I am thinking I should find out where John Boehner lives - I'm guessing it's some gated community in the deep suburbs - and go stand in front of his house with torches and pitchforks. You're with me, right, Teppy?

I feel like it's Butler County somewhere. Maybe West Chester? Possibly we could run him down at IKEA.

I think I would do a lattice on top of blueberry pie. Which I have never made, myself.

I'm not sure about this. Blueberry's an oozy, leaky mess with a full crust, IME. Apple is my favourite fruit pie. It's amazing what using different apples can do to the flavour and texture.

In truth, I am a cream pie person. Cocunut cream, lemon meringue, key lime. If only my M-f meringues didn't weep.

I spent the weekend with the family for T-giving. You know how some families band together in a crisis? Yeah, my family is not one of those. It was a minor plumbing crisis, but man, I wanted to punch people in the face a lot. I also had a headache most of the weekend, but the turkey was good.

Bah, all the CI fruit pie recipes other than apples (which I guess bring their own pectin) use highly starchy thickeners.

One CI recipe I read for blueberry grated an apple into some of the blueberries and pre-cooked them, b/c apples are high in pectin.

I like pumpkin pie a couple of times a year, but my pumpkin fix is my grandma's cookies.

My favorite pie is key lime, and a good sour cherry, but I too prefer an apple brown betty and a berry cobbler to their pie cousins.

Hee. In therapy today I was talking about taking off grumpy, and talked about watching awful movies or reading awful books on purpose, and he goes off on a "but is the book actually AWFUL or is it your mood?" and I was like, "Um, I see where you're going, but if I'm labeling a book as "awful," I'm really confident that it's damn bad. Depression doesn't fuck up my book-dar" and he was all, "Er, yeah, I forgot. That's a bad analogy for you."

I also referred him to Allie Brosh, though he was hip to the spoons story.

Theo, I feel you on losing a doc; I haven't been with my therapist long (though I quite like him) but I was distraught when my gyn retired. She was awesome, and saw me through some big stuff.

I am thinking I should find out where John Boehner lives - I'm guessing it's some gated community in the deep suburbs - and go stand in front of his house with torches and pitchforks. You're with me, right, Teppy?

ROADTRIP!

all the CI fruit pie recipes other than apples (which I guess bring their own pectin) use highly starchy thickeners.

Is tapioca really starchy? That's what I've used for my peach pie, based on CI (The Best Recipe), and it's pretty successful. Doesn't change the flavor of the pie like flour or cornstarch does, and isn't too noticeable.

My favorite pie might be my maple-walnut pie, which is basically a pecan pie but with a maple-and-cream custard instead of the Karo-syrup base of a pecan pie. So. Good. But very rich.

Of course, I won't turn down pumpkin. My sister & I are seriously considering not hosting any holiday functions this year, which would be kind of nice. We could go to the ski club for Thanksgiving, and we're thinking of going to my brother's farm for Christmas. The down side is that I would have fewer reasons to bake, especially if I'm still unemployed at that point.

Speaking of which: c'mon, recruiter, call me back! Tell me I'm awesome for this position!

Zenkitty, not to add to your worries, but in the short term we will have bigger things to worry about than the stock market if this shit doesn't get handled.

Yeah, but those things I can't do anything about. My stock portfolio, at least, I can. Though I probably shouldn't.

I'm a strawberry-rhubarb fan. Or just plain rhubarb, even.

This is the pumpkin pie I made last Thanksgiving, and it instantly became my favorite. It's like halfway between a standard pumpkin pie and a pumpkin cheesecake, and it is DIVINE.

Can you share the maple walnut pie recipe, Consuela?

OK, here's another baking question: what can I make with a lot of apples that you can eat with your hands? This cake wouldn't work so well as a bring-to-the-office item.