Thanksgiving Miracle

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who own rolling pins, and those who don’t. As of Saturday I crossed the line. I am a person who owns a rolling pin. I am one of those people.

I made my first ever pie on Saturday. Clarification: My first ever pie with a real homemade crust. I have made pies with store-bought crust before or graham cracker crusts, but those do not count. Those are fake pies. No rolling pin required.

So it was me, Saturday night, a trip to Wal-mart, a brand new rolling pin, a brand new pie dish, cherries, flour, sugar, shortening, a movie, an oven, plastic wrap, and a whole lot of love. The secret ingredient to mama’s home cooking is always always love. But they don’t sell it at Wal-mart. They sell everything else at Wal-mart though. You can get a new nose at Wal-mart, adopt a child, or even get a bachelor’s degree. And you can even buy a pie there…they sell PIES! But do you REALLY want to buy a pie from the same place that you can get your oil changed, have your dog neutered, and buy yourself some new shoelaces? No. The answer is no, you do not.

Which brings me to my kitchen—trying to figure out the balance between just enough mixing to get the perfect crust texture, and too much mixing which I was told makes it tough and hard. Whew. I cut the fat into the flour, added the cold water, rolled out the crust, and sent my little roommate Kim out on her date...”you kids run along and have fun now…mama will be here baking the pie…I’ll be waiting up for you dear.” “Would I like to come along? Oh no, couldn’t possibly. I am dating the pie tonight.”

Surprisingly the pie came out of the oven looking like a pie. I was expecting an implosion, bubbling over, or at the very least some burnt crust. But I guess I put just enough love in it that it held together. Love holds things together they say.

What would be nice is if I had a picture of the pie for posterity. Because you never know if a masterpiece like that can be replicated. I am a believer in miracles, but I can only expect so many cherry pie miracles per lifetime. And me making a successful cherry pie = a thanksgiving miracle.

And the real reason for any type of blog being devoted to a cherry pie is for a shout out to my mother. She has made about 17 million successful cherry pies and other variety of pie in her lifetime. And they have all been perfect. And she didn’t even have to use up any miracles reaching the perfection. She just IS perfect and so naturally, the pies come out that way too.