Before I tell about today’s pie, I wanted to relay some information from my friend, Julia, who is a Presbyterian. She said that she asked her mom about yesterday’s Presbyterian Pie, and her mom said that it used to be that the Baptists never wanted to put any bourbon or rum in their desserts, but the Presbyterians had no problem with it. Now, I believe this. Like I said, I grew up Baptist. BUT, I know that my Mom put liquor in all kinds of sweets. That’s why they tasted so good. I remember waiting in the car for her to go in and get the yummy liqueur that she put in her cakes–it really did help them to be even more moist and flavorful. Plus, raise your hand if you’ve enjoyed rum cake, bourbon balls, or fruitcake that was made fabulous by liquor. The interesting thing was that Steve’s Presbyterian Pie didn’t have any in it. Oh well, next time!

Anyhoo, my family loves raspberries. Last time I went to the store, I bought two 6 oz. containers of fresh ones. I don’t know what I was thinking, because that’s nowhere NEAR enough to fill up a pie. But those 12 ounces cost $7.00, and man, I am cheap, so that’s probably why I wasn’t thinking straight.

This morning, when I got those raspberries out of the fridge, I knew I was going to have to be creative. At first I considered small pies (pot pie-sized), but then I remembered how much I like to see a slice of pie. I figured it was just be a heap of gooey red stuff. So, I checked to see what else I had handy that I could toss in there. Here’s what I had:So I peeled them , chopped them up, and dumped them in that pie. I added a bit more sugar and flour. I use a chart in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook that helps determine how much sugar and flour to add to different fruits. I admit that this time I was sorta guess-timating. I know, I know….sloppy baking. I hope it turns out.

All right: Reader’s Poll. Who likes pears? And if you do, do you like them hard or soft? My husband and I are divided on this issue. I like a pear to be crunchy like a crisp apple. He, on the other hand, likes to slide it along his teeth and let the juice go everywhere. I know this means the pear is ripe, but to me, it’s just plain mushy. Thoughts?

These pears were in-between crunchy and mushy, which was good for slicing them up. Here’s the pie before it went into the oven.  I brushed it with some butter and added a little flower decoration.I think the crimping looks pretty decent–only a few lumpy spots.

The baked version looked OK–one tiny bit of raspberry snuck out near the edge. No big deal.Nothing a little vanilla ice cream can’t cure.

I’m hoping my husband and I will be tasting this pie after lunch today. Gotta let it cool for a couple of hours.

Interesting information: When searching online poetry resources such as whatryhmeswith.com , I learned that even though some words rhyme with part of raspberry, only one is a true rhyme. Asbury. Look that one up. You won’t believe it–it’s super METHODIST. Good grief. Who knew that raspberries were Methodist?

I learned something else about raspberries today. Did you know there was a band in the 70’s called the Raspberries? I’m kind of embarrassed that I haven’t heard of them, being born in 1971 and all. In case you haven’t either, here’s a link to a song by them.

OK, so today’s pie song has been sung. My countdown app says I have 23 days to go until I turn 40. This is getting to be really interesting. I might just have to put off my birthday for a while…hmmmm…

Today, I was interested in making a one-crust pie, because I had enough homemade dough in the fridge for just one crust. I had some pecans, too, and I like to use those when they’re fresh, so I decided on a pecan pie. I found this recipe in a church cookbook:Now, I must admit, I am very curious about what makes this a Presbyterian Pecan Pie. The sweetness, the simplicity? Any Presbyterians out there, help me out! I’m a Methodist now, and I grew up Baptist, so I wish I had some of those pies to compare this one to. 🙂

Now, here’s what you line the crust with–pecans and chocolate chips. I know the chocolate chips weren’t in the recipe, but doesn’t chocolate make everything taste better? Woops, probably just made the pie Methodist. Sorry, Steve! I’ll tell you what, it smelled practically Pentecostal when it was baking…Hallelujah!

Anyway, you poor the mixed filling over the nuts and chips. I have to say, adding those chips cost me a tiny bit of filling, I think. That crust was FULL! So full, in fact, that I chose to bake it on a pizza pan–those give away pie pans tend to “give way” anyway.

