers don't drink so sparkling cider works too. No scrimping on the chocolate! Here's a picture of Noodle and her Mimi from 5 years ago. I miss her so much. I was very lucky to have the mom I had.

I am now going to practice deep calming breaths.