Ode to Pie

ya know, I never was much of a pie woman. except growing up when mom made the strawberry pie - a cold one with whipped cream. mmm... my brother got ridiculed one year when he tried to make it and didn't bake the crust beforehand. yucky.

but then, i lived in Eugene OR one summer, living with my boyfriend at the time who was finishing school at U of O. we would go places every single weekend - glorious beautiful places (i may think that oregon is the most beautiful state in the union - sheer diversity of beautifulness).

one main road went through the town of Nimrod (which was always funny to us - he even posed once as a nimrod near the Nimrod sign). well, there was a pie place on that road - mom's pies. a counter with stools in front of it, where you'd sit down and have a piece of berry pie (oregon has great berries). although i wasn't a pie person, i appreciated those pies. fresh berries, great crust. mmmmm...

i never got into pies much even after that, since every time i tried to make a berry pie it would be all runny and that was no fun. i also was very against cherry pie - ugh, the whole concept of opening a can and throwing it between two crusts - ugh. but then i had my mother-in-law's cherry pie. made with door county WI sour cherries. omg. really really good. and i got her recipe, and learned that you just needed to add a little tapioca to make it firm.

later, i got into making apple pies, because a friend told me a secret about how to make that not run. a relatively large amount of flour (at least 1/4 cup - ish) and carefully layering the apple slices so they are stacked beautifully and tightly. Mm.... (and pst, a secret I learned - a leetle bit of cardamom)

i think i'm going to make banana bread tonight.