I DID IT!!!

Yes, all caps. I have mentioned before the struggle I have with pie crust. How hard can it be? It is 4 or 5 ingredients, some mixing, some rolling, and voila. Yep, not a lot of voila for me. I'm not professing to be an awesome cook-I can cook, but it shouldn't be this hard to get a decent pie crust. All that has changed with a recipe from my friend at work. Crystal is a young girl married to a young guy that also works with us. She loves to cook and bake also and I have mentioned my struggle with pie crust and my falling back on store bought dough. She told me that she found a recipe that worked great for her and she had shared it with yet another co-worker who had success with it also. She wrote out the recipe for me and I finally had a chance to try it this weekend. I was getting harassed on Facebook by some co-workers looking for some chow on our first night back to work.

7-Up and Lard Pie Crust

5-1/2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound lard, chilled and cubed into 1 inch pieces
1-12 oz can 7-Up

Combine flour and salt and sift into a bowl. Cut lard into flour and salt until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in 7-Up until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Roll out and use in your favorite recipe.

The dough was sticky, so I rolled it with a little flour and in between waxed paper-still a little sticky. Crystal said she works flour into it when she rolls out the dough and it doesn't have impact on the flakiness of the crust. I will do that when I roll the rest out this weekend for the Chocolate French silk pie I'm making for our family Christmas. I was erring on the side of caution until I could talk to her at work about it. She also uses this dough for home made pot pies as it isn't sweet. The only sweetness comes from the lemon-lime soda. I think I may try adding a few tablespoons of sugar to the next one just to see, as Drama Queen thought it should be a little more sweet.


I can't tell you how excited I was to have it turn out. One more thing marked off the list!

Here are some current Tofu pictures. What happens when you have a bored college student, her Mom's camera and a curious cat?

Ummm, the door was open when I walked in here....

Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?

Fine, have it your way. I'm taking a nap