All Things American

I woke up the other day to my boyfriend scouring craigslist.  I let hin be for about a half of an hour before my mind started getting carried away with me.  Who really looks at craigslist for that long unless they are looking for apartments?  It seems like we are always moving as soon as we get settled into a place and the topic has come up recently.  I went to confront him (very calmly and not like an emotional girl would at all) only to find out he had been looking up cars to buy.  For me.  To make it easier for me to visit my friends and family.  (He has a way of making me feel ridiculous.  This is one of the times when I had to instantly put my foot in my mouth.)

The next day I listened all afternoon to him bitch.  Our conversations went something like this.

"God Dammit!  We're going to have to find parking spots!  Do you know how much of a pain in the ass that is? "

"We can get a space in a garage close by."

"Great, thats going to cost more money.  And insurance.  I don't want to get insurance.  You need to find me insurance and the best deal too.  What kind of car do you want to get?"

"I'd like a civic."

"F*&;% that.  I'm not getting a f*&;^ing Civic."

"How about a Jetta? Or  a golf?  They have great safety ratings and good gas mileage?"

"F*&;% that.  I'm not getting a f*%#!ing Volkswagen either.  Lets look at Jaguars. If we're going to get a car it might as well be something good.  God dammit!  I'll never be able to retire now."

This went on round after round until finally he said.  All right you need to find a car, an insurance plan and a parking space.  This is our budget.  We need it in five days.

I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at cars, getting insurance quotes and trying to find the best parking spot.  The biggest problem I ran into was our lack of knowledge of cars today.  Neither of us has had a car in years and haven't heard of most of the cars that are on the market.  He veto'd the safest cars on the road and surprisingly, the Jaguars weren't in the budget he alloted.  After devoting my whole day to this challenge I decided getting a car wasn't worth it, especially since it made him so unhappy.  I emailed him at work, told him he was right and it would be a silly purchase.  His response was this, "I got all that out of my system and I really think we need a car now with the baby."

Sigh.

So the search is on.  I have no idea what we will end up with, or what we are even looking for but however the outcome I'm sure the journey will be hilarious.

On to better news, its peach season!  There is nothing that makes me quite as happy as fresh peaches.  While we were at the farmers market the other day I felt we needed three quarts of fresh peaches.  Since we now had a plethera of ripe, juicy, delicious fruit that needed to be eaten soon I decided to make the most delicious peach and strawberry pie.

For the past year my grandma has been lovingly talking me through my blunders while I attempted to perfect my pie crust.  (Who knew Crisco oil and Crisco shortening would provide two completely different devastating results?  I now it know.  That was a messy and gross learning experiment.)  Finally all the hard work, botched pie crusts and long distance phone calls have finally paid off.  I made the most delicious flaky crust and couldn't be prouder.  (Thanks Grandma!)

PEACH AND STRAWBERRY PIE

CRUST

2 c flour

1 tsp salt

12 tbsp of butter or shortening

4-6 tbsp ice water

In a bowl mix flour and salt together.  Cut in your shortening using two knives until the mixture resembles small peas.  Sprinkle in cold water 1 tbsp at a time until mixture is moistened and sides of bowl are clean.  Divide your dough in half.  Put in two separate plastic wraps and place in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.  Roll out the dough for top and bottom of pie crust.

FILLING

3 c of peaches peeled and diced

3 c of strawberries washed and sliced

1 c sugar

1/2 c flour

Put strawberries in bowl and add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup flour mixing well to coat evenly.  Put peaches in separate bowl and add remaining sugar and flour and mix together.  Let the fruit sit for at least ten minutes.  This will help to release the juices from the fruit.  Put bottom crust into your pie pan and add fruit.  You can mix the fruit together if you want, however they will stay in separate sections if you'd like to swirl them or make different sections.  Add top crust making sure to cut a few holes on top let steam escape.  

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.  Lower the temperature to 325.  Pie is done when the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.  I usually put tin foil over the crust for the first half of baking so the top crust doesn't burn.