I LOVE PIE!! Pie has always, and probably always will be, my downfall. In fact I don’t know that I have ever met a pie that I didn’t like. There are some that I don’t love, but I like them all.
It’s something about the tender, flaky, crust. Crispy with a sugar-coating if done right, especially on a cobbler. The filling whether it be custard or fruit, savory or sweet, whip topped or meringue, or the double crust or lattice top. There is just something about pie.
I like what the we always called “fried pies”, in Latin food it’s empanadas. My mama would make peach fry pies and cherry also. I loved them! I loved the Latin version also, ground meat filling and potato.
I am crust inhibited. I cannot make a good pie crust. Matthew says it’s because my hands are always too warm. If I could handle the dough with my feet it would be perfect, however, that’s really gross. You would know how gross that is to me if you knew my aversion to feet. Anyway, I can’t make a crust, can’t make the pretty little crimped ribbon around the top, and forget asking me to roll out dough. Good grief, I’m a mess with it. My mama really tried, I mean she really tried. She made the most beautiful pies and she would use a little tool to make pretty little pictures on top for vent holes. She also would do pictures on top with extra dough. Leaves and pretty fruits.
Mama made savory pies. She made this one with steak and onions and later I improved on it after watching a Julia Child’s episode. I begged mama to buy some red wine and we added that and some sliced mushrooms to the filling. I was only 12 or 13. It was so good and is still one of my favorite memories. I loved to cook and watched cooking shows all the time. Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, Jeff Smith, Graham Kerr, Martin Yann. I loved to try out what they did. Mama would allow me to cook dinner and I even felt inspired to make up my own dishes. That is for another post on another day. I learned to cook by watching them all on PBS.
So I don’t make crusts or strip dumplings, my biscuits are a failure, and until recently so were my yeast breads, but I can finally do that with a bit of success. I buy pie crusts. I’m really picky about the brand though. I will only buy Marie Callender’s. They are the absolute best.
Recently on a cool evening when I was battling a cold, I asked Bean to run to the store and get a pot pie for me. She brought home Marie Callender’s turkey pot pies for us all. You pop them in the microwave and in 12 minutes you have a crispy, flaky, crust and hot filling that is superbly seasoned. 6 of that is cooking and the other 6 is waiting for it to even out in temperature. While we were enjoying them, I told her how much I wanted the company to make her fruit pies into little individual pies. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful”, I said. “Think about how we could each have our favorite kind of little pie”.
Well lo and behold, this morning on the tube, a commercial came on for little individual Marie Callender fruit pies. When we got to the grocery store, I looked by the regular section of frozen pies and there were none, suddenly the brilliant bulb went off over my head, I turned around and there they were. Snuggled right in with the pot pies, a little section of their own. They had apple, peach, and cherry berry. They were out of Razzleberry 
, it’s my favorite. As soon as we got home, I put in a peach and Berry and I shared it. Oh my goodness!! 6 minutes cooking, 6 minutes waiting, 6 minutes to polish the thing off. It may have taken a little longer, but not much. It was so good. The crust is perfect, the filling could have had a few more peaches, but I’m not complaining. The crust even had a sugar/cinnamon top on it. This will definitely have to be a sometimes food. Otherwise my butt might grow and never stop!
I really wish I could write a poem about it. Ode to Pie. Remember in My Girl, she writes an ode to ice cream? I will have to think about that one and get back to you.
