Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Happy Love Heart Day

For the most part, Australians love to shorten their words.  Chocolates are "chockies."  Breakfast is "brekkie."  The garbage collector is the "garbo."  Afternoon is "arvo," not to be confused with "avo" which is avocado.  An umbrella is a "brollie."  Biscuits (cookies) are "bikkies."  And my favorite: Lipstick is "lippie."

There are, however, a few words that are actually longer here.  If I were wrapping a present (prezzie) for, say, my daughter's birthday, I would use tape and wrapping paper.  Here we use "sticky tape."  If that gift were a coloring book, she would spend her leisure time "coloring."  Here she would spend her time "colouring in."

Speaking of coloring, and birthdays, my youngest daughter wanted this cake for her birthday.  It was in the American Girl magazine a year ago.  I couldn't find the actual magazine, but we still had the "mini mag" - the magazine for the doll.  I had to use a magnifying glass, but the recipe was there!


Emily and I made rainbow pancakes to match.  Thanks, Laura, for the idea.

Back to Aussie lingo.

In Australia, a heart is an organ.  That shape, the symbol of Valentine's Day, is a "love heart."

I love heart you!

But, my heart is given to someone else.  Happy Valentine's day to my sweetheart, Shon.  This is our 15th Valentine's Day together.  He knows what I like.

Thanks for the lilies.  (I'm not a big rose fan - definitely a highly over-rated flower.)

And I know what he likes.  Shon's favorite dessert is Amish Apple Pie.  It's a family favorite.  Here is the recipe.

Amish Apple Pie

1 C sour cream
1 egg
3/4 C Sugar
3 T flour
1/4 tsp vanilla
3 - 4 C diced, peeled apples
1 unbaked pie crust

crumb topping:
1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C flour
1/4 C butter at room temperature
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat sour cream and egg together.  Add flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  Stir in apples.  Bake at 400 F for 25 minutes.  Remove pie from oven.  Spread with crumb topping.  Bake 20 min more.

A couple tips:
-Use a nice big pie pan (I like the pyrex glass pans with the handles) or your crumb topping will spill all over your oven and might even catch on fire (like it did when I baked this pie at the Shanklin's house!)  But then again, it's nice to have your kitchen smell like cinnamon and spice for 3 weeks.  (Been there, done that.)  Trust me, put a cookie sheet underneath your pie, just in case.

-Only use 3/4 of the crumb topping.  There's just too much of it.  Make a double pie crust and use the extra topping to spread on the extra pie crust.  (You're children will thank you!)

-Use a medal pie ring, to cover the crust so it doesn't get too brown.  Take it off when you put on the crumb topping.


Happy Valentine's Day.  I think I'll go put on a little lippie and smooch my hubby.

6 comments:

Kimberly said...

I should make pie. That sounds good. Rustin would love it.

Laura Dunford said...

You two are cute! I can't believe you two have been together for 15 years. That's wild. You don't even look old enough to have had 10 together!! I'm glad you tried out the rainbow pancakes. I plan to do them for Saint Patricks Day :)

Joella said...

You are so funny. I don't remember it spilling all over our oven. I like the idea of adding sour cream. I am going to try the recipe...Gluten free of course!

Unknown said...

Joella, you totally have to remember the pie spilling in your oven. We were having dinner and games in your house on Carrolton Ave. in New Orleans. Justin was just a baby, crawling all over the floor. It was only the second time I had made the pie, and I put way too much topping on. Yep, it spilled over. And caught on fire. And you tried (and succeeded) to make me feel better by saying that your house had a lovely cinnamon sugar smell for a long time after that.

I did the exact same thing the second time I made it too. Then my own house smelled good (with a hint of burnt sugar.)

So, use less crumb topping. We don't need all that sugar anyway, right!?

Juli said...

That was Juli, not Emily. Sheesh, could my children please learn to log off?!!!

beck said...

I love heart you too.