"How many witches were killed in Salem Township in 1692?"

[Flip the museum display board for the answer.]

"Zero."

Thus reads the display panel at the National Park Service's Salem Heritage Site. 

"But," I sputtered.  "But I just read about 19 people killed.  But two of them were my great (x11) aunts!  But that's why we are here!"

Yes, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft in the Salem area in 1692 -1693.  Nineteen or twenty of them were killed, among them my great aunts, by hanging.  None of them were witches.

Somehow the visit to Salem in June was a turning point in witch year.  I didn't do a single tacky-touristy-witchy thing (unless you count taking a photo for this blog in front of the "Witch City Mall" windows). not just because they were tacky-touristy-wastes of money, but also because it didn't feel right.  By most definitions, I am not a witch.  While I would like to be a witch by at least a few definitions (and I am still working on defining a witch for witch year), paying some cloaked actor to talk about "real witches" while walking past the memorial to the (apparently fake) witches who lost their lives to collective hysteria isn't worthwhile witch pursuit.  I'm working out again what is.

[Images to go here include the lichen encrusted rocks with the names of my fore aunts and the dates of their hangings and me at the witch city mall.  We've recently changed computers again, and I don't have convenient access at the moment].

As American as Banh Mi

Moroccan, English and Puerto Rican food near Orlando
Thai food in Wichita
Thai food in Omaha
Indian food in Des Moines
Poke, Indonesian, and Korean tacos in Madison
Jamaican food in Michigan City, Indiana
Vegan Po'Boys in Grand Rapids
(Coconut curry poutine in Sarnia, Ontario)*

Celebrating Fathers' Day together while our guide extolled the
 welcoming nature of the USA as I learned more about the
officials hired to represent me citing my holy text as reason
to separate kids from their families made me a little sick

(Sushi in Niagara Falls, Ontario)
Banh Mi in Syracuse, New York
Lebanese food in Providence
Eritrean food in Portland, Maine
Israeli food in Salem, Massachusetts
Dim sum, cuban breakfast, Shanghai street food, pizza, gelato, and fancy sushi in Manhattan
Sri Lankan food on Staten Island
Shanghai noodles in State College
Syrian food and southern breakfast (red velvet waffles! fried green tomatoes on breakfast sandwiches!) in Cleveland
Bento box and kimchi fried rice in Moline, Illinois
Indian food in Lawrence, Kansas

I mentioned these summer food delights to someone while traveling and the response was basically, "Well, we like to eat the food of the places we visit."  Which is totally understandable.  We did also eat frozen custard and excellent burgers to accompany delicious fried cheese curds in Wisconsin.  Lobsters rolls and wild blueberry products in Maine.  Rhode Island clam chowder, New England clam chowder, lobster bisque, lobster pie and stuff quahogs on the Atlantic Coast.  Ipswich clams a bunch of different ways when we were a few miles from Ipswich.  Hot dogs at baseball games and brats from the grill. Rhubarb from the backyard of our rental house and fresh fruit pie from each of the adjacent "I" states.

It's just that all of the above food is "American" food. It was prepared in the United States by Americans, and eaten in the United States by Americans (*except for the parenthetical parts of the list, which were obviously prepared and eaten in Canada). [On the Fourth I asked Dianthus to name one thing he liked about his country (and one thing he would like to see improved).  He listed "American Food" citing hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, and pizza.  He added tacos a few minutes later, and would have stuck on sushi if he had a chance.] .  The US is a country of immigrants** and immigrants bring with them their food. This descendant of immigrants and refugees is excited that the bland fare brought by her Puritan ancestors in the 1640s continues to be expanded by ideas and ingredients from all over the world.  Let's not confine that openness to food.

There is nothing quite so American as taking a ferry from one island to another, discussing lift and flight with kids whose ancestors came from a different continent, on the way to lunch prepared by people whose ancestors came from another continent, as the Statue of Liberty looks  on.  May such moments continue and grow.

**I sadly forewent my chance to eat a meal prepared by non-immigrant Sean Sherman ("The Sioux Chef") but I am excited to own his cookbook and to have heard him speak about native foods and foodways.

Some lists after a month and 5,200+ miles (plus a quick plane trip to Florida)

My thoughts on real issues related to our recent travels (i.e. witches, immigration, and travel itself) are still fermenting, just like the kimchi I intended to make with the daikon and Napa cabbage I bought Saturday.  So, here are a few easy to assemble lists.

