"linner" prep

My friend Neil is coming up from Masan, so I'm prepping Thanksgiving leftovers and also making a simple carrot-raisin salad. I have enough dough and filling to make another, smaller pot pie; I'm thinking of baking such a pie for Neil. We'll see. He won't be here until around 3:30 or 4 p.m., so I have time to ponder this minor dilemma. 

There may or may not be photos.

"Having enough dough is tough," the Hominid thought. "I need to be thorough so as to see this lunch through, preferably without coughing, and with no drought in the forecast."

UPDATE: Neil has come and gone, having arrived right on time, just after 4 p.m., as he'd said he would. He might be back tomorrow, or he might not. Otherwise, tonight's going to be a content-creation night for me, which could mean anything from enlarging photos on the walk blog to creating free and paid grammar material for Substack.

carrot-raisin salad

I have fond memories of my Swiss maman's carrot-raisin salad. When I tried to look the recipe up today, I saw the salad billed as "an American classic," and I also noticed the recipe was a little bit different from Maman's. When Maman made it, she used only a splash of vinegar and maybe a tiny amount of sugar to take the edge off. (Otherwise, the raisins brought most of the sweetness.) The American recipes I found used a combination of mayo, honey, and—optionally—apple-cider vinegar.

Here's a pic of a second pot pie, made from leftover pie dough and pie filling:

Bit of a spillover through one of the vents, I'm afraid... but that's what the vents are for.

Neil and I ended up starting off with the above fresh-baked pot pie; Neil eventually went on to take two more pieces, but from the leftover, room-temp pie from Thursday, of which two-thirds still remained. As he said: in England, most pies are eaten at room temperature, so he didn't bother to microwave the cold pie. I noted that many Americans would actually agree with the English, albeit for pragmatic reasons: you need to let the pie cool down so the sides don't run out, leaving you with a hollow shell. Slightly warm is fine. We did let the pie cool down a bit before I attacked it, and by God, it was better than Thursday's pie: the crust was crispy and flaky (probably because it had only recently come out of the oven), and the filling was savory and delicious. Neil and I both ended up eating three pieces of pot pie. The carrot-raisin salad was also eaten, but not as avidly by either of us. As I told Neil, if I ever make this salad again, I won't add a splash of apple-cider vinegar next time. Too tart. Neil proved to be a fan of dessert as well: he destroyed his slices of rum cake and Death by Chocolate cake. We finished off the rum cake; there's no more left. If Neil comes by again tomorrow, I'll offer him the remains of the chocolate cake and the pot pie to take home to Masan. I'll eat the rest of the carrot-raisin salad myself. In shame.