Daily writing prompt

What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

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I haven’t had the most positive of years, two injuries, one after the other, left me unable to do much. I could barely walk for about a year and a half. I’m fine now, but it’s freezing out so I’m still stuck in the house! I’m glad, then, that during that super sedentary period I watched a lot of t.v., not something I usually do, and one of the things I watched was Chef’s Table, on Netflix.

I loved everything about that show, but the episode I loved most was the one about Momofuku Milk Bar. I was sad I live too far away to pop in for a slice of Crack Pie, or a tub of Cereal Milk Ice-Cream, until I found the recipe book online.

I read recipe books like one reads novels, from cover to cover, imagining the scenes and actions, and I read this one with glee. Christina Tosi’s passion for experimenting with childhood favourite flavours and turning them into high end desserts is a delight. And as a result this house never has a shortage of cornflakes; powdered sweetcorn; milk powder; liquid glucose; or gelatine.

Because Tosi mentions it more than once in her book, I bought Joy of Cooking early this year. I wanted to know more about the American art of the pie. In 2019, The Husband (TH) and I went to the U.S.A to visit my son. While there we fell in love with a café called Pie for Breakfast and, in particular, their Vinegar Pie. In Milk Bar Tosi explains that she got the idea for Crack Pie (now called Milk Bar Pie because, apparently, the mere mention of crack can turn perfectly decent people into addicts!) after reading about Chess Pie in Joy. Vinegar Pie is a version of Chess Pie. Chess Pie is a pudding made when there’s bugger all to make a pudding with. It’s the kind of inventive I am most fond of.

Last week my son came to stay. This is always a positive event, though the reason for his visit was a sad one (my sister has cancer, as I mentioned in the last post), it was incredibly lovely to see him. While he was here we went to Glasgow to see Napoleon (not as awful as I’d hoped, it merely lacked a story arc. The actors did their best!) and, after the film, we went into our favourite deli, Roots & Fruits, where I spotted a can of pumpkin puree.

I have wanted to do something with canned pumpkin ever since I heard of it. I used to make pumpkin pie with the pumpkin flesh scooped out for lanterns at Halloween, but I’d never found the canned stuff. Anyway, I bought it, and today I followed a recipe in Joy and made this:

I also made Pumpkin Ganache, from Milk Bar, which could be the nicest thing I’ve ever eaten.

So, from negative beginnings – injury – came positive results. I now know so much more about pies and how to make a filling from very little. And I still have a lot more experimenting to do. Which reminds me, I must get some sprinkles!