I Made A Pie!

Our family did Thanksgiving last week, like most American families.  And since we're mostly grown-ups now, we all contribute.  My sisters both made food: Erin made lemon glazed sweet potatoes (the dish I made for Friendsgiving), and Claire made a pumpkin cheesecake.  I made an apple pie.
I actually made 2 pies.  My mom insisted I make a "practice pie" the week before, and bring it over so that I could be given corrections.  So I made a pie on Sunday, and then another on Wednesday night.  And you know what?  It was totally worth it.  Because Final Draft Pie was way better.  So much better that 3 days later, as I was leaving, my dad stopped me to tell me how good my pie was.

The recipe was really simple.  I bought pie crust dough (and apples) from Harvest Local, rolled it out very thin, and saved the scraps to make the little lattice on top.  The filling was:

3 lbs Granny Smith apples
2/3 cup sugar (plus a little more, just a little, for taste)
1/3 cup flour
2 tbs. cinnamon

Toss the peeled, cored, and sliced apples with the sugar, flour, and cinnamon.  Fill your crust (it will be very full!), lattice the top, bake at 350 for 1 hour.  (It baked for probably half an hour more at 325 on Thanksgiving, to warm it up/finish baking through.  The top apples were very crisp, which was delicious, but not necessary.  Less time warming would have been fine.)

I'm going to do it again, maybe for Christmas, and I think I'll try and make my own dough, too.  Maybe.

Daisy liked the turkey.  I like Daisy.

Friendsgiving

This past Saturday, we gathered to celebrate our friendship.  Steve and Jacqi hosted, and everyone brought something to the party.  There was a lot of food, a lot of laughter, and it was great to see good friends.  I am so thankful for this year.

City Scene

A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning, my sister Erin was driving to meet some friends (for a ballet photoshoot) and called me: "There is a church on 11th street that is being torn down, and the mural is just out there.  You have to come see it!"  So I did.
I met two people while there.  One was a man about my age, on a bicycle, who stopped to talk to me about the sadness of the building.  We seemed to have the same feeling, that it was beautiful and heartbreaking that this sort of thing happens, but we were both, I think, happy to have seen it.
The second man I met was named Harry, who approached me to talk about Philly Photo Day, and then showed me a few things about the building, including that you could see the pews stacked up in the vestibule, and that the capstone had been cut out, he thought for scrap.  He told me that the demolition had been in progress for weeks, and the site had only very recently been sealed up, so that people could not climb in to get more scrap.  Harry was about 65, and carrying his groceries with him.  He clearly had a passion for the building, and possibly a passion for getting involved in anything in his neighborhood.  (He told me about how he had called the construction company, another local church, and the police about all kinds of various things.)  Nevertheless, Harry was informative, and very friendly.

Philly Photo Day

Friday, October 26 was annual Philly Photo Day, when everyone is encouraged to take photos within city limits during those 24 hours.  We had until Wednesday to submit them, so they can be included in an exhibition.  Unfortunately, I was distracted by good old Hurricane Sandy, so I didn't submit my photos, but that doesn't mean they can't go here!
I met my sister for dinner at Llama Tooth, on Spring Garden St., and took my time getting home to take in the views, as well as some pictures.  I love this city so much.