Oh me, oh my, blueberry pie

A few weeks ago I decided to unnecessarily torture myself and give up a whole lot of really good foods. I started feeling the need to detox, so I eliminated the seven foods that apparently trigger most food sensitivities: wheat, dairy, corn, soy, eggs, peanuts and sugar. The first week I actually eliminated a few other things too, like red meat and tomatoes, shellfish, strawberries and oranges. I’ve since started eating these again with no adverse effects.

Anyway, it’s going well, much better than expected, I really thought I would be attacking a plate of pasta or a baguette within the first week!

I’ve managed to curb my strongest cravings with some trail mix or dark chocolate and rice cakes for the nighttime, tv munchies and I just held strong against the carb cravings and those are slowly getting better. But I did develop an unhealthy obsession towards pies and cakes, and finding a wheat-free, dairy-free alternative, also I had some fresh blueberries from my friend's garden and I simply couldn’t let them go to waste. So I got on the internet (as we are wont to do) and researched all manner of gluten-free pie crusts. I settled on this buckwheat one because it seemed closest to the real thing.

I used ghee and vegetable oil for the fats, but for you vegans out there you can just use vegetable oil.

Sorry for the crappy pictures but I’m terrible at photo editing and I was too concentrated on getting the stupid piecrust right so probably had my camera on the wrong program. My comments on how the pie actually turned out at the end.

FOR THE CRUST:

This is what you need:

Buckwheat flour

400 grams (3 cups) organic buckwheat flour

2 tbsp. (35grams) sugar (I used white but suggest raw cane sugar which I had finished)

1tsp (about 2grams) salt

130 grams (about 10 tbsp.) margarine – the original recipe called for this amount of butter which I didn’t use because of the lactose

Ghee

60 grams ghee – the original recipe called for this much Crisco which I don’t use cause of the hydrogenated oils, I don’t think ghee is vegan friendly, but it is fine for lactose intolerants.

1 cup of ice cold water

This is what you do:

First of all put your cup of water in the freezer with a few ice cubes while you prepare the rest.

Then, mix the buckwheat, sugar and salt in a medium bowl (I sifted them out of habit, but not sure that’s necessary).

Cut your fats (margarine and ghee) in teaspoon sized chunks and put in the mixture. 

Use your hands to work the flour and fats by rubbing the mixture between thumb and fingers and letting it fall back in the bowl. This will take a few minutes, and you should end up with sandy looking flour and the fats are pretty incorporated but not dissolved.

Pour the cold water slowly in a circle and mix with the other hand. You probably won’t need the whole cup, so pour very carefully. You want the dough to be moist and stick together if you press some in your hand, it shouldn't fall apart.

When you have the right consistency, divide the dough into two balls (I weighed mine… one was 350 grams – for the bottom crust and the top crust one was about 370 grams). Flatten the dough balls out some and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour – I was in a rush so stuck them in freezer for about 15 minutes while I prepped the filling.

Rolling out the crust:

When your filling’s ready you can roll out your crust. This is where it gets tricky… I usually roll out traditional piecrusts on a sheet of floured parchment paper and with a cold rolling pin and never had any problems. Not so with buckwheat. Buckwheat crusts completely fall apart when rolled, it was a humongous mess which left me frustrated to no end. 

I then decided to cut my losses, stuck the broken pieces of crust in my lightly oiled pie dish and stuck them together with my fingers. I then used a small rolling pin with a handle (mine is from Tupperware and I LOVE IT!) to roll the dough out directly in the pan. It came out perfect, thin and even, up the sides and everything!

The hard part was the top crust, there was no way that I could see to make a whole piecrust for the top so I rolled out small pieces at a time and cut them in flower shapes with a cookie cutter and just settled them on top of the filling. I was tired and impatient at that point so my top crust isn’t as thin as I would have liked but for a first effort it’s passable.

Also, I used rice flour on the wax paper instead of wheat flour.

FOR THE FILLING:

I adapted the basic blueberry pie Joy of Cooking recipe that I always use.

This is what you need:

5 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup sugar

3 ½ to 4 tbsp. cornstarch (I used only 3 tbsp. arrowroot powder cause not eating corn)

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. lemon zest

¼ tsp salt

This is what you do:

First off, let me just say that when I started making the filling I realized the husband had used up some of my blueberries for his smoothie. After internally fuming for a few minutes I composed myself and debated sending him to the store for some more, but it was too close to dinner time and he was on his way out to a work thing so I restrained myself and used my imagination instead. I ended up using 3 cups fresh blueberries and 2 cups dried (I sooo don’t recommend this!), I also ended up putting some red currants I had lying around cause honestly their too tart to eat and I never know what the hell to do with them when people give them to me.

