Have some pie with your philosophy

Have some pie with your philosophy

I made this peach pie today.

Actually, I made two.  My mom gave me the peaches, so I made one for us and one for her.
And to be a "true blogger" I actually took a picture of it and will post the recipe below. So those of you who want to skip the "philosophy" part of this post and just get to the recipe, be my guest, but I do love to "yak" and so for you stalwart readers who can make it through my long blog posts, here's a bit of pie-making history and philosophy:

 

If you've read my blog (or even the "about" section on the front page) you know that I really do not like to cook, so why did I make a pie today? Well, maybe it's so I could post a picture of it and a recipe and prove that I really can cook.  (Although, since I think I have all of two readers, one of whom is my mother, I don't think that was really a reason.)  I didn't HAVE to make a pie, but I did anyway.  And as I was rolling out the crust, I realized that therein was the answer, I was cooking because I WANTED to!  I once read a book entitled, The Truth About Stress.  The author's premise was that ALL stress is caused when human agency is violated.  When one feels compelled or forced to do something-a job, an assignment, or even cooking-stress results.  Now I don't know if this is entirely true, but here I was cooking, something that I have determined I do NOT like to do, and I was enjoying it! However, I was not making the pie under pressure (no time limit involved), I was not making it to take to a sick neighbor (OK I know that makes me sound like a horrible person, but when making food for others, there is always some stress involved-worrying about how said food will turn out/taste), and I was not making it as part of an obligatory "meal."  (Being a mom for 22 years and trying to think what to make and then make it for 7 other people, 3x a day, is exhausting.)  While I peeled peaches, I thought about learning to make pies, and that was a fun memory.  (When I was 15, my second cousin, DeAnn, came to live with us for a summer, and my mom wanted to keep us busy and productive. Among other things, she had us go down to Bonnie Bowler's once a week for a "pie-making" lesson.  We made a different pie from scratch every week.  I learned how to make a perfectly light and flaky crust, make scrumptious lemon meringue filling from scratch, and how to make a banana cream pie with home-made pudding (rather than from-the-box) filling.  It was a fun and delicious way to spend the summer.  Peach pie was one of my favorites that we made, and each fall when the peaches "come to town," I get the urge to make a pie or two.  So even though I seldom make pies from scratch anymore-usually we just buy our pies from Tiffany's-I still count "pie-making" as one of my skills and something that I now realize is enjoyable to me when I am not being "compelled."

 So without further ado, the recipe:

 

Pie Crust:  Bonnie Bowler-Makes 2-3 crusts (I usually just roll out the extra dough on a cookie sheet, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar and bake at 400 for 15 minutes.  Then I cut it into strips using a pizza cutter and my kids enjoy "pie dough cookies."  Sometime I think they enjoy these more than the actual pie.)

 

3 cups flour (exactly-measure carefully)

1 tsp salt 

1 1/4 cups shortening (For the flakiest crust-use Crisco-and no that 's not a paid advertisement :)

1 egg, well beaten

1 tablespoon vinegar (white)

4 tablespoons water

 

Sift flour into bowl with salt.  Add shortening.  Using a pastry blender (or two knives) "cut" shortening into flour until the mixture is coarse crumbs.  In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.  Add wet ingredients to flour mixture.  Hand mix until crust molds together.  (Don't handle too much, just kind of "push" the dough together. The less the crust is handled, the flakier it will be.) Roll out between two pieces of Saran Wrap.  (Pull the top piece off and pick up bottom piece and use it to "carry" crust to pan.  Flip crust into pan.)  Add filling (for peach pie) and top crust and cook according to peach pie directions below.  (For plain crust-to be used in lemon or banana cream pies- cut slits in bottom of crust and cook at 375 for 15-20 minutes-just watch it so it doesn't get too brown.) 

 

Peach Pie:  Bonnie Bowler (Actually works with any fresh fruit, but peach is our family's favorite.)

 

1 egg

2 tablespoons flour

2/3-1 cup sugar

1/3 cup melted butter

fresh fruit (peaches) peeled and sliced-enough to fill pastry

 

Mix first four ingredients together and then stir in fruit.  Put into pastry and add top pastry.  Cut slits in top of pastry and "pinch off" sides of pastry.  Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and the 350 for 30-40 minutes.  (Watch it so it doesn't get to brown.)

 

*Wow I blogged two days in a row!  And this post has a recipe-that's got to be some kind of a record for me! 

 

**I'm realizing that it is probably a good thing I typed and posted these recipes, the original hand-written copies, written by yours truly at age 15 (30 years ago-yikes!) are in pretty bad shape-I'm not sure how many more "pie-makings" they will be able to withstand.