Standing Around The Kitchen Table

As I reflected on writing about standing around our old kitchen table when I was growing up, I remembered I had a copy of a picture of my sisters and me standing by it. In case you're wondering what we're eating, we had been roasting marshmallows on a fork. It was something Mother let us do every now and then for a special treat, but lest you think about doing it, word of warning: there's a trick to doing it so you don't burn your mouth. Probably now a days that would be a child welfare referral. Sometimes we ate them plain, sometimes we got to make s'mores. We ate a LOT of s'mores growing up. After all, we were Girl Scouts. As you can see, Mother also liked to dress us alike. I was probably 8 1/2 years old in this picture, just shortly before I started making the pie crust for Rotary. (from left to right: myself, my youngest sister, Karla, and our middle, Patricia.

I need to explain that I have gone back to the drawing board on my fat calculations for pie crust. All of a sudden, it came to me that when I calculated the pie crust fat grams, basically, I failed to calculate. I am NOT the family mathematician. Seriously, I took a vow to live without math when I was a girl and every once a while I have to ignore that and actually use math. I'm also spoiled when it comes to math because my husband can do math as fast as a calculator. I should have fed him the numbers, that would have also solved the problem. I'm just glad I caught this before I caused someone distress and disappointment that they had found a low fat pie crust that  wasn't.  Usually, I can handle basic arithmetic, but sometimes I have a brain lapse. This was one of those moments. Luckily it came to me (after the fact) that when I read 7 grams for pie crust, it was for 1/16 of a pie and I had forgotten to finish the next step. Honestly, I don't even understand how I gave birth to a child that made a 34 in math on the ACT. Now, lets ponder a moment on who even eats 1/16 of a pie? Possibly, Twiggy in the 1960's? Although, seriously, she had probably given up pie for Lent...or the runway. Anyway, did you know when you multiply 7 grams fat X 16 slices that comes to 112 fat grams? That is just sad. I'm not even sure 1/16th of a pie would even hold together in a slice. Of course, when it comes to fat grams, the food scientists don't care about things like that. So, I'm definitely going back to the drawing board to work on coming up with a low fat crust option. Back to my laboratory, uh, make that kitchen. Well, not tonight, but you know...in the near future. First, we have to have our first family Christmas dinner tomorrow. I need to bake some Christmas cookies and make a salad. Fat grams in pie crust are not on the list at this point. Plus, I have to help with a funeral dinner today. Just another frolicsome day out here in the middle of nowhere.

Pie of Life's Seasonings

I used to joke I was the childhood victim of pie crust abuse. My sisters and I spent childhood time standing around the table, watching Mother bake. Our mother had learned about pies from watching her sister Thelma. By the time I was nine, Mother decided my crust was good enough to make quantity batches for the Rotarian's at the church. Her committee cooked every 4 weeks. I made so much pie crust for Rotary I thought I always made all the crust, but my sister Patricia thinks she made all of it. So, I'm thinking we both possibly have some inaccurate memories.

Neither college nor work as a child welfare supervisor required pie crust skills. Pie lessons have given memories, life skills, and served me well in life. They taught me deadlines, quality control, comforting others, taking joy in a job well done, and lessons of family. We learned camaraderie in the kitchen with each other and started out learning how to handle pie crust by playing with scraps of dough, while making cinnamon sugar pinwheels. We learned handling it too long would make it tough. Pie crust has been one of the many things that gave my life shape and form.

Although fruit and cream pies were my favorites as a child, now I yet again tweak life to go low fat with my quiche. When I was young I sought sweeter things in life. With age, I've realized life has more seasonings than just sugar to make it rich beyond belief. Today, Mother and I continue the tradition of cooking together in a Senior Adult food ministry at church. Pie is still popular. Like life, pie can be versatile, but pie can be a constant that shows our family and friends we love and nourish them.