Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Three Things I Don't Understand

What does "huzzah" mean? Who says this? How is it pronounced? Is it an exclamation/expletive?

What does "OOAK" in eBay listings mean?

Why was my pie a goopy mess?

I baked a Country Cream Pie from "Diana Rattray, Your Guide to Southern U.S. Cooking" on the 'net, followed the directions and I have a tasty goopy mess. I know how to cook so I don't know if it was the pie dish I used (French pottery), the substitution of whipping cream for half and half, the addition of 1/2 c. lowfat milk and 1/2 eggnog (didn't buy enough whipping cream) or the fact that the durn pie sounded like a chess pie with fancier ingredients and really really needed eggs.

3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons of flour
3 cups half and half
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

Mix sugar and flour well, get rid of lumps. Add liquids, pour into unbaked pieshell. Cook for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Let the pie rest to room temperature.
Serve with spoon.
I added cinnamon and fresh ground nutmeg since the flavoring didn't sound snappy enough for my taste.
Some things are a mystery to me....
Sticky,
St. Casserole

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the pie and the funny O word, no ideas.

Huzzah is like "Hurrah!" Emphasis on 2nd syllable, prounounced to rhyme with "her bra."

V. Shakespearean.

If you want to hear a creepy computer-voice guy say it, go to
http://www.bartleby.com/61/76/H0337600.html and click on the little megaphone thingie.

:) English degrees have to be good for something.

reverendmother said...

Maybe you are supposed to stick to casseroles. ;-)

Seriously, I'm no help. Mary Beth beat me to "huzzah." When I did Magrigal dinners in college we said it a lot.

I can, however, report that "zounds!" is in the same universe as "huzzah" and means "God's wounds", and thus does not rhyme with "hounds" as is commonly believed.

Unknown said...

Which is really a shame, since I have always heard it in my mind the other way. I don't like change.

mibi52/ The Rev. Dr. Mary Brennan Thorpe said...

The others beat me to "huzzah!" Let me add, though, that this exclamation is used frequently when you go to Williamsburg, particularly in the taverns.

Vis-a-vis the pie, my experience with French pottery pie dishes is that things take longer to cook, since the heat takes longer to go through the pie plate (think how much more heat-conductive a metal or pyrex pie pan is going to be). Discovered this the hard way when I made some chocolate lava cakes in French pottery custard cups. Had I left them in the oven maybe ten to fifteen minutes more, I wouldn't have gotten chocolate soup. The French-Canadians have a very similar pie to your recipe made with maple syrup; also no eggs, so I don't think that's the problem.

Rev. Mike said...

I got beat to the punch on "huzzah," and I don't know nuthin' 'bout no pie baking. However, OOAK = "one of a kind."

Theresa Coleman said...

I've always wondered if "huzzah" is related to "Hubba hubba."

French pottery (and Pfaltzgraff too) -- goes into cold oven, bake 20 minutes longer, in my experience. I've had a piece break when I put it in a hot oven and it heat up too fast.

Word verification -- efamily. Hmmmm.....

Anonymous said...

what does it mean by half and half?