Homemade Pie Crust and Blueberry Pie

So..this isn't what I would typically write about as someone who writes novels and helps people create the life of their dreams, but its something that is so totally a part of who I am. I thought I would share it with my readers so you could know perhaps a different side of me.

I LOVE  to bake and cook! As a young girl I would make cookies for my father and brothers every weekend.  My Mom was always the pie chef and I was always the cookie baker.  My Mom's pies always turned out fabulously.  Every Thanksgiving she would hand make her own dough and have at least 10 different pies on the table for her friends and family to sample.

I never really took an interest in baking pies all through my 20's because I don't really like to eat pie. I thought to myself, "why should I make them if I don't like to eat them!" lol!

That all changed when I was in my late 30's.  I bought this big, beautiful, 100 year old colonial house in Holland, New York.  Its a small town just outside of Buffalo.  When I moved there people embraced me like I had lived there my entire life.  It was like a flash back to Mayberry and Walton's Mountain. 

I watched the Waltons faithfully as a young girl and always wanted a large family of my own to raise and cook and bake for.  I immediately connected with the town and my house soon became a central gathering place for my friends, family and neighbors.  I couldn't have been happier. 

It was then that I embarked on my personal "homemade pie crust challenge."  I mean, how hard could it be right?  Afterall, I had baked cakes that took eight hours to put together - certainly I could make homemade pie crust that had very few ingredients!

And who did i turn to for my pie crust recipe? Well, Martha Stewart of course.  The woman who was my role model for "homemaking."  Back then she was anyway. Not so much anymore.

I decided that I was going to go for it and offer to make a pie for the Holland Tulip Festival.  A festival the town had each year.  Of course, I couldn't just experiment on my family - nope! Had to go one step further and bake a pie for the community! Can I ever do anything small?  Nope!

Well, I am happy to report that the pie was a huge success! I made Martha Stewarts mile high apple pie.  It was a picture perfect apple pie! I was soooo happy!

I spent three, very happy years in my home in Holland. It was warm, loving and secure.  And everytime I made pies in the summer and for the holidays, they always turned out like a picture in a magazine and they were delicious! "So says my family anyway!"

It turns out that I never did have that large family of my own, but I have a great family of mother, father, brothers and sister, nieces and nephews and friends that are considered family. Oh yes, and my three little furry friends (my cats - Ben, Bailey and Bella!). 

Someday I will write a book about the town of Holland and perhaps it will become my own version of Walton's mountain and my readers will understand what I mean.

My successful pie baking came to a screaching halt when I moved back into suburbia! Hahahah!
Suddenly, every pie I baked came out with the bottom crust not being completely cooked.  It got so bad that it started to become a family joke! I was not happy about that at all! If its one thing I can do - is bake! And I will not let a silly old pie crust ruin my baking reputation!

So, now after several years of saying - the hell with it and buying premade pie crust, I am back at it again!  Why? I don't know.  I think its my need to refocus and remember the simpler things in life that once made me happy - baking, home, cooking.  I know "she" has been hiding..somewhere amidst supporting my mother through breast cancer, a house that burned, unemployment, writing my first novel and some other more recent family challenges.  I find myself yearning for those things that ground me the most - my home and everything that I associate with home and family.

And perhaps its the changing of the seasons from summer to fall.  This is my favorite time of year with all the luscious berries and the fresh vegetables at the farmers markets! Oh! I walk into the market and all my senses just soak it all in and it just makes me want to cook and bake! The sun shines brightly on a saturday morning and you walk right through smelling fresh scent of newly picked dill and basil... ohhh.. and the bountiful vegetables and the brightly colored gladiolas! 

Anyway..back to the pies! My girlfriend and I took a trek out to the East Aurora farmers market this weekend and I bought fresh blueberries and peaches!  And I made a blueberry pie for the party I was invited to saturday evening.  The house was full of that smell of freshly baked berry pie.  The sweetness of the berries, mixed with the butter and sugar.  The crust flaky and golden brown!

So how did the crust turn out? Well, not bad for the first go around.  It looked great out of of the gate, but when I went to roll it out , the dough seemed a bit too dry.  But! I worked with it! I was determined! In the oven it went and the crust did look like that perfect golden, brown color! I was thrilled! And then I went to take it out of the oven to see how the bottom crust was fairing and the berry drippings went all over the bottom of the oven! Ugh!  "They" say that you should put a cookie sheet under the pie when cooking it because berry pies tend to drip, but I wanted to make darn sure that bottom crust cooked!

As I was taking the pie out of the oven and investigating the bottom, I turned to see little flames in the oven where the berry drippings were! Omg.. can you believe it! Its like candid camera right?!  Well, for those readers who know me personally, you know I had a house fire in this same house not three years ago! Those little berry flames scared me a little bit but I just blew them out and turned off the oven and all was well again! lol! Phew!

