Lobster Pot Pie

I can still feel the boat moving. I have been off of it for over twenty-four hours and just sitting here at my computer I swear I can feel it moving. My wife actually told me this morning that she felt it in the shower.

We have talked about going on a cruise for years. I am the one who dragged his feet over the whole thing because when I was a young kid I would occasionally get car sick. I suffered from motion sickness and even though I believe that most of it was caused by my trying to read comic books in the back seat while the car moved, I was a little hesitant about taking an extended trip on a large boat. Fortunately I did not get sick at all on the trip but I cannot say that I did not feel the motion of the large boat itself. I felt it all the time.

Before we actually got onboard we spent a couple of beautiful days in San Diego where every day is a beautiful day, at a medical management conference. Because of my wife’s job we have been attending these events for many years. Most of the traveling we have done has been associated with trips to conferences in various cities all over the country. We have been lucky to explore Orlando, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans and many more places. Taking these trips also allowed us to meet some great people and make good friends who we always enjoy seeing.

Here’s saying hello to some of them. Great to see you Bob and Teresa and of course Sarah and Dennis. It was also great to see Wade in the hotel lobby. I wish we had found more time to spend with you. We never really have enough time to share with each other. Hope we see you again in Denver.

While my wife is attending the various meetings and break-out sessions at these conferences, I am usually doing what I do best which is goofing off and finding interesting foods. I was engaged in the aforementioned goofing off in our hotel room on our first day there when my cell phone rang. It was our friend Bob who I had not seen in at least three or four years and even though I was close to shutting the book I was reading and taking a quick nap, I was pleased to hear him suggest we meet for a beer. He suggested Sally’s, a restaurant right outside the back entrance to our hotel.

Bob has not aged a day since I last saw him and we had a nice catch up chat at one of the tables outside Sally’s. During the conversation he mentioned that this restaurant was a great place to eat and although I hear comments like that quite a bit, I filed it away for future reference. Later I was very glad I did. That night we saw Bob and Teresa again at a large dinner that the conference put on and also had a chance to see some other dear friends from all over the country. It was a lovely dinner and a good time was had by all.

The next day my wife and I were looking for a place to grab lunch and I remembered what Bob had told me about Sally’s, so we decided to check it out. She ordered a great seafood salad with shrimp and scallops and I got the King Crab Bisque with a delightful cilantro froth swirled into it. I love crab bisque. The best I can ever remember having was in a small bar on River Street in Savannah, Georgia. That was on another conference trip and the delightful taste of sherry mixed with it is probably the reason I remember it so well. This bisque while not quite as memorable as that one was very tasty indeed and I had a delightful glass of rose wine with it that complimented the crab very well. We usually do not partake of dessert but made an exception since we were calling this trip a vacation and shared a delightful pear tart. Our lunch was leisurely and the waitstaff were just attentive enough and never bothersome. We inquired as to the dinner menu and were told it was 99% different from the lunch offering.

Later that night we were weighing our dinner options and decided that we should return and have dinner at Sally’s as well. I am glad we did. I ordered a bottle of inexpensive sparkling wine as we checked out the menu and when I saw that they had a lobster pot pie I looked no further.

I have mentioned previously how much I love pie. Savory meat or seafood pies are no exception to that rule. Bob loves pie. When I was a kid my mom would buy frozen individual serving pot pies. Whether they were chicken, beef or turkey, I loved them all. Even today I will buy a frozen pot pie to when I find one made by a local cook at our farmer’s market.

This pie was the best thing I had to eat on the whole vacation. They brought it to me at the table in its own cast iron pan and it was absolutely delicious. The pastry was flaky and soft with just the right amount of crust and the pie itself was stuffed with big chunks of Canadian lobster, fava beans and boursin cheese. I love sparkling wine and the inexpensive California choice I made was just right for washing down the whole delightful entrée.

The next day at a little after 1:00 PM we found ourselves standing in a long cattle call of a line just down the street from our hotel. The trail of would be cruisers snaked back and forth through a series of roped off pathways herding us ever onward toward the boat. We were both excited and apprehensive about our impending journey. Would the food be any good? Would I get sick? Would we meet some interesting people? Would they be a little too interesting? I was looking around me at the number of people who were younger than me and forming unfair opinions in my mind. I sometimes have to be reminded not to judge people by their appearance. You’d think with the way I look that I would have come to understand this basic truth by this time in my life.

Finally we were aboard. We had found our cabin and it was a little bit larger than I had thought it would be. The bathroom and shower seemed more than adequate so we decided to wander around and get the lay of the land. Or should I say the lay of the ship? There were three groups of elevators located on the ship but not all of them went to all of the floors and it wasn’t until the last day that I felt as though I had a real grasp of the whole layout. They were serving food at a buffet on one floor and there were people standing and sitting on all of the outside decks as we pulled out of the harbor.