Providence

States visited: 19.  Two to four new ones for me (Rhode Island and Connecticut were entirely new, but I had previously turned around after accidentally crossing a bridge into Maine previously, and had spend many hours at the Miami airport, but not outside it).  The Mister and I are both officially at 49 (with Hawaii left for him and Alabama for me), although I don't think either his Anchorage airport adventures nor my Hawaii and Alaska travels at under a year count.

Capitols observed from the interstate: Oklahoma City, Topeka, Des Moines, Lansing, Boston.  Capitols observed more closely (from the outside): Madison, Providence.

Hartford, evidence with the legs of Nathan Hale

Capitol entered: Hartford.  I think my mother is still winning this competition. I lost an advantage I had with Richmond, Dover, and Annapolis two years ago and this trip she and Dad added Albany, Hartford, Providence and Harrisburg.  They are planning a trip to Bismark and Pierre in September, so until I go to Juneau, my only remaining edge will be Raleigh.

Boats ridden: a bunch.  I think that's a separate post.

Good friends and good relatives seen:  Also a bunch.

Fingerprints to show I was inside in Hartford

Pies eaten: Only 4 (?).  Grape from Naples, NY in Rockport, MA.  Rhubarb (good flavor but lacking crust) and Oh No! (chocolate pecan) in Fremont, Indiana.  Strawberry Rhubarb in Princeton, IL and Triple Berry in Pella, Iowa.

Gelato eaten:  Lots, in Newport, RI, Portland, ME, Rockport, MA, and twice in NYC.  Pistachio plus another flavor every place.  Plus frozen custard (Wisconsin and Illinois), and local ice cream (MA, NJ, PA and a soda fountain in Moline, Illinois).

Baseball games attended: 2.  Newport Gulls taking on the Plymouth Pilgrims and the Cleveland Indians beating the Detroit Tigers 10-0 after a rain delay.

Gully, the Newport Gulls Mascot

Musicals seen: 2.  Spongebob Squarepants, the musical, on Broadway.  A Year with Frog and Toad in Princeton, Illinois (I know the host family of the music director for the latter, and they got us great seats).

Interesting Food Eaten: Sri Lankan on Staten Island, Eritrean in Portland, Banh Mi in Syracuse . . . and so much more, which I suppose, is tied up with my thoughts on immigration, travel and "Americans" watch this space as fermentation happens.

Waiting out a rain delay

Indians won. Dianthus and I waited for the 11:30 fireworks.

Painted Bunting

I saw a painted bunting in my back yard May 17.  I had never knowingly seen one before and had no idea why this green leaf seemed to be following a red-breasted bird around.

Birthday Woman in CHASA T-shirt

Obligate photo demonstrating their are
flowers in my yard, although there was only
one peony blossom.

Witchy or glowing?
You decide.
Or both?

I've recently read witch books, I've read pie books, I've gardened, I've seen a painted bunting in my backyard for the first time in my life and I've thought a great deal, about things I want to tell you.  These things are about pie and witches and family, but also about cancer and racism and white privilege, and I really do want to write about hemiplegia and strokes.  But the writing is not coming, and I have to start somewhere, so today I'll throw up a few photos from my birthday and let you draw your own conclusions.

Notes: The purple shirt is my CHASA shirt.  The hand make a heart and they are different colors to demonstrate a stroke survivor uses them differently (it may be a tad too cute to get the message across).  The ten candles are arranged four on one side and six on the other.  They entire middle of the confection is intentional collapsed and filled with whipped cream and rhubarb sauce and did not support candles, much to Dianthus's chagrin.  (and, as it turned out, the hard meringue on the edges might or might not support one). Rhubarb has apparently become somewhat of a birthday thing for me (three of the last four involving rhubarb?) and I'm loving it.  I'm also buying it frozen at the store, because I have not found any fresh locally this year.

The anti-red eye edit is freaking me out.  There is no
way you could see that much of my eye.

60 years total experience and rhubarb meringue "cake"

The Kites Came Back

Saturday morning, May 5, I saw a single kite in the sky.

I saw none while I was out and about on May 6 and May 7 and then yesterday, the evening on May 8, there was an eerie whistling while we were at the park and the kites, more than 20 of them, were circling.  The rest of the birds made quite a commotion as well, as the return of the raptors tends to ruffle the feathers of the rest of the avian population.

