Make pie? Are you kidding me woman? I have waaaaay too much to do!
OK, here's why you should make pie.
Firstly, there are very few desserts as satisfying and easy - yes, I mean it, easy (if you approach it right) as homemade fruit pie.
Secondly, making pie is a great family activity. I had the good fortune to grow up having a mother who showed me how to make pie. Only apple - I don't think she actually makes any other kind, come to think of it. And because my mother had learned from her mother, it felt like a big deal to be part of a tradition.
I actually found out only last year that, due to a lot of complicated reasons, my younger sister never got this time with my mother. It turns out that my sister didn't really get cooking lessons of any kind. By the time she would have been the right age, both hers and my mother's lives spun in entirely new directions and my mother stopped doing almost any cooking.
When I found this out, it had a big impact on me. And, when my sister came to visit last year, we decided to have a pie baking day. I tried to remember everything that was special about my grandmother's pie and also to share all the little tips and tricks I've picked up along the way. My sister and I don't get much time together (she lives several states away) and this is a visit I will always especially cherish.
I also lost one of my best friends to breast cancer in 2007. She left behind three young children. One of her big regrets as she was facing the end was how much there still was to teach them. She felt especially guilty for having worked so many long hours to get ahead in her career, and also provide them with material things, but not having spent as much time doing things with them like baking.
And I also think of all the times I have "bought my kids a memory".
Let me explain what I mean by that - once, when we were traveling from Connecticut to Long Island, we spent the extra money to take the ferry. It was the first time our kids ever saw the ocean. Well, it wasn't very exciting - kind of gray and cloudy and rough. And it was, for us, expensive. And my husband asked me, "Are we paying this money just to buy the kids a memory?" And the answer, of course, was yes.
So my first question to you is this: "How often do you "buy your kids a memory?"
And my second question is: Who do you want teaching your kids to make pie - you or Martha Stewart?"
Honestly, I just as soon leave her out of it.
And, even if you fail dismally and your pie is awful, you will have spent quality time with your kids, taught them something about success and failure and grace (cause you'll eat it anyway) and have spent approximately ten dollars in the process.
And the worse the pie is, the funnier the stories will be that get handed down to future generations.
So go make pie! And, if you need help, follow my tips here.
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