Friday, March 12, 2010

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.

6 comments:

laura b. said...

I am not much of a pie woman either, but after reading your post I have myself a bit of a craving :-) Please bake me a pie. I totally trust the mail. Thank you.

Sebastien Millon said...

mmmm, I love pies. Especially my grandmothers pies, she would use fruits from the garden, like cherries, raspberries, plums, strawberries....

Sebastien Millon said...

she would also make this, this is my favorite thing EVER!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clafoutis

Mel said...

Oh sure....pies.

*sigh*

*sniffle*

Just ain't the same made with rice flour....ick......

*sigh*

Ah well. I'll just have the fruit, ty. :-)

NoRegrets said...

Laura, come visit and I will bake you a pie. HA
Sebastien, that would be great. And I will look up the recipe, thanks!
Mel, learn to love rice flour!

Churlita said...

I love pie. I like cake better, but I still love pie.