You! Back in the Kitchen!

The more faithful of my readers have surely noticed by now that I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. In fact, some of you have mentioned this in person... more than once... I do apologize, but I've been devoting a lot of my attention to the new bike lately. I've set it up with new handlebars, clips and straps, a new left crank arm and a lockring (important). I also trued up the rear wheel, as best I can anyway, and I've been busy carving a little bike workshop area out of my basement as well. Basically, I've been geeking out on my new toy for the past three weeks. But the food bug is beginning to successfully compete with the bike bug, and I made my way back into the kitchen last Wednesday for a pie class.

Not my own kitchen, mind you. This class was held at the Bakery Bar down in Produce Row, and was put on by a Bay-Area pastry chef name of Shuna Lydon. The focus of the class was an all-butter pie crust. Here we see Shuna adding the ice water to the butter and flour:


And here, gesticulating wildly to punctuate one of her many nuggets of pie wisdom:


And putting the finishing touches on the crust:


After this demonstration, we each had the chance to grab a chunk of dough and go through the process ourselves. That's mine up top, by the way. Obviously the work of a novice, but it should do the job. It's currently in my freezer, awaiting its ultimate assignment.

The class was a lot of fun, and a valuable experience. Could I have taught myself to make pie crust? Probably, but it would have entailed an awful lot of trial and error, and some pretty ugly mistakes to be sure. Getting a little instruction from a professional is a good way to go with something like pie dough. Thanks, Shuna!

In other food-related developments, the egg operation is in full swing. The hens seem to get pretty excited when I stop by every Thursday evening. They're not shy, that's for sure. And they're really beginning to produce. We now have a surplus of eggs, which we'll be selling at the Lents Farmers' Market beginning tomorrow. Here's a shot of the girls: