Meet The Gibsons

Food. Food is what is important. But, as you know, there are some foods that rank a bit higher than others. In our family there are two particular foods that float around the top of the list. Today I had my first go at making both.

The first is pie. Pie is such an important food at Gibson Family Dinners. There's Brooke's pineapple pie. It is Tom's favorite so she makes it every Father's Day and Christmas (Tom's birthday). I'm always impressed at how beautiful and delicious her homemade pies are. Then there are Cheryl's pies. She makes amazing desserts all year long, but you can bet she will have some tasty summer fruit pies and apple pie in the fall. And then there is her peanut butter pie, which frankly, makes me want to cry tears of joy. It is that good.

Today was pie day in class! We each picked our own pie and I chose apple because it is Drew's favorite. Why didn't I choose my favorite? Because I don't have one. Asking me to choose my favorite pie is like asking me to choose my favorite dog. I couldn't pick*. So I went with Drew's fave instead. The results:

Well, it's not pretty. Pretty isn't my strong suit (in baking at least). But the flavor? My teacher said that my crust had the perfect amount of flakiness and flavor. I totally have to agree with her. I was so excited that it turned out well!

Making pie crust is kind of hard. You have to keep everything cold, and make sure you don't overwork the dough. And I'm kind of special when it comes to using a rolling pin. I've just never gotten the hang of it. But the end result is so worth the effort! Homemade crust tastes so much better than store-bought.

I added apple cutouts... just in case... you know... we forgot what was inside. The gal who was sharing my kitchen also made apple pie and she totally showed me up with a lattice topped crust and beautiful crimped edges. It was the prettiest pie I've ever seen. She also told me that she was home schooled and her mom is Suzy Homemaker, so I imagine that she spent many a school day making pies.

Item number two on our most important food list: rolls. I know, right? How can something so simple be so important? Well, they are. Ever since Drew and I first spent the holidays together all I've heard about are rolls. Everyone raved about Aunt Nancy's rolls. I heard about these dang roll so much I was practically dreaming about them. Well, then it turns out that Nancy isn't hosting Thanksgiving or Christmas and won't even be around to make rolls because she was spending the holidays with her son and his family in North Carolina. I'm pretty sure it was the worst holiday season on record. And I totally felt jipped for not getting to taste these amazing rolls.

When I finally tasted Nancy's rolls, they absolutely lived up to the hype. Now I'm right there with everyone else, "Rolls?" "Will Nancy be making rolls?" "Are there any rolls left over?" "Can we take some rolls home?" "Hey! You stole my roll! I'm going to kill you!!!"

So naturally when we were given our choice of breads to make today, I chose rolls. I figure, being part of this roll-crazed family, it would be a valuable asset to have. Mine were whole wheat:

I've always heard that bread-making is such an experience. And it is. There is so much work that goes into it. My arms are sore from kneading and punching. It took the entire four hour lab to make one batch of rolls. But it was such an incredible feeling to have put in all that work and have such a lovely end product. I now have even more respect for Nancy and am so appreciative of the work she goes through to get us our rolls.

I've learned so much in just one week of class and am so excited to put all of this new knowledge to work in my kitchen! If only my teachers would stop assigning me so much work so I could get back to the important things in life: like making bread.

*If push came to shove I'd totally choose whichever pie is in front of me and whichever dog hadn't peed on something inappropriate that day.