Helen's Cherry Pie- Constructed, Deconstructed and Reconstructed -- Pie 101

"Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?  Can she bake a cherry pie, charming Billy?"

She's a young thing and cannot leave her mother....  is poor Billy's lament.  She can, however, bake a cherry pie quick as a cat can blink an eye!  (Click on above link to hear the song; guitar chords included.)


 I was just minding my own business.  I had stuck the hot cherry pie on a rack on an empty shelf in a kitchen cupboard.  A good place to cool pie if you have two golden retrievers. (I made four different pies for Thanksgiving; everyone deserves their favorite once a year.  I'm convinced.  Cherry is my sister Helen's favorite.   Hence "Helen's Cherry Pie."  Also my loved "niece," Kathy's.)

Tucker up front in the kitchen, Gabby retreating into the dining room.

Thanksgiving, 2012

                     "It's not what's on the table that's important.  It's who's in the chairs."

                       
This post includes:

• Guide to cooking and baking hotlines
• Links to great Thanksgiving sites for tips, food, decoration, kids' activities
• My own favorite Thanksgiving photos, recipes, music, wine, and even a blessing or two  ... 

Enjoy!

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  I can't preach about giving thanks.  I'll just say I think it's healthy.  It's lovely in that it's a discipline folks of any religion or country can take part.  But of course, our fair "Rabbie" had it best:

Some Hae Meat

 Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

~Robert Burns

 Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  You could have guessed.
My worlds all come together on that day.
Giving thanks-- being grateful--is a practice or discipline of many religions and cultures, including mine.
I need it.  I need that discipline. And:
Creating a meal to honor that...is my idea of a great day!
I wish you a day of totally beautiful, grateful life.


A grace could be very simply giving thanks for the hands that made the meal, for the workers in the stores, on the trucks, in the gardens and  the vineyards.  Even a toast to all who made it possible would work.  Mark the moment.

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.  
                                                    ~W.J. Cameron
.                          
Awareness.   Awakeness. Appreciation.  Peaceful breath.
A table that includes something you love.
Someone you love.

Some of the best new scripture these days is found on paper napkins.
I have some that say, "It's not what's on the table that's important.  It's who's in the chairs."
Ah, that we have to print that somewhere.

Deep breaths and a sense of warm wonder to you as you prepare to give thanks this year.


          If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. 

                                                                                                              ~Meister Eckhart
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Before the fun begins,  thanks for reading and responding:

           Bloggers Without Borders Post on Helping Victims of Sandy 

 

38 Power Foods, Week 19 -- Kiwi -- Quick Individual Kiwi Tarts with Gingersnap Crust

An ultra thin ginger snap smothered with hot pastry cream serves as the "crust."

How the Quick Kiwi Tart with Gingersnap Crust came to be...

While I love to bake a pie as much as the next woman (more than most, I'd guess), I also like nearly instant desserts that are luscious and don't wear out the soles of your trainers.  (Like after you've cooked for company all day and still need dessert.)  I have a pocketful of favorites like a 30-second pumpkin custard (it'll be in my soup book) and a blink-done  individual chocolate flourless "cake." I also have no-bake favorites like a strawberry ice cream parfait layered with crumbled ginger shortbread and fresh peaches. In cases of real emergencies, I buy ice cream and cones--and not just for the kids.

Pie 101 - Alyce's Step by Step Instructions for Making and Baking Pie (Rhubarb is the Sample Lesson Pie)

R for Rhubarb

This post now featured on Rachel Rappaport's PIE FAIR LADY blog!  

Thanks, Rachel.  Bake pie! 

I don't know why you want to make pie and searched for Pie 101.  Me-oh-my.  You love pie? (I adore the movie "Michael")  Someone you love loves pie, maybe?  You want to make beautiful things and don't paint--right.  You want to bring pie to Thanksgiving dinner:  "Oh, I'll bring the pie," would be fun to say. You'd like to celebrate Pi Day in a more meaningful way.    Making pie, or wanting to make or eat pie, is sort of a passion.  It's not anything like, "I think I'll scramble eggs and make toast because I'm hungry."  Or even "Let's make a pot of vegetable soup; it's cold outside and sounds good."   I mean, no one really needs pie.  People, do, however, desire (is not too strong a word) pie and are sort of sometimes heart-starved and/or breathless for it.  Think of the look on your uncle's (aunt, cousin, boyfriend, co-worker, super) when words like, "coconut cream" or "strawberry-rhubarb" cross their lips.  Or the rush through a potluck meal if a pie sits alone, waiting, down at the end of the counter in the kitchen.    Is it fond memories of  your aunt's pumpkin from Thanksgiving of 1967 or your best friend's apple (from her own tree) in 2009?  Is it the crappy diner crust on a short, slim piece of pecan late one night after a restaurant shift when you had to have something sweet and that's all there was?

If, by chance you're looking for gluten-free pie dough, please just go to Gluten-Free Girl...a great blog; here's one post on pie dough there.

I'm just guessing that usually there's a lot of love goes into pie.  Making it is not an endeavor one embarks on lightly.  Like weeding the flower bed out back or picking up a gallon of milk at the store.  It's kind of a devoted, warm-fuzzy, all around commitment.  Bake with a band on sort of thing.  (Being both a cook and musician gives me license for such sentences.)

Whatever reason brings  you to pie, I hope this little (not really so little) tutorial will be of help.  It contains the story of my own pie-making, a photo-essay on making the rhubarb pie (including crust), and the recipes/basic info you'll need to make it all happen.  FYI:  This long pie post is truly a work in progress.

No fear.  Pie is near.