It baked for close to an hour. I was grateful for this; someone in my house burned popcorn last night, and I was glad for the sweet smell of pie again. Here’s the finished product, all toasty brown and yummy-looking. Won’t get to taste this one, though. It’s going to some fine people I know from our church. Diane works in the church nursery and volunteers in the office. Lowery has been on the finance team and the trustees and a bunch of other stuff that deserves thanking. Their daughter, Lauren, has helped out a ton at the church, too. Besides, they’re just good people. I know one day they’ll probably have jewels in their crowns, but since I’m not in charge of that, I’ll send pie! Thanks, fine family, for all that you do. Your service does not go unnoticed! Hope you enjoy the pie–whatever denomination it is…

Here’s a great image drawn by my favorite American artist, Mary Engelbreit. I’ve got a little collection of her artwork, magazines, and other cute stuff. I love the everyday “regularness” of her work. The people look like people we might know–doing things we might do. To me, she is sort of a modern-day female Norman Rockwell. Besides, I love her colorful patterns and the meaningful sayings that she finds to accompany her artwork. This one really rings true. Sure, they’re eating pie, but it’s clear that it doesn’t matter at all what’s on the plates. There’s nothing like spending time with the ones we love.

I got to do just that today with my son, Max. Indeed, he was “on the chair,” because otherwise he’s too short to help me bake anything.Today’s pie was a repeat performance–a Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie. Max requested this one just for him, and actually, he didn’t know that I’d already made one. One cool thing about this photo is that you can see our new mixer. It’s a Black & Decker, and it came with a case and everything! It works great, and those beaters came out right when we asked them to. Max had fun mixing up all that peanut butter, cream cheese, sugar and whipped cream. He also had fun licking the spatula when we were done.

I think his favorite job, though, was unwrapping all those peanut butter cups. He practiced amazing restraint by not eating a single one and saving them all for the pie. We chopped them up and put some between the layers of filling and the rest on top.

It didn’t take us too long to make the pie, but we both enjoyed it, and we’re looking forward to having a big slice after supper.

I’m kind of a freak in the kitchen. It’s hard for me to share the space, because I’m a control freak. I admit it. My family is fully aware of this fact. But I was glad to share today. Maybe Max will be able to remember us baking together when he grows up. Hope so.

I remember my Mom being in the kitchen A LOT growing up at 1818 Leslie Lane, and it was a small kitchen for anyone feeding seven people on a daily basis. My favorite thing in that kitchen was the wooden table and benches that my Dad made. It fit all seven of us somehow, and it was really sturdy. Dad made that table when he quit smoking so that he would have something else to do with his hands. I remember being almost small enough to walk under it when he was building it.He never though much of it (Sadly, Dad never realized what a great craftsman and artist he really was–but we all knew), but my Mom loved it, and she insisted on having it in her new house when they moved some years ago. It’s there today, and it serves as the kids table at holiday gatherings.

Because of the small kitchen, Mom prepared some stuff–especially cakes or stuff that took up lots of space–in the dining room. I have a vivid memory of watching her create candy bats out of some black melty candy substance. She would pipe it onto wax paper in the shape of bats. After it cooled/dried, it would peel off and look so cool. I don’t remember how old I was, but it must’ve been near Halloween. I’ll refrain from any “batty” comments here. 🙂

I also remember Mom making what seemed like hundreds of tiny sugar daisies on that dining room table to place on my wedding cake. Now, I have to tell a story here–if you came to our wedding, you’ll just have to forgive me. It has to be done. On the day of our wedding–best day ever, by the way–my Mom was working very hard to attach all of those beautiful daisies to my wedding cake. It was the hottest day of the year, but for some reason, the windows were open. I don’t know if there had been smoke from something or what, but they were open. Mom was carefully placing each daisy with a sharp knife when, suddenly, a swarm of gnats flew in. I’m not kidding. There was swatting and shooing and all manner of unpleasant words flying about. When the dust (and icing) settled, there were a few unfortunate gnats that had landed on the cake. Mom sighed and carefully began to extract them from the cake. My Dad, who was always a little more concerned about stuff like that, said in an exasperated voice, “You CAN’T serve that cake now!” Mom turned toward him–real slow-like, and with eyes that you would only recognize if you’d ever seen them from the choir loft when you were talking or playing in church, held up that knife to my Dad and said these two words, “WATCH ME.”

Man, she was sweaty and kinda scary–looking. So he let out one small huff and beat it out of there. Probably wise at that point. Turns out the cake was wonderful (They all were–Mom made all five of our wedding cakes), and the day was great, so as far as I know, nobody ate gnats. If you’re grossed out, sorry, but life is what it is, isn’t it?