How funny is that story! My family will just have fun with this one! That is if I decide to tell them! or if they read my blog!

Was I successful? In fact I was! My neighbor text me this morning to say that the Blueberry Pie was a smashing hit! Perhaps I am on my way back! To the cook and baker I was and perhaps a little bit of that "girl" who is grounded a bit in home and all that goes with it!

Here's to celebrating the fruits of the season! Enjoy
            Kimberley

A Different Kind of Writers Block

I am a writer, yes I am.  However, some days the words don't come.  The words haven't come in over a week. Why does this happen we ask ourselves? One would think that in times of great emotion, the words would come pouring out. Well, sometimes the emotion is so overwhelming the words get buried. They hide until the heart begins the healing process. I cannot remember the last time I didn't write my Morning Pages for an entire week! 

The Morning Pages are a routine, no, a meditation or "practice" of sorts. In no way are they routine that would minimize them to brushing your teeth or something so mundane.  That would devalue them.  The Morning Pages are something I learned from my fourth grade sunday school teacher, Sharon Jackson.  An amazing woman in so many ways, sometime I will tell you about her.  I had the good fortune to be able to reconnect with her as an adult before she died of lung cancer. I only had three visits with her, but those visits were life impacting for me. 

I was at a transition point in my life at the time and Sharon asked me.. "Kim, what would you like to do."  I laughed and said, you know.. I have so many dating stories, I bet I could write some great romance novels! I laughed at the thought.  And she replied, "then you should do it!" It was then she told me about Julia Cameron, her book the Artists Way and the Morning Pages.  Three, free-hand pages that are written each morning, to keep your writing alive.

I began writing those pages in 2005.  I write them in Composition Notebooks like we would use in school as children.  I haven't stopped writing them for any length of time up until this past week.  Sure, I would miss a day here or there but never a full week.

What happened you ask? 

Somebody that has recently re-entered my life for a short time has died.  It was someone who I was never particularly close with when I first met them 14 or so years ago.  These last few months with this person and the challenges we faced together, were life changing for me. I want to thank Him for his courage and his love of his daughter, I want to thank him for teaching me patience and for all his help through a difficult situation.

I am happy to be writing again and to be reunited with my Morning Pages this morning. 

To all of those out there who are writers, artists, painters, I know you understand my words and how much we "feel" our lives.  That is why we do what we do.

The words find their way back to us, the paint brush picks its new colors, the sculptor picks up the clay and life begins again.

Good Night

Kimberley

Believe in Yourself ! No Matter What!

There are days when we feel we cannot go on ...it is on those days that we must keep walking.

There are those days when we say to ourselves - "is this really all that there is?" ..it is on those days we whisper to ourselves - "NO!..there is SO MUCH MORE"

There are those days when you wish the Universe/God ..whatever you call the Higher Power would just send you some BIG SIGN to say.. "Here..SEE! I told you it would all be OK"

There are those days when your dreams seem so close yet so far away..it is on those days that you look at those people like Abraham Lincoln, Ulysess S. Grant, Estee Lauder, Steve Jobs, JK Rowling, Chris Gardner, Oprah and say to yourself "Some of them were homeless, some had a nervous breakdown and lost 8 elections, one was on assistance... and THEY MADE IT!!"

Dig deep down inside your soul, protect your dream, don't let anyone tell you that you cannot achieve it! Don't even tell yourself that you cannot achieve it! YOU CAN!

Kimberley

Ok..all my fashionista friends..Check out this new website I discovered!!

This website is amazing! I discovered it from one of my friends and I just had to share it with all of you! It is www.renttherunway.com.  It is here where you can rent designer dresses, gowns and accessories for special occassions like weddings, anniveries and a holiday gathering. 

How does it work? You pick out a dress and accessories you like, click on them to see if they are available on your specific date and they will ship it to you 1-2 days before hand to ensure you have it. They will even give you a backup size, so there will be no doubt you will have that unique outfit for that special day!

They give you a prepaid envelope to ship the items back for free! And they do the dry cleaning themselves!

How awesome is that! 

I cannot wait to try this out! Perhaps for my next new date - who ever he is watch out! lol!

Have fun with this and let me know if this works out for any of you..I will keep you posted!

Kimberley

Pruning and Growing...........

Outside on a beautiful summer evening pruning my umbrella tree.  I have no idea what its called in botantical terms.. but to me..its an umbrella tree! lol!  Its cooler in the night time, not so hot, so I can tolerate being outside for longer periods of time.

Once, the weather turns warmer, this little umbrella tree turns from merely sticks to a big round mound of large green leaves. It grows like someone gave it Popeyes spinach!  As I was trimming it back tonight, I was thinking about how our lives are sometimes like this little tree.

