There was steak and kidney pie, a sort of joint venture. I
contributed the meat (chuck shoulder as previously mentioned),
Nancy the kidneys (she and Ruth had to go back to the Petra
market to pick them up), and Gail a leftover Pet Ritz (i.e.
Pillsbury) pie crust. Nancy and I did the making based on
memories from our youths - hers making and mine tasting. No
recipe, but I could talk you through what we did if you want
to try to duplicate the experience.

The kidneys came in really great condition, though in the
removal of the tubes, a couple of them had been slashed a bit,
and of a couple of them the trimming had been given up on. I
removed the remaining tubes (the Hafflys have a good set of
sharp knives), halved the midneys, and trimmed the cores. I
have used a grapefruit spoon and a metal melon baller for
the job in the past but this time just did a cursory cutting
of the white core with a knife and a quick splash of water
mostly for ritual's sake, as these were very clean to begin
with. I cut them into bite-size pieces and gave them a quick
saute in butter. The standard procedure is to toss the butter,
but these were mild enough that I tipped some of it into the
stew for flavor and someone (not myself) drank the rest. I
gave people a taste to make sure they weren't going to go ugh,
gross, and nobody recoiled, so the rest of them went into the
stew made fresh yesterday, topped with the crust (lightly
rubbed with butter), and into the oven until the surface was
sufficiently browned and the stew sufficienty bubbling. This
was, of course, owing to laziness and convenience of ingredients
a deep-dish single-crust pie.

I thought it a success, the taste resembling an English pie but
nowhere near so smelly. The beef was not undercooked, the kidneys
were not overcooked, and the gravy was thick enough and brown
enough. Of the crust all I can say is that great strides have
been made in frozen pie crust technology since the last time I
used one decades ago.

Pie being today's secret word, Gail made pecan pie, very nice,
not too sweet, with a new and improved Pet Ritz crust, and a
Key lime whose main bulk was apparently cream cheese, bad for
me, good for everyone else. They were both good, but when I
asked for a sliver of each, I was given over half a slice of
each. I'm glad there was no glucometer nearby, as my blood
would have been off the chart.

Even more sweets - Snickers branded creamy nut butter candies.
We all know and love Snickers, even those of us who shouldn't.
These seem to be a completely different thing piggybacking on
the celebrity of the original. My first impression was gagging
sweetness, followed by an altogether too sticky nut presence
short on texture. Chocolate and Snickeriness were not much in
evidence.

I had a peanut butter one to start and found it wimpy and lacking
in appeal, with a rather gross mouthfeel. Reese's cups, which
this product probably was designed to compete with, is so much
better in every possible way - aroma, taste, texture, balance.

The almond butter version is equally dull, not almondy enough
by far - a vague toastiness overwhelmed by sugar.

My taste buds rebelled before I could get to the maple almond
butter flavor.

Meanwhile, with a little help from my friends I made filling for
my galaktoboureko, the impetus for which was my claim that I
could make a cream of wheat preparation that Ruth would eat.
This was essentially milk (Lactaid), eggs, sugar (raw), CoW,
and vanilla, salt, and cinnamon for flavoring. I was thinking
of making a rolled version, but the filling didn't set up enough
for that to happen. At the Anchorage Greek Festival with Swisher
I'd encountered the rolled for the first time and thought it a
clever and time-saving idea. Problem turned out that if the
filling is thick enough to roll in a dough, when it's cooked it
will be overdone, which the Anchorage one was. I thought I might
be able to finesse this, but no. Note for the future - freeze it
and then roll it in raw dough and see if it bakes okay.

The massive hit of carbs this day interfered dreadfully with
my sleep, and between overheating and running to the bathroom
to splash cold water on myself and tossing and turning, the
night was rather uncomfortable.
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