Unofficial end of summer

I'm going to put up this post really quickly. I have to get to sleep. Stella starts school, and the bus will be here bright and early at 7:15 a.m. to take her to Bellevue for her last year of preschool. I hope it's a good year, Stella!



My mom left Saturday and it's sad to say good-bye. She was great to us. It's easy to get used to the dishes being done, the laundry folded, and the kids entertained. Come back, Mom!

A.J. still calls down the basement stairs, "Nana? Nana!"



Is this funny?

Here are the kids destroying my garden. They picked every green tomato in sight. But I'm not mad because a)I'm tired of watering them ... it's been too dry here, and b)it's September and very few had turned red ... my garden area is too shady.



And something I'm proud of ...
I've been making pies almost a year, and using shortening has bothered me. Those bad trans fats, you know. I saw Martha Stewart make a butter crust on her show, and I have wanted to try it. But I didn't have a food processor, which is necessary for a butter crust, I guess.

Well, my super-nice, food-loving father-in-law picked me up a food processor at Costco as an early birthday gift, and I used it immediately on a peach pie ... our last summer fruit pie, probably.

Butter crust requires a lot of chilling. The dough was completely different, stiffer. Here it is after I put it together. The embellishments are to hide my imperfections:



The nice thing about butter crust is that it doesn't get tough from overworking, and you can freeze it easily and use what's leftover. Considering there are two sticks of butter in there, I froze every scrap! My mom says my grandma (her mom) saved leftover pie dough and baked it later with cinnamon and sugar ... sounds like an idea!

We ate a little tonight with butter pecan ice cream ... it is Labor Day after all! Tomorrow we're back to healthy eating, John says.



It certainly tasted good. Like flaky french pastry. I'm hooked. If I can swing it, all my crusts will be butter! I realize butter isn't exactly a health food, but I think it's great to cook with and at least a natural food.