I have another picture to share. I forgot to include the finished Chocolate Cherry Pie photo. I really liked how it turned out and I may have to make this one again so that I can have a taste.

By the way, did I mention how grateful I am to have a self-cleaning oven? I set it the other night (after lemon chess pie) and it takes four hours to clean, but when it’s done–amazing! It’s like that sticky blueberry stuff was never there! So when I cooked the next pie, no fire! Thank goodness. Don’t think for one minute that I take that oven for granted.

All righty, then. 25 days to go. Happy Sunday to all you pie-eaters out there.

Oh, where have you been,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Oh, where have you been,
Charming Billy?
I have been to seek a wife,
She’s the joy of my life,
She’s a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.Did she ask you to come in,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Did she ask you to come in,
Charming Billy?
Yes, she asked me to come in,
There’s a dimple in her chin.
She’s a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

Can she make a cherry pie,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she make a cherry pie,
Charming Billy?
She can make a cherry pie,
Quick as a cat can wink an eye,
She’s a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

How old is she,
Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
How old is she,
Charming Billy?
Three times six and four times seven,
Twenty-eight and eleven,
She’s a young thing
And cannot leave her mother.

 

Well then, I don’t really know how long it takes a cat to wink an eye, but Billy would probably have to wait a bit longer than that around here for his cherry pie. Besides, today’s pie is not for anyone named Billy. Sorry, Billy!

I decided to make two kinds of cherry pie today: traditional cherry with a lattice top crust and then a chocolate cherry pie–a new recipe I found on the web. When I searched for it, I was thinking fondly of chocolate covered cherries. My Dad loved those, and I do too. I remember my mom buying lots of boxes of those for our teachers at Christmas time. They were not expensive–maybe 85 cents a box–but boy, were they delicious.

Anyway, I made two batches(4 crusts worth) of homemade crust this morning in my food processor. Still seemed to work! I pre-baked one crust for the chocolate cherry pie, and I simply filled another for the cherry pie. The lattice top was something I’d never tried before, and it wasn’t too difficult at all.

I don’t own a pastry wheel, so I just made do with a pizza cutter. I did have to say out loud, “Over, under, over, under, over….” to make the weavy part work. It wasn’t perfect, but it looked pretty cool, I thought.

Now, the chocolate cherry pie is a chilled pie. I pre-baked the crust and let it cool. The filling is made of sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, a bit of salt, and cherry pie filling. All of that gets all melty in a saucepan, and then you just poor it into the pie shell. The recipe calls for 2-3 hours of cooling. Just enough time for a good Saturday afternoon nap… Before I lay down, though, I took the other cherry pie out of the oven. I love how this one looks! At the last minute, I brushed some butter on top and sprinkled on some sugar. I like the way this helped it to brown and to be a bit sparkly after it baked. 

Today’s pie recipients are the Turner family. I met these great people through the preschool where I worked. They’ve got five beautiful kids–4 boys and a girl. Being the youngest of five kids myself, I have a huge appreciation for large families–the love, the fun, the togetherness and…the WORK. Let me take this opportunity to say, “Thanks, Mom!” for all that you did to keep us all fed and clothed, doing homework, going to church, and just plain “actin’ right.”  It takes a lot of work to teach people to wash their hands, write thank-you notes, be quiet in quiet-type places, brush your teeth, say your prayers, keep your hands to yourself, say please and thank you, and for heaven’s sake, wear a slip if your dress is see-through! (Side note: some people did not learn this, I’m afraid, from their Mamas or anywhere else)

Anyway, the Turners are some fine folks, and I happen to know that at least one person over there likes cherry pie. The Dad of the family is getting home today from a camping trip with his boys that they call the “Be a Man” camping trip. Considering that most of the “men” involved were 6 years old or younger, I know one man that’ll be happy to eat supper, eat pie, and sleep in his own bed. And I know one mama that’ll be happy to have all her people under the same roof again.

So, thank you, wonderful Turner parents, for all that you do to raise your little ones right. May God bless your family richly in the days and years to come!

Today’s pie didn’t get started until 3:30 in the afternoon. This morning, the kids and I went with some friends to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. If you live around here, you really should go. Beautiful flowers, plants, and trees–and in October, scarecrows! We had a good time and the weather was only slightly warm–a perfect fall day in Georgia.

