Each year as Apply approaches I think, “I must try and cook my own pie.” Each year I never do. Will this Apply be any different? It seems unlikely.
I don’t mind trying out a baking recipe sometimes. I am happy to say that mostly it all goes smoothly but honestly, we have eaten our fair share of flat cakes or dry cakes or even flat, dry cakes and some of the biscuits did taste of sodium bicarbonate, it has to be owned up to. So, it seems to me that baking pastry would be a difficult skill to master, and I don’t want to waste my precious allocation of deliciousness this month on epic cooking failures.
Tempting although the packaging makes them look, I try to avoid the mass produced things which purport to be pies from the freezer compartment at the supermarket. Perhaps you know the ones I mean? They have some slushy type of filling and a thick casing of pastry-like substance. They have an ingredient list as long as my arm, when all I really want to read is butter and flour, with a bit of salt and a bit of sugar plus the filling type.
The small bakery where the food is baked on the premises seems to be a better alternative. I can be reasonably sure that real pastry will encase real filling and certainly the allocation of deliciousness will be well spent. Even so, I proceed with caution. Simply stated, the amount of filling does not include enough protein for an evening meal, or enough fruit for an evening desert. Yes there will be some beef mince, or some egg and bacon, or some chicken, or some apple, just not the amount that I am used to having. I need to supplement it.
How will I supplement it? Wisely with some more lean protein? Or unwisely with extra oven potato fries? Extra desert? Some Chocolate ripes? Today I am choosing wisely. Sadly that is not always the case.
It is no wonder that as each Apply dwindles to its conclusion I think, “Next Apply I will try to cook my own pie.” One year I might.