Pie Wheel

Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy?

Joann gave each of us an ingenious little device that she called a pie wheel. She designed the back to show the ingredients and cooking temperature. The front piece looks like an actual piece of pie with a wedge cut out. The example shown here is for a cherry pie. She laminated both pieces and attached them together with a brad. On the back, she attached a magnet. It makes a great reference tool and a unique refrigerator magnet. Joann said that she got the template from Martha Stewart in the 1990's.

Spicing Things Up in the New Year

Long, red cayenne peppers drying in the sun

She passed around a basket full of different kinds of spices and asked us each to choose one. "Let's spice up ECA this year," said Cheryl Beck, Jackson Co. North Carolina Extension and Community Association, Inc. (ECA) Agent who led our planning meeting on Nov. 2. She explained as we made our various choices a little bit about each spice. Cumin dates back to Old Testament times. It comes from the parsley family and can be used in meat and poultry dishes. Cinnamon was originally used in love potions, and has now been discovered to have many benefits including stimulation of weight loss. Pepper was once rare and valuable. People took great risks to find it. It stimulates gastric juice and is also the main ingredient in capzasin, an arthritis treatment. Paprika is made from sweet, red peppers and can be used in most anything, not just as garnish. Oregano is Greek for joy of the mountains. It is easily grown in these parts.

We have made plans for an exciting new year. Our meetings will continue on the first Tuesday night of the month at 7 p.m.  We are still congregating at the fellowship hall at the Tuckasegee Wesleyan Church up on the hill. To see our schedule, look at the sidebar to the right. These plans are not set in stone, however. We may change our minds and tweak the schedule a bit, but we'll be sure to let you know here on the blog in plenty of time to adjust your plans. We are looking for new members to join the fun and fellowship. Come join us at our first meeting on Tuesday, January 4, where we will meet Rob Hawks, the director of ECA.

Peppermint Tree

Peppermint Tree with Lighted Glass Block

I tried my luck with another one of the candy grams, the peppermint tree. First, you take a cylindrical styrofoam cone and a couple of bags of individually wrapped peppermint candies. I got them at the Dollar Tree for a dollar a bag. You need a box of pins with the little round heads on them. Starting at the bottom of the cone, go around sticking the candies in a ring. Continue with layers until the entire cone is filled. Embellish with ribbons. I discovered that you need longer pins for the ribbons. Also, it would be better to use a taller cone so that the graduation is more apparent. I used a 12 inch tall cone for this. I just experiment until I get the best design. A couple of things to remember are that if you give them as gifts, people need to be aware of the hazards of sharp pins around kids and pets. Also, and I learned this the hard way, if you are transporting candy grams, be sure to keep them at a cool temperature or they will melt. I was delivering some one day after work, so I put them in a basket in my car where they sat all day in September temperatures. When I arrived at my destination and began taking them out of the basket, to my dismay, they had softened and melted. I was out about $50 in supplies. Vintage candies like soda poppers and root beer candy are expensive, unless you plan to make a lot of candy grams and can buy in huge bulk. Even jolly ranchers can add up if you are only using one or two colors per bag. That's one reason I really like the peppermint tree. It is relatively inexpensive and cute and functional to boot. I have mine here with one of the glass block lights I made. I used teal to match my Christmas tree.