This is the lastest the kites have arrived in the 8 springs I've been here. 
Interestingly, I saw none of the Mississippi kites as I was out today.

In other phenology news, my south side irises are all done and my north side irises are fading.  It looks like I will have a single peony blooming this year (most of the buds zapped in the late freeze) and it is doing its poofy white thing right now.

CHASA

I just spent some time reading over new shoe recommendations and alerting some parents to the existence of physiatrists.  The network of knowledgeable parents through CHASA, the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association, has been fabulous.

CHASA.org

(You can imagine a cute flyer here-- or you could tell other parents bewildered upon learning that their child had a stroke to go to chasa.org).

There are chicks and they are adorable

In the midst of "spring stuff",  I thought I had missed the eaglet stage of the D.C. bald eagles entirely.  After turning in my grades today, I checked and the eagles hatched late this year: one on Monday and one yesterday (May 3).

Brassicaeae  San Francisco Botanical Gardens, March 2018

The cameras are up and you can see their tiny ugly little adorablenesses, at least when mom or dad moves away for a moment.

(I have no stake in D.C. Eagle's by the way, I just think the live stream from the American Eagle Foundation and the USDA is very very cool)
https://www.dceaglecam.org/

I completed the semester with no kites in town, a first for the years I have been keeping track.  Immediately after saying that, I spotted a raptor soaring late this afternoon.  It is possible it's a kite, but they certainly aren't everywhere yet.

No Kites Yet

Despite winds from the south that would have certainly brought the kites back, the Mississippi Kites are not back in town.  This makes them late, in my books (while my colleagues point out that 20 (?) years ago they weren't here at all).

Borage.  Not on the exam I just game, but I should plant some.

I'm at the "complaints are coming in" stage of finals week and we're all exhausted by a nearly two hour parents vs. kids soccer game.

Maybe witches or pies or stroke stuff tomorrow. 
Good night.

How do you hold the book open?

Aster is starting to read chapter books and will hopefully be reading in the car as we travel this summer.

This exciting development has me wondering how he will turn the pages, when he has poor fine motor control and a limited range of motion with his right hand. I mentioned page turning at his annual IEP* meeting on Monday and the the team members** (all of whom we like) commented that they didn't include a page turning accommodation (which I had asked for last year) because he hasn't had any problems with the first grade readers and the occupational therapist had him turn pages in his office and he was good at it, with a glossy reader that opens flat on a desk.

Lupine, Colorado July 2017

Of course when we are travelling, Aster will not be reading glossy readers that open flat on a desk.  I gave him a cheap-paper paperback and asked him to show me how he turns the pages.  He holds it open with his left hand, squashes the book against his leg, sticks his right hand in and uses the left to turn the page.  It works.  And it is slow.  And it will probably be much slower in a moving car, perhaps slow enough to make reading a poor option.

I'm not going to make it to a good transition to my point, which is neither that my son needs an e-reader or that my son is exceptionally clever in figuring out how to turn pages, but rather something along the lines of noting where small set-backs happen (based on physical ability, race, gender, age . . ..).  Of course such small set-backs can be worked around, but they do add up-- and often compassionate consideration can lift the burden of such set-backs.

And since we are talking about turning pages, I want to alert you to what I have been reading lately.  Dear Mr. Henshaw Beverly Cleary's Newberry Award Winner, had most of the good parts of Henry and Ramona books (well written, kids seem very real, some funny bits) but none of the dated fake neighborlyness I remember.  It's pretty great. I'm sure I cried.
Julia Berry's Secondhand Charm didn't have the cool witch of The Amaranth Enchantment, but it was also magical and lots of fun-- with enough enchantments and women with unusual powers that I feel fine considering it a witch book. 
I've also read Camp Austen: My Life as an Accidental Jane Austen Superfan by Ted Scheinman and am stuck in Enchantress of Numbers by Tracy Chiaverini (a fictional autobiography of Ada Lovelace,  A mathematician daughter of Lord Byron who works on computer precursers is obviously a witch, right?) and just today read Lois Lowry's The Giver, but all of these deserve some more lines on the blog.

Awareness Month Point: 
Kids have strokes, too, with lifelong consequences, some of which are as simple as taking twice as long to turn a
page.

*Individualized Education Program.  The legal document which specifies what accommodations and services a special education student in the United States will receive.

