Empirical Foodism

I have issues with pie crust.  I can make an okay crust, but I always strive for a crust that's more than just okay.  Thanksgiving is the time of year where I put my crust skills to the test. I won't lie, I get a little nervous every year at Thanksgiving.  I mean, being responsible for dessert for a dozen people is a big responsibility! Every year I try a little something different with my crust, striving to come up with that perfectly flaky crust that makes people wanting to go back for more. I THINK I might have found it this year.  I think I ran across the concept on Pinterest , and although I didn't pin that recipe, it got me thinking about it.  Sour cream pie crust.  It was intriguing... would it work?  Would I like the result? I had the ingredients, so I tried it (with slight modification).  Here's the recipe from food.com.  My modified recipe is below: Sour Cream Pie Crust (supposedly will make enough for 1 9in pie, but I think it might yield more)

I did mention that I wouldn't be a regular blog poster, right?  I'm finally coming up for breaths from my months of working one and a half jobs.  It's amazing how much time 60 hours a week of working sucks from you.  One of my summer resolutions is to ramp up blog posts (let's see if that works out). I've been a little obsessed lately with Pinterest ( www.pinterest.com if you are totally out of the loop).  I've been 'pinning' lots of recipes that I want to try, and have vowed that even in the 90 + degree heat of the North Carolina summer, I will do so. The other inspiration I've had lately is that the Durham Farmers' Market ( http://www.durhamfarmersmarket.com/ ).is in full swing, and I've already managed to make it there twice this season.  Being surrounded by that much fresh produce, homegrown meat, hand made cheeses ... yeah it's hard NOT to be inspired. This weekend I plan on whipping up some baked goods with freshly picked

I admit, when I saw the recipe for these cookies, I was completely intrigued by the idea.  I found the reicpe on Baked Perfection's blog.  Orange creamsicle, um, yes please!!! I whipped out my bowl and all my ingredients and got to mixing.  After I put in the flour, I realized that this wasn't going to work out.  The dough was super dry, I don't know that it would have even held together had I tried to make cookies.  I don't know what I did wrong.  I look on the above blog and the cookies are super beautiful.  I was cooking at night, so there is a chance that I screwed something up (in fact, there's a good chance that I screwed up). However, I knew I could salvage this cookie dough.  I added an extra egg.  It made sense, there was a lot of flour, and not much in the way of liquid ingredients.  After adding the egg, it was better.  Still a really stiff dough, but definitely workable.  I added in my zest and my white chocolate chips, and started baking! I