Very Flaky Gourmet Pie Crust Recipe

Achieving a delicious flaky pie crust is one of the most difficult tasks for any baker, whether a novice or a seasoned baker. Here is a recipe for gourmet pastry with a slight twist. The key is in the cream cheese and pure butter. The recipe asks for pea-sized butter pieces formed within the pastry dough. This creates the flaky texture of the pastry. Moreover, cream cheese adds additional texture to pastry, which makes for an incredibly rich and flaky pie crust. Bon appetite!

Ingredients

2 sticks cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 package cold cream cheese

1½ tablespoon ice water

1 teaspoon brown sugar

Directions

Combine the dry ingredients by hand in a bowl or food processor. Mix dry ingredients with the butter and cream cheese until a course meal forms. Add cold water a little at a time. The pastry is ready when it sticks together between your fingers. If it does not, continue to add water (up to six tablespoons). The butter and cream cheese should not blend completely with the dry ingredients, but rather, it should resemble small pea-size pieces in the pastry. Do not overwork the pastry. Chill the pastry for at least an hour before rolling.

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Where can I volunteer in my area?

Guest post from: Kent Lara

Every year around this time when the holidays are fast approaching and everyone is rushing around shopping and eating and going to parties I always start to think of those people who are less fortunate than myself. The ones who are living outside in the cold and rain or the ones who can’t afford to feed themselves and their children so they have to choose who gets to eat that night. I always get in the spirit to volunteer my time around Christmas and so I of course take to the internet to check out some volunteer opportunities. I went to satellitestarinternet.com first to get set up with my internet connection so that I can get on the world wide web and check out what places in my area are in need of volunteers. There are not too many good web sites to find this kind of information but I have found that if you check out your local church web sites they can usually direct you to some good places to serve your time.

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Get a job a lose touch

Guest written by our friend Mason Abbott

My dear friend, who was always around all day to chat on the phone when I was at home and kids were at school has gotten a job. I am actually feeling pretty lonely lately. Even though she lives two thousand miles away it was like we were hanging out. We would talk about everything from how I called Addison Texas electricity providers that day to what I thought that I was going to make for Christmas dinner. Even though we were far apart, it was like we knew what was going on in each other’s lives all the time. By the way, I absolutely love cell phones for this, I don’t know what we did when we had land lines and had to pay a lot for long distance calls! Now that she works, I don’t get to talk to her often. We get to text and e-mail but it is still not the same. By the time she gets the chance to call me, my husband and kids are home and I am too busy to talk on the phone. I am trying to cook dinner and get everyone ready for school the next day and try to make everyone get in bed at a descent hour. I’m glad that she got a job, but I really miss talking to her!

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My Split Hair Personality

My hair is a house divided. It has two distinct personalities, and the civil war between my hair follicles had driven me to the point of exhaustion. It has also helped create my signature style, the eternal ponytail.

The right side of my hair is full, thick and naturally wavy; the left side is completely straight, lifeless and dull. When I was younger, I tried to get permanents in my hair. There were several reasons I did this, not the least of which being the fact that it was the cool thing to do. I would sit for hours at the salon, getting nauseated at the stench of perm solution, only to walk out with half a head of beautiful curls. Home remedies did not work either. No matter how much styling product I piled onto my hair, the curls would not stay. This drove me nuts, but the funny thing is that it completely infuriated my sister-in-law. Although this was several years ago, she still gets worked up at the memory of my hair. I am not exactly sure why it bugged her so much, but I can tell you that my hair produced much profanity from her lips.

Anyway, I tried to cut my hair super short once, thinking I could rock a boy cut and no one would ever see the dysfunction within my hair family legacy. Two words can describe the endeavor: epic failure. When cut short, the curls on my right side stood straight out, while the left side clung to my head for dear life. I looked ridiculous.

And so now I just go with the ponytail. I pull it back and ignore it. Some may call it sloppy or boring, but I prefer to go with shabby chic look.

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