**The annual (fewer than 365 days from the previous, so they have been creeping up a week each year) IEP meeting must include the special education teacher, a classroom teacher, a parent and an administrator.  In this case, it included all of the above, plus Aster's other parent, speech therapist, occupational therapist and physical therapist.  All documents must be signed by all of us.

Uno de Mayo

Fierce winds are blowing (although I didn't see any Mississippi kites flying into town), finals are happening, the iris in front opened while I was at work today and Spring seems genuinely here.

In New Orleans, May 2017

It's the time of year when I simultaneously think that I couldn't do a single additional thing and think that since X, Y and Z activities are winding down, that I will suddenly have lots of time.  And, as it happens, it is pediatric stroke awareness month.

So expect more blog posts this month. 
And more images of purple flowers.
But not many until after the kites return.

Prairie Puppies

I'm thinking of blogging up a storm over the next month, but wanted to have something recorded for April.
Here are some baby prairie dogs and one nursing.  Seen on a field trip to the Wichita Mountains (in Oklahoma, not particularly close to Wichita, Kansas or Wichita Falls, Texas and not really where witches hang out, but possibly).

Finals have started and the kites are not back in town.

All Sorts of Foolishness

So it wasn't snowing, but it was very cold hunting eggs

Should you have been directed here by my annual letter of the first of April, of course you know that most of it is true (insects, broken wrist, grandparent visit, KU lost, teacher strike, summer travels, study about white privilege at church, witch ancestors) but the amusing details are not (today's snow, asparagus pee genetics, new dessert investigation) and of course there does not exist a June 31, but the Lek Off (a real word for prairie chicken mating dances) and the leeks in the plumbing are now classic and need to be re-used.  At least I'm amused as I repeat myself.

Energy so great it can't be captured in focus
(or something like that)

If you are here for a witch year update: here's a quick one.  I didn't do anything special for the second blue moon of the year, except for re-reading on the setting of dates of Easter and Passover.
I find myself considering many of my necklaces and scarves to be witchy and feel special when I am wearing them, although none of them is new or newly symbolic to me.
I've spent a great deal of time with my familiar, a white cat.
The Mister and I saw magical plants in California over spring break, including coastal redwoods, horsetails, and manroot (Marah, which interested me because it appeared to be closely related to the the squirting cucumber, Cyclanthera, that I study, and which must be useful to witches, because how could "man root" not be).

At magical Muir Woods

I've contemplated more of what it means to be a witch in other cultures as I read the excellent Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman and A Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi.  More on those someday (and let me know if you've read either so we can talk

Aster's Pinewood Derby Car
Altogether a different kind of foolishness

Manroot

Manroot Flowers

Golden Gate Bridge in Background

).

Spring Magic

Someday, (soon! well, maybe?) I'll write about all of what's happening in witch year.

At this moment, I will draw your attention to the magic that is happening around us.  A long row of daffodils on the east side of the house is in full bloom.  More bulb iris and large crocus are popping up and one can find hyacinths blooming in several places around our house.
Yesterday afternoon I mentioned to my mother how spring is late here, as the bradford (callery, Asian) pears usually bloom by this week and the trees were nowhere close to flower.
Is froze overnight and was sunny today and BOOM!  the pears and plums are blooming on my way how this afternoon.
How did that happen?  It's magic!

Changes

First crocus appeared in my yard Feb. 14 and the first daffodils on the south side Feb. 19.
The first two iris reticulata bloomed yesterday, Wednesday Feb. 28.
Moon is full.  Things are growing.  It's happening once again.

Witch Pie Books

Alice Hoffman's Nightbird was one of a few magical baking novels read in the summer of 2016 that led me to Year of Pie.   As it is an enchanting novel featuring pies, gardens, birds and witches, a re-read felt like just the right thing to bridge year of pie and witch year. The YA novel is still highly recommended.

A quick Amazon search led to Witch's Pie, a self-published children's book that didn't do much for me and two series that I need to investigate: M. Z. Andrew's Witch Squad Cozy Mysteries, including one entitled Witch Pie and Ellery Adams' Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries, which includes Pies and Prejudice.  Having been disappointed by Joanne Fluke's Blackberry Pie Murder, I'm not running out to buy any more baking mysteries, even if they do include witches, but if someone had a copy lying around . . . 

Rats, no pie, but lots of fun

Good book-- but that's not amaranth.