I chose lemon chess pie because everyone in our house–especially my husband–loves lemon. It also didn’t hurt that it was a very quick recipe–45 minutes from start to finish, including cook time.

I found the recipe in the cookbook from my church growing up in Richmond, Virginia. It has several recipes of my mom’s and one of my Dad’s (that yummy Taco Pie) and lots of others from church ladies I knew growing up. This one was from a lady named Karen Williams. Thanks, Karen! This cookbook is special to me because I can read through it and recognize so many names of people who really did impact my life in a positive way. Marsha Perkins taught me to play piano. Mary Beth Askew and her husband taught my Sunday School class when I was very small. I specifically remember playing a game to a song in Mrs. Askew’s class… If you’re wearing a red dress, stand up! If you’re wearing a red dress, stand up! My mom doesn’t know it, but I wanted to wear a red dress every Sunday–just so I could stand up first. Charlotte Ganzert played the piano at our church for years–and she’s my sister’s mother-in-law. Robin Atkins works in the church office. Barbara Burruss worked in the church library. Sue Seay’s daughter, Cathy, and I were baptized on the same day. Sure, these people may have good recipes, but they also have good lives. The reason? They invested in others. Thank you, church ladies. You’ve helped to make me who I am today.

I used a quick crust because I had one, although I do intend to spend a morning in the near future making extra homemade crusts. I just really like how they hold up. The recipe has sugar, eggs, flour, salt, milk, and lemon juice. Now, the recipe called for “the juice of two lemons.” So I just put 1/4 cup of that kind you keep in the fridge. OK, OK, sue me. I don’t own a juicer and I don’t want to. Just too lazy to chop and squeeze or whatever. We’ll see–I’m sure fresh juice is better, but…whatever.

The pie came out just fine in exactly 40 minutes of baking. I left it on the rack for a couple of hours. Once again, it came out in a nice triangle. I don’t know why that matters so much to me, but it does. And…I thought it tasted really good. Especially with whipped cream. 

Sidebar:  there have been a couple of “situations” in my kitchen to take note of. The first one is this:See that burnt stuff on the bottom? I’m surprised you can’t smell it from wherever you are. Burned blueberries. Note to self: put fruit pies on a cookie sheet to avoid messy spillage. In the meantime, I’m cooking with the fans going and the front screen door open, because I don’t want the smoke to set off the fire alarm. Luckily, my lemon chess pie did not taste like fire.  Gotta figure out that self-cleaning feature on the oven.

The second situation is this: my hand mixer is tired. It’s 15 years old, and it doesn’t like to eject the beaters. It kinda makes a troubling rattly sound as it whirs in the bowl. So I think I’m gonna buy a new one very soon. I will keep you posted.

Tonight, I had to send a number of pleading text messages to my in-laws, who live up the hill from us. I had three–count ’em–THREE different pies that needed to be eaten. They were happy to help out. So glad to have helpful neighbors!

There are 27 days to go until I turn 40. Not even a whole month. Yee haw!

Well, the day has arrived. Today I made my first homemade pie crust. Today was the day for two reasons. #1: it was just time. #2: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, died yesterday. I must tell you how inspired I was to read about the accomplishments of this man. When I looked at my pile of ingredients and realized that I had been intimidated by them–just because it was something I hadn’t done before–I just felt silly. After learning about all the innovative and amazing things that Steve Jobs shared with the world, I offer myself (and you, if you want it) this advice:

Not doing something just because you think you’re not “the sort of person who does that thing” is dumb. Just do it. Sort yourself out and do whatever sort of thing you want to do.

So I did. And now, I am the sort of person who makes pie crusts from scratch.

I used Ina Garten’s (the Barefoot Contessa)  crust recipe. Now, Ina happens to be my favorite chef, and I watch her show every day. If I miss it, I’ve got it recorded on the DVR. The woman can cook, she makes a mess, and she always has fabulous friends to help her eat the delicious food. Besides that, she LOOKS like she actually eats the food. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a painfully skinny cook–it just makes me suspicious.

I’ve watched the woman make the crust tons of time on TV, and of course she makes it look easy. You know what? It wasn’t too bad. I used my food processor (a gift from my mom last year that I’ve only used one other time because I’m just plain lazy) and I was armed with printed step-by-step directions.

