Please Explain "Crimp Decoratively"-7/23/09

Making a pie always reminds me how little time I have spent being taught how to cook. With no offense to my mother, she was never a person who enjoyed cooking. She did a lot of cooking but it was not something she enjoyed. I never remember her inviting me into the kitchen to cook with her or showing me how to make something. She helped me when I asked her but I think watching me cook made her nervous. She still leaves the kitchen when I cook at home.

I also belong to perhaps the first generation of American girls that did not have to take home economics, a high school class that centered around cooking and sewing. It was, in fact, discouraged for those of us in college prep classes so I never took home ec.

My only real training was when I was involved in 4H when I was a kid and I took a cooking class once a week at Mrs. Coulter's house. We made a volcano cake, a chocolate cake that looked like it was erupting, and lots of variations of chop suey. After Mrs. Coulter moved away, we took the class with Mrs. Putnam but I don't remember much about what we made. I remember laughing about the goofy farmhand that loved to come into the kitchen while we were there.

I would comfortably say that this lack of training is not unique among Americans. Oh, we may eat a lot but very few of us have had much training, either from a mentoring family member or from formalized classes. It's amazing to me how much time people spend cooking, probably for most even more than they do reading, but they've spent 100's of hours learning to read, and very few learning to cook.

Back to the pie... At the end of the recipe for tonight's dessert, Honey Caramel Peach Pie, the directions said to crimp decoratively. I tried but as you can see from the picture above, there was little decorative about it. I guess I'll have to settle for videos and directions on the Internet. The video on eHow is pretty good.
The pie, even with an ugly crimping, was excellent. My only complaint is that the honey made the sugar mixture look caramelized so it was hard to tell when caramelization had occurred. I'd never used milk and sugar on the top of the crust and it made a great glaze for the top.

Staying with the peach theme, for dinner I made the Pork Tenderloin with Tomato-Peach Compote on page 51. This was a very good variation of tenderloin. The garlic curry rub was easy and added a subtle flavor that played well with the sweet tomato-peach compote. This was an easy dish that looked good on the plate. Sadly, I couldn't get the picture to load correctly, I even had Richard try, so I apologize that it looks a bit strange. I put it at the bottom of the page so it was not the first thing you see when you read this post.
I've been trying to catch up with July's recipes so I made a Gourmet recipe for lunch too. I made one of the recipes from the 'Wake-up Call' menu, a huge brunch that would be ridiculous to make for a family of two and a half. So I started by making the Bacon, Egg, and Tomato Club Sandwiches on page 63. This was a jazzed up version of the BLT and I really liked it. The egg added that extra touch that made this sandwich more filling than a regular BLT. (I always get hungry within two hours of a BLT.)

Bacon, Egg, and Tomato Club Sandwiches-A-

Pork Tenderloin with Tomato-Peach Compote-A-

Honey Caramel Peach Pie-A-