Friday, September 4, 2009

The One With Vic’s Lucky Day



Skippy saw me pulling these pictures out of iPhoto, and asked me, “Did you put these on your blog?” I said, “No, not yet. But I’m going to…” “No!” He said. “People will never look at your blog again. That is gross.” Okay, so maybe I have to give up my dreams of being a hand model, but it is not that gross, is it? So the story is, a couple of mornings ago, I burned myself. I took these shortly after it happened, to send to my daughter-in-law the RN. I couldn’t take pictures of my right hand, which was also burned, because I couldn’t figure out how to work the camera with no hands.

Why was it my lucky day, you ask? Well, when my skin came in very brief contact with the 350-degree molten sugar, my reaction was to scream, and to hit the pan so hard that I partially dismantled my stovetop, and the sugar splashed in a stream all the way up the front of me to within an inch or so of my chest, neck and face. It didn’t burn my face. It didn’t go in my eye. Lucky, lucky, lucky. The burns look a bit nastier today than they did in the pictures, but they will heal just fine. I spent most of Wednesday soaking in cold water, and the swelling is not too bad.

Nevertheless, I am all bandaged up and thought I would take it easy today. Carolyn requested something kid-friendly. I, myself, am happy to stay arms-length from the stove today, and so the answer to both is: Hobo Pies. DK makes me these for breakfast pretty often, as he did today. I am not posting a downloadable recipe, because you can see how easy this is going to be. DK insists these are ever-so-much healthier than a Hostess pie or a Kellogg’s pop-tart, because he makes them with my homemade whole wheat bread and just a light brushing of butter. Use any canned pie filling, or your own homemade fruit and jam... PBJ or whatever you like. And then a dusting of powdered sugar at the end. Oooh! And imagine the savory possibilities... maybe sloppy joe meat and cheese, or ham and swiss with a little mustard?


I think I won this particular pie-maker in a chili-cookoff (remind me to post my steakhouse chili recipe sometime), but here is a whole page of them for sale at Amazon. These are great fun on a camping trip, but DK uses them right over the stove practically every morning. If you are using homemade bread, slice rather thinly. Otherwise, use the cheapest white bread you can find, so it condenses well in the pie maker. Cut the crusts off your bread, and trim to approximate the shape and size of your pie maker...we have round and square ones. Lightly butter the outsides of your bread (less than a teaspoon for both slices), and fill with a couple tablespoons of your favorite filling.



I had cherry pie filling, and Skippy had fresh sliced strawberries. Put the second buttered bread slice on, and close your pie maker. (DK uses a different technique--he places the whole slices of bread in and closes the pie maker, then trims them to fit).



Toast over a campfire... or a kitchen fire... for about 90 seconds on each side. The first pie might take 30 seconds longer, because the cast iron needs to heat up.


Turn out your yummy pie onto a plate and sprinkle with a little powdered sugar.



Come on… you know you want to try this…

14 comments:

Josh said...

That looks worse than I imagined.

Christa Jeanne said...

My grandmother's aunt had one of these little pie-makers at her home on the Balboa Peninsula, and I have fond childhood memories of eating grilled cheese sandwiches made in it. Never knew what it was called, though. Now that I do, I'll have to buy one. :) Sorry to hear about your burns - hope they heal quickly!

Victoria said...

@Jes, really? I thought you would say they DIDN'T look as bad as you imagined...

@Christa Jeanne: yup. my daughter had a grilled cheese one this morning. Very fun!

Fawn said...

Soo sorry! Hope you feel better soon.

Rebecca Talley said...

Burns are terrible. I hate it when I burn my fingers on the oven when I'm making pizza. And, I burn myself frequently when I iron. I should stop ironing to prevent that :).

Hope you feel better.

Raechal said...

those look so fun! I've never seen a pie-maker before, but I think we might have to get one before our next camping trip. That would make some super easy dinners or breakfasts, or desserts. Brilliant!

Anonymous said...

I will give it a try!

As for the burns. I seem to remember commenting about sugar and burns...a warning perhaps?

Jamie said...

Victoria! That's horrible! What were you making? What a bummer. I just got back into town & am catching up on your blog. Yay for recipes! The pies look oh-so-yummy...as do all of your recipes!

alpinekleins said...

Ouch! OUCH! That has got to be painful - way to much sacrifice in the kitchen . . .

But the pies bring back memories! We had one of those cookers at our family cabin when I was just a little girl. Bread and pie filling equals one wonderfully delicious treat!

Kristin

Cranberryfries said...

Yeee ooooowwww. I hope it isn't hurting to badly.

I've never seen those fun little pies. I think I'd stick a hot dog in the middle and make me a little corndog. Haha.

RSM Text Factor Gurus said...

Those are so gross, I am never reading this blog again. Hobo pies are disgusting.

Victoria said...

@Sad but true: Don't knock them until you've tasted them with REALLY fresh hobo meat. You don't know what you're missing.

RSM Text Factor Gurus said...

okay, we so we bought the pie maker AND ALLIE JUST BURNT the palm of her hand. Really. Waiting to see if it blisters. She was making Adam birthday pb cookies.

CB said...

OUCH!! Was pretty much my thoughts when I saw your hand. SO glad you didn't get it in the face. Painfulllllllll!
I would really love your chili recipe :D
The little sandwiches look good...of course, I don't like fruit so I immediately thought nutella might be good in them tooo. hee hee