Ode to Dough

Today I am baking 2  quiches.
Perfect pie to bake when  I haven't a clue what to bake.
This  brings my pie count to 84 and #85.
85 pies in 6 months.
That's not a pie a day..  not even  a pie every Sunday as I had prematurely assumed I would do.
Not that I didn't want to be baking every Sunday, but as they say..
time kinda slips away.
My day job gets  in the way.
Things have quieted  down now and I am ready to resume baking & writing .
The "story" left off in early December  of 2010.
I had just switched over to yet  another dough recipe.
I had tried three or four different recipes till I found the one. I could tweak this  to make it my own. And this is crucial ~ I have got to have my own recipe!
I thank-you Hilda Mars, Alan Carter and Mom ~ but I think I got this one now.  There isn't much one can do to tweak a dough recipe, but I'll  keep my secret just the same.
Any baker  will tell you its all in perfecting your dough. It  must be first and foremost . It is nothing  if it's not flaky & buttery. It must lend itself to manipulation; be able to twist and hold it's shape and above all  pass the test...will he eat it?
He loves 'em.

I  also decided it was time to get serious with the Christmas hints.. I needed  better equipment.
I asked Santa  for  more cookbooks.
Christmas morning arrived with a whole lot of goodies. My Sister from Texas sent me a wonderful Southern Pies cookbook along with Texas Pecans. Yummy!
My mother bought me a beautiful HEAVY  Marble slab along with a perfect exactly- what- I dreamed- of black marble  rolling pin.  Now I  realized   why  she was  so tired and hunched over for the past  week.  Mom carried these two items...
(my 81 year old mother ) from the store through the  mall to her car and home.. I can barley lift this slab from my cabinet to my counter. WOW and she never laid a guilt trip on me. But, she'll tell the tale forever.
Anyway.....

I baked pie #30 Chewy Pecan Pie with the Texas Pecans. Chewy and flat like a pancake because it dripped out of the pan and smoked up the kitchen something awful!
My pie shrunk to within a  1/2 inch thick. Oh well, learned another lesson.
and so on... Pecan Pies for the rest of the month till I got it right.