Back to the filling: You just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and let sit for 15 – 30 minutes (while you roll out your piecrust). You then poke holes in your crust with a fork, spread the filling in there dot with butter or ghee (or nothing at all, have never noticed a significant advantage to this step) and cover with whatever method you prefer (whole crust, cut outs, strips…).

Pie sitting in oven, waiting patiently for me to take stupid pictures before closing the door and letting it cook in peace.

Stick in the preheated oven at 220°C (425°F) for 20-30 minutes (depends how thick your crust is – I did 20 minutes) and then  lower to 180°C (375°F) for another 30 – 35 minutes. Let cool completely (at least two hours!)

Notes for the future: the filling was awesome as usual except for the stupid dried blueberries which are slightly tarter than fresh and the wrong consistency.

The crust on the other hand needs some improvement. I think it probably needed another spoonful of sugar cause the taste was too “vegetable-y” or ideally some honey, though I have no idea how that would react in a piecrust. Will try it out soon though.

Buckwheat flour is heavier than wheat flour and the crust had that typical “health food” after taste that I don’t particularly love, which is why I think honey and maybe some vanilla or cinnamon would work to cover it up. Apart from that, I’m happy with the result. I needed something for these wheat-free days! Next time I’m going to try a slightly more decadent, more flavorful chocolate – hazelnut filling, which should steer the attention directly away from it being a “healthy alternative”.

Oh, also, I highly recommend getting someone to help you, I did!

The name dilemma

Dear friends of the blogosphere, I need you to weigh in on something that’s been bothering me for weeks.

First, the premise: 

The Boy’s name is Alexandre, and to be really precise let me just say straight off the bat that it’s pronounced like Alexander. We named him Alexandre because, obviously, we liked the name, also, it’s similar to the husband’s name and we chose to spell it that way because it’s the Brazilian spelling and as I’m half Brazilian it all seemed to make sense. Plus, I went to a French school in Houston (yes, I know, my family’s messed up) and there were a LOT of boys named Alexandre (as this is how the French spell it too) and, as far as I know, none of them had any problem with the English speakers mispronouncing their name. Anyway…

Unfortunately, Italians are extremely literal and they pronounce things exactly as they are written so they pronounce his name with an accent on the last e, like Andre. 

But, no matter, I thought, I have a weird name too and have spent my entire life correcting people on the pronunciation and spelling, it’s no biggy. Yet… here in Italy, I’ve found, people can be pretty obtuse… point in fact, I have family members who still don’t know how to spell my name, or, more likely, don’t give a shit and decide to spell it the way it sounds rather than the way it’s actually spelled.

To make matters worst, we call the Boy, Xandre (pronounced Zander) because his dad’s nickname is Alex and we didn’t want the confusion of two people named Alex running around the house.

So anyway our conversations usually run something like this:

Stranger: “Oh, what a cute little boy! What’s your name, honey?”

Boy: “Zander”

Stranger looks totally confused so I step in:

Me: “Alexander”

Stranger: “Oh, Alessandro (Italian version), Hi Alessandro!”

Me: “No, actually it’s Alexander, Alessandro’s his dad.”

Stranger: “Sorry?”

Me: “His name isn’t Alessandro, it’s Alexander!”

Stranger stops calling him by name cause is confused.

Or maybe Stranger is actually a school teacher or something and sees his name written somewhere so the comment becomes: “oh! Alexandré! Ok!”

And that’s when I start banging my head against the wall.

So here’s the dilemma… the Boy is starting preschool in September, which basically means he’s really and truly on the road to being independent from us, and every day that passes more and more often he’ll be the one that’s going to be having the conversation above. We love him, it wasn’t our intention when we named him to make his life a living hell of futile repetition or worse, to spend his childhood and young adulthood answering to a name that’s simply not his own. So the Husband and I have been thinking of just getting his name legally changed to Alexander to avoid all this ridiculous confusion.

My problem though is that in my heart, in my mind, and in all his baby stuff (his bibs, his blankies, his sheets, his birthday cakes and invitations and baby books…not to mention on all the freaking church records) his name is Alexandre, and names are important, aren’t they? They’re important spiritually, mystically, anthropologically… his name is a part of him.