After we had wandered awhile, someone came over the loudspeaker system and told us to get ready for the mandatory fire drill that they would be conducting. Everyone was to go to their cabin and get a life jacket whereupon we would be directed to the gathering place we had been assigned to await instructions from the crew. What followed was a mass migration of grumbling and boisterous souls from all decks to their respective cabins and back up to the gathering places throughout the upper decks. We were herded into a room with about 50 or 60 other folks and told to put on our lifejackets. People were talkative and laughing. The person in charge had to call for quiet repeatedly and as far as I could tell no one ever really shut up completely except the older married guys. Of course they would not be older and married if they had not learned that basic skill some time ago. Two younger skateboarding type guys sitting across from my wife and I had not even bothered to bring their life jackets. You could just tell that they were exceptional swimmers. That kind of confidence cannot be faked.

Confident swimmers

Eventually we were all released and we took our life jackets back to our cabin. So far we had been on the big boat less than two hours and I had already been back and forth to my cabin three times. The dry run fire drill had not left me with the most secure feeling. I could not help but wonder how people would react in the event of a real emergency, but then I would never have come on the cruise in the first place if I was worried about the odds of a real emergency. You have to have a little bit of faith just to get out of bed each morning.

The Safe Cruiser

The sun was out and the sea was beautiful so we found an empty table on the upper open deck where a Jimmy Buffett type singer was entertaining the crowd and I relaxed with an ice bucket of beers in front of me. As we sat and gazed at the magnificent view and the large number of very interesting people around us we could feel the boat gently swaying back and forth. While walking to our cabin and wandering the decks I had begun to feel that motion and at times I felt as though I was almost staggering. This was long before I acquired the beers. My head and stomach felt fine, but I could definitely feel the sway. So far, so good.

Start of Cruise

We were away from home and there was no conference to attend and we were both ready for the vacation to begin. So come on, bring on the fun!

Chocolate Chip Pie

Much if not all of the important things I have learned in life can be traced to things my wife has pointed out to me. This was confirmed recently when she told me about a blog about blogging that she follows regularly. The Successful Blogger, www.successful-blog.com is full of outstanding pointers and tips on improving your blog. There are so many people blogging for whatever reason these days that any help is greatly appreciated.

The particular item that she chose to point out to me is the wonderful challenge that Liz Strauss of The Successful Blogger has issued. She is calling for fellow bloggers to write a 25 word sentence that communicates something about communication. That is to say a sentence that contains 25 words, no more and no less, that makes some sort of a statement about what communication through blogging means to you. She asks that we bloggers either post these as comments on her blog or leave our URLs there and direct people back to our sites for the sentence.

I’m really not sure if I am communicating this very well or not. Kind of ironic, huh?

Since I am pretty much about overkill and since I have recently been drifting away from any food discussions, I thought I would try to do a few 25 word sentences and see if I could drag a flavorful food image or two into them. So here goes. If you will visit her site you will find one more that I wrote and left there.

“When we choose to eat the postings that are shared on the internet we participate in an age old fellowship that God has always approved.”

“Kill the fatted calf and break open the good wine; for we celebrate the bounty of life as provided by our portals into the blogosphere.”

“To breathe, to dunk perhaps to snack; partaking of all of the gifts of God in every manner available to us technological animals is blessed.”

Please check out The Successful Blogger. She has a very professional appearance and she provides great information.

I would also like to thank Liz for providing this opportunity to network. We all know that is important for what we do.

To that small group of people who occasionally read this blog thanks. I am going to be posting about a food event I am planning in my front yard on Saturday. That is, the event is on Saturday. Hopefully the post will follow soon afterwards.

(photo by Sara Tro)

Sometimes I think it’s some sort of primeval geometric thing. It may be an image of an archetype or maybe it has something to do with just plain roundness. Is a circle the perfect geometric shape? Is there nothing in nature that is a perfect circle?

I have preferred pie to cake my whole life. I’m not sure but that maybe my mother made more cakes than pies. Would that make me prefer them because they did not appear on the table as much as cake? Cakes just always seemed easier to make than pies but then I have never made a lot of cakes. It probably has something to do with that eggshell fiasco I wrote about in an earlier post.

Although it has not always been the case, I can’t think of one kind of dessert pie that I don’t like. When I was much younger I did not really care for mincemeat pie. Many people don’t like mincemeat. A lot of folks are just put off by reading the list of ingredients that go into making mincemeat. If you buy prepared mincemeat you can check out the side of the jar for the list of ingredients and it may make you think twice about eating it yourself. I think there’s some sort of beef fat in it. After all they do call it mince “meat”.