A couple of things were very specific. Use very cold butter and shortening and ice water. I did. I chopped up the butter, although my little cubes of butter were not as pretty as Ina’s because of my always-put-knives-in-the-dishwasher disorder. So, you just put the flour, sugar, and salt into the processor and pulse it a few times. Then you add the butter, shortening, and ice water. Then you pulse it a few times until it starts to make a ball–which it did! I dumped it onto a floured surface and rolled it out with my new rolling-pin. 

So now to the filling. Recently, a friend of mine’s son asked what kind of pie I’d made for a certain day. She replied with a certain flavor, to which he exclaimed, “Dangit! I want some blueberry pie!” She chastised him, but I laughed to myself. Sometimes, you just wanna say what you want. Happens to me all the time. So…I’m making blueberry pie, and I fully intend for that sweet kid to have a slice or two if he wants it. I used frozen blueberries, which The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook said was just fine. I added some sugar and a little bit of flour and dumped it all into the crust. 

I rolled out the top crust, which worked pretty well. The hardest part was getting the top crust “stuck” to the bottom one. Again, my crimping needs work. Truthfully, though, I’ve never really heard anyone gripe about crooked crust if the pie tastes good.

Lastly, before putting the pie in the oven–on the bottom rack this time, and with the crusts covered for the first 50 minutes–I marked it with a B. B is for blueberry–and it’s the first letter of the name of the sweet kid who wanted the pie in the first place. So here’s how it looked after it came out of the oven. And even better to behold–look at the slice! A real triangle! After I post this, I’m gonna taste that slice with some ice cream. I’ll let you know how the crust tastes. But I gotta say I’m really impressed with how it looks.

 

 

 

 

One last awesome thing about today–a dear friend of mine showed up with this note and a pie–for me! Awesome!

The pie was delicious–my son let me have a bite of his. It was a peanut butter chocolate pie.

That chocolate part in the center–that’s melted HERSHEY bar, y’all. It’s a refrigerated pie, and that chocolate hardens into a delicious contrast for the gooey peanut butter stuff. Yum.

The best thing of all about this thank you pie? It was my friend’s first pie EVER. She’d never made any pie at all before. You’d never know it though, because that pie was delicious. But now, she’s the sort of person who makes delicious pies. Who knew?

Today, I had to make a savory pie. The thing about having sweet pies around all the time is this: you eat them. So I thought I’d make an Italian Sausage Pie for our late lunch. We all slept late, which was heavenly, and ate a late breakfast. So it was fine that we didn’t end up eating this pie until about 2:30.

I cut up some sausage links I had in the fridge. They weren’t technically Italian sausage, but I used sauce that had an Italian sausage flavor, so it didn’t really matter. Into a deep pie dish I put the following: sauce, whole wheat penne pasta (cooked), browned sausage pieces, and mozzarella cheese. On top, I put Bisquick batter mixed with garlic salt and more mozzarella cheese. I baked it all in the oven at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes. You really do have to keep testing it until a knife comes out clean, or else the topping will be doughy.

It got toasty brown, and it smelled really good baking. Three of us ate it for lunch, and everyone liked it. Turns out, you can put Bisquick on top of pretty much anything, and it’ll taste good. If I changed anything, I might’ve made the topping more garlicky and less thick. I’ll bet that adding more milk would thin it out just right.

Tomorrow, it’s back to sweet pies, so stay tuned.

Yep. That’s what I named it. As in, “Whoopsy! It’s 9:00 and I forgot that I haven’t baked a pie today!” We drove eleven and a half hours home from Virginia today. Don’t ask me why a nine and a half hour trip took eleven and a half–it just did. So my pie making time–and energy–was cut short. So here’s how I made today’s pie:First of all, I pre-baked my crust on a lower rack than I’ve been using. My mom said this weekend that she always uses the lower rack–makes for a crisper crust–so we’ll see how that goes for a few pies. After it baked for 10 minutes, I took a hot bath while it cooled on a rack. It was good to wash off that road trip.

Then, I mixed the following with a hand mixer:

4 oz. cream cheese (should have been room temperature, but wasn’t–WOOPSY)

1 box of vanilla instant pudding mix

1 1/2 cups of milk

I beat it for “a while” on high-speed to try to get those little lumps out–I’m tellin’ ya, cream cheese just has to be room temperature, but it did ok, I guess. Then, I dumped the filling into the pie shell. Lastly, I added Nilla Wafers to the edge and then crumbled a bunch on top. Could not have been any easier. The whole process (minus the time for the hot bath) was about 20 minutes.