So, I’ve been spending my days on the fence, wondering, what’s in a name? How much of a hassle is it going to be for him to always be correcting people, or to answer to a slightly mispronounced version of his name? Is he going to care at all, or is it just me? Is it worth the hassle of going through the name change procedure (complicated beyond all semblance of proportion and sanity here in Italy by the infamous Italian bureaucracy) and then if it gets approved, is he going to mind that his name was changed without his consent? Will his life be different as Alexander than it would be as Alexandre?

What is in a name? And most importantly, what do I do?


Linking up with Shell at Things I can't say today.

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows - Yes, I’m going there.

Last week I took my niece to see the final episode of Harry Potter, aren’t I a great aunt? 

Well, in truth, what actually happened was that I was out looking at washers for the beach apartment and as chance would have it that store also sold DVDs, and I just had to have a mosey around as I was so dejected at the prices of washers - incidentally, why the hell are they so expensive anyway all they have to do is wash the damn clothes not make them from scratch - and when I saw Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1 I needed it to cheer me up. (This whole explanation was for the husband’s benefit, as he never understands how I can go into a store to “just look” and inevitably come out with something or other, I know you lot understand me intuitively.)

So we watched it that night (how I managed to miss it when it was at the movies is beyond me, but I’m sure my children are to blame), and got into it so much that we (and by we I, of course, mean me) had to go see part 2 right away since, as luck would have it it’s on at the movies right now. My niece kindly allowed herself to be used as my excuse. A perk of “taking my niece to the movies” is that I got to miss bath time. Oh the joy!

Anyway, we went to see it in 3D cause it was the only thing available at the time that we wanted and let me just say that it was pretty much a waste of money. (the 3D, not the movie)

The movie, on the other hand, was awesome. I honestly think it was the best movie out of all of them, the first one was good too, the second one was ok and then they got progressively more terrible as they progressed (notice the repetition, couldn’t think of one synonym for either word, not one, and too lazy to do a search, but felt the need to put in a disclaimer lest you think my grammar’s really terrible). Back to the movie: this one really picked up the pace of the book and left me with a newfound fondness for HP. It actually made me want to reread the books (again, for like the gazillionth time).

Plus, I got to go to the movies, at night!

Surviving Ikea and Beach Reno part 2

view from my room

Last Wednesday the Husband and I went to Ikea to order all the furniture for the beach house and to finally put an end to the drawn-out discussions on the merits of one sofa bed over another, one type of chair over an other and on and on, but what in fact happened was us almost putting an end to our marriage.

This is nothing new, every single couple I know fights when in Ikea for some reason or another, it’s the curse of Ikea. But what normally is nothing more than a spat that resolves itself in the walk from couches to dining room sets turned into a blown out of all proportion bonanza of passive aggressiveness not seen since the wedding planning days, due to the fact that we were in Ikea for eight straight hours. Yes, eight hours. We had both lunch and dinner there. It’s a miracle we didn’t get divorced. It’s actually an even greater miracle that we chose, ordered and paid for all of the furniture for a three bedroom apartment, kitchen and closets included (as houses in Italy come with none of these things, plus we’re renovating so the point is moot anyway).

Anyway, the apartment will look AMAZING, if I do say so myself… if cheaply furnished. When we saw the total amount we spent we almost clapped our hands in glee. I mean, it’s not like they were giving furniture away for free or anything, but compared to what one usually spends here to furnish a house… let me just say that we spent less than we would have to outfit just a regular-sized kitchen in a normal store, so you can understand the glee, right?

Anyway, Thursday we went to check on the progress on the apartment and were thrilled to see that the floors were practically completely laid, the kitchen backsplash was up, the walls were whitewashed and the bathroom floors and tiles were almost done. So “YAY!” was our initial reaction, thinking of our basically certain two week vacation at the end of august in our new house. HA! What’s that they say about chanting victory before the battles done? But first, here are some pics:

Entrance as seen from inside the house. Not grand but all our own!

just wanted you to see the cute little sign they have to put on construction sites.

Living room side - see the floors?! Yes, that's my tush in the background.

Kitchen side! the backsplash has a few decorated tiles, but you can't tell from this angle, will take a better shot next time.

hallway leading to bedrooms and bathrooms

pink bathroom! 

green bathroom! (not yet fully tiled when this photo was taken, but all done now!)