We have times of immense growth, followed perhaps by a much needed cutting back.  I myself have gone through a tremendous personal development/growth stage over the last two years and now I find myself in that season of pulling back. Perhaps the focus now needs to be to allow all that learning to manifest itself into what it wants to become.

I actually find myself welcoming this season as my brain needs a break and I feel I need to connect back with nature to quiet and nuture my soul.

Life will take care of itself, somehow, someway.  It is not for me to know the how, but for me to trust.

It is my hope, if any of you are reading this out there in the big world we live in, that you enjoy both of these seasons which ever one you might be in.

Kimberley

Healing, Love and Moving On

I wonder..should this blog be about the movie I just watched or what has recently transpired in my own life since March? Or does the Universe somehow bring things to you right when you need them most? 

What movie you ask? Love Happens with Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart.

Its about a man who is a "Tony Robbins like" figure, helping people overcome their guilt, shame and fears from the death of a loved one. Yet, his own internal guilt continues to haunt him. Oftentimes, it is in these same hurtful places where healing and forgiveness also takes place. 

Jennifer Anistons' character plays a flower shop owner who struggles with bad relationship decisions that create the same outcome, time after time.  How many women on this planet can relate to that???????  Oh.. about a bizillion of us! hahaha... I know I haven't had the best of luck in this arena, that is for sure!

Ironically, they literally bump into each other in the hotel at which he is presenting a seminar.

Why is it that the deep hurts of our lives take soo much time and effort to heal? The death of a loved one, a trauma, a house fire, a car accident, a divorce, a major health issue?  I don't know really.  All I really do know for sure is that we CAN HEAL.  Yes, its painful, very painful.  Emotional and mental issues appear at times to be the hardest to heal from.

My family and I have had a struggle over the last few months.  A real deep seated struggle.  I will not go into details as I respect their privacy and mine.  What can I tell you? It was painful.  There was a lot of hurt, there was a lot of fear and anxiety and anger. I felt like there was a shroud of sadness that enveloped all of us for months.  I could see what this was doing to all of us and my heart and mind was torn.  What is the right thing to do? For all of us?

Finally, last thursday, a decision was made. It was time. 

We all needed to start healing the wounds of anger and move on with our lives.  It is my hope and prayer that at some point in the near future, we will heal and forgive and that we will be united again.

Was the movie timely? Yes. I prayed a month or so ago, that it would all end and that our family begin the healing process.  God answers in his own time and in his own way.  I love my family.  We are all unique unto ourselves, yet, I love them all.  One day at a time, the wounds will heal.  Just the same as the characters in the movie.  They had a happy ending and so will we!

Kimberley

Anzalone Lighting Inc.; A LightingTreasure in Lockport, New York

If you have never been to Anzalone Electric/Lighting in Lockport, New York, you must make a trip to their showroom!  Why? because they have The Best lighting selection within the Western New York area.  And the owner, Linda Anzalone, is one of the nicest people I have ever met!  Linda has her customers interest at heart - ALWAYS!  Linda will work with you no matter if it takes 15 minutes, a few hours or several days to make the right decision for your house and your space.  She is patient, kind and always manages to suggest just the right lighting for your space, even if you would have never chosen the lights she shows you.  In the end, she is usually right!

Three years ago, I had an unfortunate circumstance happen whereby I had a housefire and needed to renovate almost my entire house.  As I searched and searched for the right lighting for my "new" house, I was coming up empty.  One day a friend of mine suggested I try Anazlone lighting in Lockport, NY.  I said "who?"

My friend took me out to their showroom and I was overwhelmed to say the least! There are lights everywhere! Hanging from any space they could find! Lol!  I left that day saying, that is just too overwhelming, I can't buy lights from there!

Well, two weeks later I was back buying almost $10,000 in lights for every room in my newly renovated home.  Linda Anzalone came to my house and spent countless hours in her store with me, pouring over lighting books. She knew I wouldn't be happy until I saw "them".  "Them" being the exact lighting that resonated with me. 

I know what your saying to yourself.. Kimberley.."its lighting".. but oh..lighting plays such an important role in the design of a space.  It can create a space that says -come sit here and read a book with  me or it can create a space that says " have a family dinner" here..or it can so ..oh..too harsh.. tone it down! hahahaha...

So, when you are looking to renovate your family room, bedroom, kitchen..don't under estimate the role lighting plays in the overall design.  Its just as key as flooring, countertops and furniture.

Visit Anzalone Lighting and discover the endless possibilities that await your room!
                 6208 Shimer Drive, Lockport NY 14094     (716) 433-4973
 
Oh and tell Linda that I sent you! Lol!

With love and lighting,

Kimberley