Here’s the finished pie. I put it in the fridge and am looking forward to trying it tomorrow. That glass of wine in the background is optional. If you choose to drink and bake, just make sure you don’t get yourself into too many WOOPSY situations…

Lastly, I want to share a picture from our weekend. Here’s our family headed  UP the hill of a roller coaster. Notice everyone’s faces…

There’s no doubt we’re having fun. I have to admit that my son’s face (the small brown one) sums it all up for me–30 days ’til I turn 40, and even though my eyes are squeezed shut with anticipation, I can’t wait to throw up my hands and yell all the way down the hill!

Today, my Mom showed me how to make Ed Deale’s Chocolate Silk Pie, which is a Reid family favorite. Mom used to work with Ed Deale, and I didn’t know him, but we’re all grateful for his pie recipe. Of course, Mom already had all the stuff on hand, and it only took about 10 minutes to prepare the pie (would’ve been quicker without me, I’m sure!) and 30 minutes to bake. The recipe makes 2 single-crust pies, and Mom said even though she’d tried to fit it into one shell, it just didn’t work that way.

Mom showed me how she prepares pie crust. Her crimping was rhythmic and even–the woman’s made hundreds of pies–and my crimping….well…wasn’t. Anyway, we got the two crusts ready and started working on the filling. I like this part, because everything goes into ONE container–a blender. After a week of making pies, I have used up a serious amount of bowls and dishes, so one blender is a good thing.  We dumped everything in (see recipe below) and Mom blended it for just a few seconds–couldn’t have even been a minute. The she did something smart. She poured the filling into the crusts which were already in the oven. If you could see how liquidy the filling is, you’d understand why. Then the pies baked for 30 minutes exactly.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the recipe for Ed Deale’s Silk Pie:

7 tablespoons of cocoa

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups evaporated milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 stick of butter or margarine, melted

 

Blend all ingredients together in blender and pour into 2 (it MUST be 2) pie shells (not deep dish).

Cook EXACTLY 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove while filling is still shaky. Cool. Enjoy!

Here’s a shot of the finished pies. We’re taking one to my brother, Butch, and his family this evening. Then we’re all heading to the Virginia state fair. It’ll be a chilly fall night, and  I’m looking forward to funnel cake and the pig races, and this year…I’d like to see who took first place on the pies!

This weekend, we’re visiting with my Mom in Crewe, VA. It takes about 10 hours to get here. On the way, we stopped to visit some great friends, so we got in around supper time last night. My mom fixed us a supper of Brunswick stew and graciously helped me whip up a pie. I was really tired, but she had stuff around–in the pantry–so we just made this one: an apple pie with a crumbly crust. She had frozen pie crusts (first time I’ve used those), and in order to have a top crust, the package claims that you can simply turn a second crust over on top of the filling and, after it thaws a bit, crimp it and bake it. Wellll…..not exactly. But thanks to desperation and Mom’s ability to turn nothing into something, we just crumpled the crust up with cinnamon and butter. Turned out pretty good. I didn’t taste it ’til after breakfast this morning, so it was cold. It held together well, but I drew the definite conclusion that I like warm pie much better if it’s a fruit pie. One really good thing about last night was getting to enjoy my first fire of the fall. Fall just kind of snuck up on us, and the fire felt really good while we waited for the pie to bake.

Today, we went to King’s Dominion, an amusement park in Doswell, VA. I knew how tired we’d be (MAN, am I tired) after we got back, so I decided to make a breakfast pie this morning–that way my pie committment would be fulfilled early. Once again, Mom came to the rescue with eggs, sausage, cheese, and another frozen crust. We made a sausage pie. It turned out all right–my husband really liked it. I wasn’t thrilled with the texture–a little too custardy for me. The reason was that the recipe called for a WHOLE PINT of half and half. It was so liquidy going into the oven that we had to put it on a baking sheet, and I really had my doubts about whether it would ever get solid, but it did.

Tomorrow, Mom’s going to share one of her pie recipes with me–one that all the grandkids ask for. You’ll have to wait and see what kind of pie…I’m glad I could count on her pantry to rescue me from pie making emergencies!

So we had a good time at King’s Dominion, even though it was cold and rainy. We’re all looking forward to a good night’s rest and some sleeping in tomorrow.

32 days ’til 40. Time flies when you’re having fun!