2014 May Suck as Much as 2013

Several of my friends were lamenting the many indignities they suffered during 2013. I hadn't thought about it much one way or another, which may explain why I got hit upside the head at the end of the year. 

My car's fuel pump died two days before Christmas, in case you're wondering why your gifts were from Walgreen's. After forking out a buttload of dough for a new this and a new that, the check engine light came again four days later. What a bitch.  

Then that other bitch, Mother Nature, decided to pile on by taking a huge chunk out of a water pipe, only moments after New Year's. That was a particularly egregious moment, when I'd gone to such lengths to let my faucets drip, open up all the cabinets, and wrap the toilet tank in a heating pad. However, since a burst pipe five years ago cost me everything in my basement, including the furnace and hot water heater, I knew where the water shut off to the house was and turned it off within minutes. I probably shoulda just turned the water off at night, when the windchill was dipping into negative double digits. But there's something about flushing a toilet that doesn't fill back up.  

On the good side, last week, I discovered Hoosier Mama -- a PIE COMPANY. What's not to love and why didn't I think of it first? And they don't just serve the pies you eat for dessert. They have the pies you can eat for dinner -- Beef Guinness Stout, Curried Vegetable, Pork Apple Sage, and Chicken Pot Pie to name the ones that a bunch of us ordered and shared for a birthday lunch. 

[Above] Pork apple sage pie on the left and the Beef Guinness Stout next to it. Hmmm, these aren't as beautiful to look at as they tasted. But I didn't have a food stylist.  

[Above] The Chicken Pot Pie -- like all of them, full of flavor. 

However, I would like to have more gravy, sauce, anything wet, 

to make eating the crust way more fun. 

This is the curried vegetable pie [above]. Veggies never tasted so good. 

With a great crust I might add. The crusts were all different by the way.

 This was the orange cream pie [above]. There was also a passion 
fruit meringue part of which you can see in the back there.

 This is the pie [above] that shall remain nameless until I take some time to look it up. 

I'd never heard of it before and it tasted just fine, thank you.

The only problem I had with this delicious apple pie [above, with the chocolate cream pie in the background and that pie which continues to be a mystery because I'd never heard of it before] is that they didn't have a slice of cheddar cheese for me to have melted all gooey on top, the way I like to eat my pie and a lot of other things for breakfast. Yes, breakfast.

Here's their cookbook, right out in plain sight, in case you want 

to open up your own Hoosier Mama.

But those pies weren't the best part of our gathering -- nosiree!!! I finally found out what a HOOSIER is, besides all these lame definitions -- all written by men, by the way, who probably had no idea that the women had something else in mind.

Because a HOOSIER, no matter what you've heard, is this thing:

The four cupboards on top are for containers of flour, sugar, and other staples. The metal counter pulls out so you can knead dough. And the large drawer on the bottom right is for keeping bread fresh. 

Here's a close up of the metal counter that pulls out for kneading dough. Or rolling out cookies I would imagine. The Hoosier itself can be wood or metal. This one was painted wood. 

So, to sum up this riveting entry, the last thing that happened in 2013 to me and the first thing that happened in 2014 both sucked. Totally. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that 2014 can only get better. 

Meanwhile, nothing like a nice piece of pie to smooth over the rough edges.