Meanwhile, at my local library, searching "witch pie" yields The Brixen Witch by Stacy DeKeyser.  I checked it out, baffled how a rat-infested re-telling of the pied piper would have anything to do with baked goods.  It was some time before I realized that "pied" includes PIE whether or not baked goods are involved (and I just now realized I could have been looking at pied-billed grebes and pied flycatchers during the bird to pie transition last year).  I enjoyed the book and will be adding the Brixen witch herself to my upcoming descriptions of witches.

Somewhere in the last week or two I also read The Amaranth Enchantment by Julia Berry, a very nice fairy tale that would have been made much nicer if the cover art included amaranth for the amaranth witch rather than an amaryllis (or an odd orchid).  True, the amaryllis is more to look at, but it is no "love-lies-bleeding" and many readers (well, at least this reader) would know that. 

I also finished Ruth Chew's The Wednesday Witch, which, while very pleasant about a witch getting mistaken for a vacuum cleaning repair woman in 1960s Brooklyn, is no What the Witch Left, which is one of my childhood favorites, also by Ruth Chew.

So I've worn witchy clothes at least once a week, I said "no" to a committee I didn't want to serve on, I've read three witch-pie books, two other witch books and ate lots of garlic with The Mister for Valentine's Day.  The year is off to a good start.

Groundhog Pie Graduation

Saturday's Groundhog Pie party, marking my 25th year of throwing groundhog parties, was something of a pie year graduation.  Somehow I determined that I needed to make all the pies for over twenty guests and it was hectic and silly and I was immensely proud of the results.

Farmer's Cheese Minis

On the savory table, we had two of the featured Groundhog Pies: sausage and apple in a cheddar cheese crust.  From Kate McDermott's The Art of Pie, the recipe is a keeper. 
The Mister also used ground pork to bake chorizo empanadas with a cilantro cream.
I made 48 Farmer's Cheese and Thyme mini-pies well in advance (recipe from Hand Pies), a few dozen curried carrot in turmeric crust mini-pies that morning and a galette of leeks, mushrooms and goat cheese on puff pastry popped into the oven at the last minute.

"Ground Hog" Pork Sausage and Apple in Cheddar Crust

With the sweets, I had bakes cranberry orange mini-pies and Winter Apple (apple with cranberries, walnuts and dried fruits soaked in spice tea) to represent winter, and homemade lemon curd on almond meringue to represent spring.  A cousin brought a delicious chocolate pie and Dianthus made a peanut butter pudding to fill a brownie crust to round things out.

I'd say that the party was successful enough that I am ready to end Year of Pie, but there is dough in the freezer, I still haven't baked a pie with a hot water crust, and I just learned of multiple books that show up in searches for "witch pie" so not quite yet.

Winter Apple: Apple with cranberries, walnuts, and spiced fruit

On the Eve of the Super Blue Blood Moon

Which year starts tomorrow?

Witch year starts tomorrow!

I think the second full moon of the year (and the month, thus the blue moon) with a morning lunar eclipse is the right time to start Witch Year.

Pie year continue until the lunar new year (Feb. 16), but I'll be starting my exploration of witches wearing black and petting a white cat as I watch the closest moon of the year (super moon) go behind the shadow of the earth.

Sweet Potato Pie and I'll Shut My Mouth

Back in October I baked two fabulous sweet potato pies and took them to a dinner as part of a Race, Religion, and BBQ series of conversations coordinated by our pastor.  The pies were excellent, perhaps the best I have ever baked.  (Our pastor walked outside to where I was eating that night to inform me that he didn't like pumpkin pie, and that was the best pumpkin pie he'd ever eaten, someone else raved about the on Facebook the next day, and the Mister liked them better than all of the [very tasty] pecan and chocolate pies baked with students a few weeks later).

The whole time I was baking them, I had a line from Alabama Song of the South stuck in my head: "Song, song, of the South, sweet potato pie and I'll shut my mouth" and all fall I thought I was going to eloquently write about race and racism; and about sweet potato pie, misplaced pride, and shutting up. 

Today I met with some of the same people from the discussions to march in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Oklahoma City.  We intended to march with the Black Lives Matter organization, but ended up with representatives of several churches with Black Lives Matters signs.  It was bitterly cold with a north wind and the too-long parade route was not lined with people waving at the floats and the bands-- mostly just participants who had already marched the distance and were returning to the start.  I still don't have the right words to say about racism.  I hope that being there, that taking Aster and Dianthus and talking about the legacy of King, in itself says something, and that something is hopeful.