My family has a very long history of gathering together for reunions and while I have been unable to attend for several years it used to be that I never missed them. When I was in my twenties and my Grandmother was still alive I remember going to one such reunion and discovering that she had brought a mincemeat pie. I loved my Grandmother and would do almost anything for her. I would never do anything to hurt her feelings. So I ate a piece of the mincemeat pie and then just to put the icing on the cake, so to speak, I told her how much I liked it.

Forgive me Grandma. I am sorry I lied but I just wanted to make you feel good.

In our home we speak of karma dollars. This is a concept that an old friend of mine introduced me to many years ago wherein it is stated that if you do a good turn for someone, you store up an account of karma dollars that you may well need to draw on later in life. It’s a simple accounting system of morals that has no real basis in life but somehow or another makes us feel better. Hum..? I think I better just let that whole idea sit there. Perhaps we can return to it another day.

My Grandmother was glad I had enjoyed the pie. She always liked to make food that I liked. In fact, she was so glad that I enjoyed the pie that every year after that for as long as she lived she brought a mincemeat pie to the reunion because Bob liked them so much.

Do you see what I was talking about when I mentioned the karma dollar theory?

So every year Grandma brought a delicious mincemeat pie and every year Bob ate a piece of the pie and told Grandma how good it was.

It was worth it and I have no regrets. Growing older I have learned to be philosophical about these small funny things in life and in addition to that I have learned to enjoy mincemeat pie. Go figure!

Several years ago I decided I would teach myself to bake pies. Everyone told me that there was no need to learn how to make pie crust because you could buy perfectly good pie crust at any decent grocery store. It was too much work to actually make crust that would probably fall short of what was available in folded, flattened pieces in a box.

But they were not really hearing what I was saying.

I wanted to learn how to make really good pies.

I didn’t want to make really good pies. I wanted to learn how to make really good pies.

So I began to make pie crust and to put together pies. I started with single crust pumpkin pie because I could buy a can of pumpkin pie filling that only required the addition of an egg or two and a little evaporated milk. That was not the filling that I wanted to make, but it allowed me to concentrate on the hardest part of the pie, the crust. I read about pies in cook books and I talked to a lot of people about crust. I also started collecting books about pie because I was and still am a bit of a book nut.

Talking with my mother was very helpful. I still think that she makes the best pie crust in the world and I don’t care if I am a little bit prejudiced. Her crust is always flaky and flavorful and even though the standard recipe I follow is different than the one she uses, her crust is always delicious. She was probably the first person to emphasize to me the importance of not over-handling the dough. One of the problems I was struggling with in those early pie crusts was that I insisted on making pie dough like I do most things in life. I tend to believe that if you are supposed to put X amount of one item in a recipe then if you double it, it will taste twice as good. I also thought that if they said to work the dough for five minutes, fifteen would be even better. I know, not too smart. I think the Grateful Dead summed it up quite well as far as I was concerned, “too much of everything is just enough”.

Of course this is really very stupid, but by making mistakes we learn.

Eventually I stumbled upon a recipe and some advice that truly spoke to me. In my case the epiphany came from Julia Child, God Bless Her Soul. One of the greatest cookbooks in my collection is her classic The Way To Cook. Very simply stated and completely to the point. There is a wealth of information in that wonderful book and the section on making pie crust was very helpful. After following her instructions and using her recipe, I was able to make the best pie crust I had ever made. She advises you to chill all of your bowls as well as the ingredients and even the rolling pin. It struck me like a bolt of lightning that there was much more to cooking, and baking in particular, than heat. I learned the importance of cold. Wow! Cooking is more than just burning things; it also involves cooling things on occasion. Brilliant!

I made some progress and from there went on to make double crust pies and even the occasional meringue or cream pie.

The pies I have made recently have been a bit of a disappointment to me. The crust hasn’t been very easy to handle. Ever since I moved to the west coast I have not been as satisfied with the crusts I make as I was when I lived back east. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I am living closer to sea level or am baking pies further north than ever before. It’s time get back to work on my crust again and see if I can’t return to where I was when I first discovered Julia Child’s recipe.

This doesn’t really bother me though because as I stated earlier…I am interested in learning how to make good pies.

It may be I love them because I was raised on good pies or it may have something to do with the mystical geometric shape of the circle, but I suspect that it comes down to the fact that well made pie just tastes so darn good. Go to a good diner, drop in on a friend that bakes (Hi Mom), or take the time to learn how to make them if you are so inclined, but in any event make time now and then for a piece of pie with coffee or milk or whatever sounds good to you. Life is short and whoever said that we should eat dessert first was right.