So, as we gleefully plan the last jobs that need doing, the plumber coming in to put a few vital things in (like toilets), the electrician finishing up, what color we wanted to paint the walls and such, we ask when the windows and doors would be arriving. Windows and doors we ordered the first week of July. Windows and doors that, we were assured, would take no longer than forty days to arrive.

please note the lack of a window.
 also note the husband looking pensive to the side - he's been complaining of being heavily under-featured on here.

The second week of September was the answer we got. The apartment resonated with the sound of our jaws dropping to the ground. 

So there go our hopes of relaxing at the beach before school starts. And the worst part, it’s all our own stupid fault. We know how construction works in Italy, we’ve done this before. They never, ever, never, ever, ever deliver on their promises, if they tell you the house will be ready by mid August count on at least an extra month cause something is bound to go wrong.

At times like these I hate Italy and stupid Italian workers who won’t let me go on vacation. Stupid. And mean. 

view from guest bedroom, not great, but I really like that tree.

Virtual Coffee {19}

Hello Dear Friends and welcome to coffee! (tea for me, it’s a minor miracle, but I’m actually still doing the detox I mentioned), today’s virtual coffee will be brief cause I’m actually guest posting on the transition from having one kid to two for the lovely Allison over at Alli’n Son, who just had her second baby and is taking a necessary break from her “blogging duties” (so go read me there too, please, if you can).

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures with you today...

On a pirate ship - doesn't he look too little to be going off to preschool already? Sniff!

I don't know WHAT we were doing, but those are hippos in the background

These guys made me feel right at home... yeehaw!

...and ask for advice, we were supposed to go to the (almost totally renovated!) beach apartment the last week of August and first week of September before the Boy starts “Scuola Materna” (preschool), but unfortunately the apartment won’t be ready (long rant against Italian builders coming tomorrow) so we decided to book something close by last-minutish. 

Except… how does one do that without paying through the nose? I’m pretty much a planner when it comes to holidays and we rarely have to organize actual vacations in hotels and stuff because we have family all over the place so I have no experience with this. Have you gotten deals for last minute vacations? Any advice?

Thanks friends! And, as usual, go visit our hostess Amy at Lucky Number 13!!

Things I want to teach my children

I honestly can’t believe it’s August 1^st. Where is the time going? What the heck happened to July? Partly, I’m sure, it’s the weather’s fault. Seriously, it was 26°C (78.8°F) outside yesterday afternoon and it felt hot, that’s how cool it’s been lately, so no wonder it doesn’t feel like summer’s halfway over, it practically hasn’t even started yet. Anyway, since we must base ourselves on the calendar, it is once again time for me to impart some wisdom to my kids. So here we go, this time I only have one piece of advice for each child, based on their personalities.

For the Girl:

Life doesn’t always need to be so dramatic. I understand that sometimes your feelings are so big that you need to physically display them to release some of the tension, but seriously, can’t we just agree that I do things for your own good and not out of spite or meanness. For example, if I tell you that no, you can’t climb up on the table via the chair and do a little jig up there it’s because it’s dangerous and you don’t need to flop to the ground with your hands on your face wailing. Or even more simply, when I decide that bath time is over because you’re so pruney you look like a shriveled up old lady and I go to pick you up, you don’t need to start crying like I just killed your lovey and go all jelly-legs and jelly-arms on me because the likelihood that I accidently drop you is very high.

A little drama is good, it makes life more exciting and keeps those around you on their toes. I’m sure we can channel your penchant for the dramatic into something productive and not annoying to me, like a career in the arts?

For the Boy:

Some things are scary, I know they are, but if you don’t try them how will you know what you can do? When we come up against something new I see you, looking, taking your measure, sussing things out. Sometimes you really want to do something but you don’t, because you’re scared. I get it, doing new things is difficult, I promise, I get it. What I really want you to learn is that trying something new that you really want to do and failing, is infinitely, undeniably better than not trying at all. Especially since the likelihood of failure is very, very small. There are a lot of new things still to come in your life, and I will hold your hand, go with you, encourage you, and push you for as long as I can, but I want you to learn to take that first step on your own. I want you to always take the first step because I see the joy on your face every time we’ve done something new and conquered it.

I want to teach you that not trying something new, that not taking that first step is not an option, and that there’s no shame in failure if you’ve tried.

Every month when I take a moment to think about this post and what to write I realize that being a parent is hard, but being the kind of parent we want to be is even harder.

Silent Sunday