I will tell my students, all my students, from families from all over the world, that they are valued in my classroom tomorrow.

I will let you know that not all are being silent-- from the expected (you can listen to David Wheeler's pre-MLK Day sermon here, and more from "badass preacher lady" Elizabeth Hagan here), to the less so (my friend J, a returned Peace Corps volunteer, in the midst of chemo-induced anemia, posting how about the great people she's worked with-- abroad and as immigrants: my friend D has had to speak up in support of her students learning and teaching each other ecology in Haiti [some older blog posts here]).

Let us not be silent in the face of oppression. Yet if our words might further injustice, why, perhaps we should just take that pie and shut our mouths.

I'm Still Counting

Pie year continues through the Lunar New Year or such time that I decide the new theme begins, so, have no fear, there are still chances for more pie.

I baked three pies over the weekend, the two Epiphany pies shown below, plus a ham, leek, ricotta pie the next day, and surprised myself by not being able to give an accurate count when asked how many I've baked during Year of Pie. Obviously, what I need to do on the first night of class is sit down and count some more.

When I last counted in early September, I had baked (or directed the baking of) 47 pies to date.

Since then

September (1 in addition to the 7 listed earlier)
S'Mores Pie for the Mister's birthday

October (5)
 2 sweet potato for Race, Religion and BBQ discussions (more on both the pies and the issues sometime in the future) which are the best pies I have baked.
3 variations on chocolate chess for the Fall Festival at Church

November (10)

Nov. Student Baking: Sometimes One Forgets to Style the Pies

Lemon tart, Chocolate Chess, Chocolate Pecan, and Chocolate, Cinnamon, Coffee, Pecan with students (all good, but as the Mister declared, none as good as the sweet potato).
Pumpkin and sweet potato for the harvest breakfast
Mincemeat, cranberry mince, pumpkin and sweet potato for Thanksgiving

December (3)
Cranberry rhubarb, mincemeat and Shaker orange for Christmas

January (3 so far)
Sausage and apple, Epiphany Pie, and Ham, Leek and Ricotta

68 pies to date!

Variations of chocolate and pecan.  All good.  None better than
straight pecan or straight chocolate.

Pies Parading On

Thanksgiving

I chipped a small piece of my wrist in November, while talking.  Yes, the longest blog post hiatus of the ten year I have been doing this can be attributed needing to wear a brace from talking too enthusiastically.
Anyway, all is not fully healed, but I am now four days without a brace and soon I will be typing at full speed again.  In the meantime, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Epiphany Pies.

For Thanksgiving, The Mister cooked most of the meal at the Mister's parents' house.  I baked pumpkin, sweet potato, and mincement pies and a cranberry mince tart, while my parents drove from Colorado to Kansas to join us, bringing pecan pie, a cranberry walnut tart and my niece.

In my mind, Thanksgiving has a set pie tradition, and adding chocolate to those mentioned above would be about as far as I deviate from it.  Christmas, on the other hand, is not normally pie time in my household, and while the Christmas Eve meal and desserts are set, Christmas Day is fairly open.  I baked three pies, intentionally making them not predominately sweet.  I attempted to improve upon the homemade mincemeat from Thanksgiving and ended up with a very dense mincemeat, heavy on the allspice, ginger and cloves.  Cranberry rhubarb was tart and bright and the shaker orange with teh snowflake top crust included the peel, so it has bitter notes along with the tart and sweet.

We had friends over for dinner last night and decided to make it an Epiphany/Three Kings Day/Twelfth Night celebration.  We had a sausage apple pie in a cheddar crust and almond frangipane in puff pastry, which I am insisting on calling an Epiphany Pie rather than a Galette des Rois or a Kings' Cake.  Aster was very involved with the baking of both Epiphany pies and is planning what next year's kings' cake will be.  I explained to him the tradition of the "lucky" recipient of the charm being required to bake the next cake, and that he can do it any time until Mardi Gras, he doesn't need to wait until next year.  The Mister suggested that he bake a Martin Luther King Cake next week for after the march.

Joining Families at Thanksgiving on the Ranch

Mincemeat and Cranberry Rhubarb: Christmas

Shaker Orange: Christmas

Sausage and Apple in a Cheddar Crust: Ephiphany

Epiphany Pie-- or Galette des Rois