Monday, October 02, 2006

Packed-ish & Pie

Pie first -

While procrastinating before a big trip, there are lots of crazy-person things I like to do while avoiding my suitcase; clean the house, watch a full day's worth of television, landscape the yard, visit with the neighbors for no particularly good reason other than they happen to be within yelling distance of the fence, etc.

For this special trip, however, I decided to bake. Bake under the guise of providing food for hubby who, despite bringing himself successfully through life for 30-something years without my constant supervision, obviously can't be left to his own devices for sustenance for two whole weeks.

I stopped just short of freezing two weeks worth of dinners in color-coded Tupperware, because that would be crazy. Instead I made pie. Because what does a home alone husband need more than pie and the occasional cup of coffee? Precious little, I'd guess.

I ripped the filling from Farmgirl's revised Blueberry Breakfast Bar recipe which calls for peaches to be added to the filling with the blueberries. And since we just had a whole pan of these fab bars, I put the filling in my favorite pie crust and called it good. And since a friend of ours suggested this unexpected meeting of berry and stonefruit during a past dinner outing, I made one for him, too.

My procrastination has reached new heights.


In exchange for the pie, our friends dropped off a tomato the size of a truck tire and five containers of fresh pesto crafted from their own plot of basil.


This may seem random, but it is some of the best pesto I've ever tasted and went merrily with the gnocchi I was making for dinner. You know, as I was preparing my stomach for the delicious onslaught of expertly crafted Italian carbs I plan to take in. During the trip I'd yet to pack for.

Until today!

I believe I've exploited every millimeter of space in my suitcase. There are alarm clocks crammed into shoes, tank tops rolled up and snaked around books, brownie mixes lodged between the rolly-bar handle compartment and wheel-well. It's going swimmingly.

Except for the fact that I have to still pack my toiletries.

You think to yourself, toiletries - what's the biggie? Well, as I often forget until I'm standing in front of my nearly full suitcase with a handled toiletry bag, blow dryer, freezer-size Ziploc bag full of hair products and a half dozen brushes - my toiletries often take up more space in the suitcase than my clothes or even shoes.

Right now, I'm not prepared to do the math that it will require to get everything in there. However, I feel like tomorrow I will be, so I will wait and see if the contents settle or some other mystical process takes place wherein the laws of physics bend just enough to accomodate an overstuffed toiletry bag into my already plump suitcase.

Before you think me too overindulgent, high-maintenance, batshit or a combination of the three, let me tell you that this is a 22" suitcase we're talking about here. Not one of those rolling closets with the floral fabric you see stacked onto a SmarteCarte with 18 other pieces of matching luggage.

As it stands, I appear to be packing light, while the smallish suitcase I'm towing actually weighs a metric ton. I appear as a savvy traveler, while actually I'm busy being a paranoid American unable to separate herself from her shoe collection.

It all works out so nice.

8 comments:

  1. Oh Finny,
    You never fail to crack me up. You have such a funny way with words. And I am so envious of your ALL PIE ALL THE TIME household you have no idea.

    We just finished the last of a frozen (defrosted before inhaling of course) Savory Tomato Pesto Pie I made in anticipation of my mom's visit. She loved it. Now if we only had a couple of wedges of your blueberry peach pie for dessert. : )

    Hope you have a fabulous vacation--though I have no doubt that you will. Even if they lose your itty bitty ton on of bricks suitcase (INCLUDING all your shoes and toiletries) you'll manage to not only make the most of it, but turn it into a hysterical story that will have the rest of us ROTFLOAO! Bon Voyage!!!!!

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  2. Wow! You! You're good! Lol! I'm a housewife with a ton of time on my hands and I have not attempted to make a pie yet....you're my hero!!

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  3. "OOOOH!" she screamed with anticipation. The suspense...it's like Oscar night around here.

    And, toiletries? Honey, one time one of my former study abroad students arrived with a SUITCASE FULL OF TOILETRIES. It weighed a ton of bricks. We asked, what's in that thing, a dead body? No. Princess had brought enough shampoo, conditioner, hair spray and other various sundries to last her projected consumption during SIX MONTHS in Italy. Sigh, the memories... We told her that Italians wash their hair too.

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  4. Farmgirl: I daresay that your Savory Tomato Pesto pie has reinvigorated our All Pie All The Time mantra. I craaaaaaaaaaaaave that parmesan (sorry, I didn't have pecorino) biscuit crust. As soon as my tomatoes ripen next summer, that is SO what I'm making. Arrivaderci!

    E & I: Girl. Make a pie. It's so awesomely easy and fabulous. Plus, it'll make you the hero in your own house. The blissful look on Hubby's face when I pull a pie from the oven is worth rolling out a pie crust any day of the week. How do you like the book so far?

    Shelley: You have no idea. The screeches of joy on this end are deafening. And I have to fly for 12 hours. That's saying a lot. And don't worry, all my toiletries are in travel size bottles and fit into the suitcase (just zipped it up). Oh, and I'm leaving my big ass blowdryer here, cuz, I hear Italians blow dry their hair from time to time. Ciao bella!

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  5. Ugh, twelve hours, I totaly forgot that you were on the west coast for a moment.

    I have two wishes for your trip, that the gate crew will recognise your fabulousness and bump you up to first class and that you will have the very first ever transatlantic flight that doesn't have an infant on it.

    Have fun!

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  6. Yeah, 12 funfilled hours from SFO. Wee.

    Thank you for your well wishes. Perhaps they will permeate the hard candy shells of the check-in clerk at Virgin. I might be able to handle a crying baby if I was sipping champagne in first class.

    :)

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  7. Oh my goodness, you are hysterical!I love your way with words. I'm afraid my procrastination has reached new heights since I've started reading blogs. Now if I could just move the computer in the kitchen, I could join you in the pie making therapy as well!

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  8. Lucy -- welcome! Make some pies. If need be, bring the laptop in there and read while you roll out the dough. I will admit to having the laptop in the kitchen while I made Limoncello. For some reason I thought the recipe, while only a few lines long, warranted constant referencing. I'm a tad on the anal retentive side while also having a lazy streak that prevents me from doing normal things like, say, printing a recipe out instead of dragging computer equip. into the kitchen. I know, duh.

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[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.