Ever since making my grandmother's chocolate merengue pie, and seeing the Waitress *, I've got this urge to make pies...
...gobs of them: sweet ones, savory ones, creamy ones... double crust pies, fancy edged pies, individual pies, maybe even a tart or two (mostly because I just like to say "tart")
(Pictured, are two very good books on the subject, which can be found on my sidebar)
It's strange really, seeing as how I'm not a big pie eater, and have never been all that interested in, or particularly good at making them. **
There's a lot to be said for pie making though. It's easy enough, inexpensive, seasonal, and the creative potential is boundless. Making pies with your kids is fun, getting all floured up, pressing and rolling out together, passing on what crust-making wisdom you've gained. You can know that this moment will leave a mark on their tastebuds. Decades from now, in some diner, somewhere, he will take a bite of pie, close his eyes, and think, "Mom."
Pie is good.
So, after a year that brought some wholly unexpected heartaches, outshone (thank heavens) by inexplicable blessings, I have learned one thing: You never can tell what's comin'. Knowing this, there's really no use, as far as I can see it, for a girl with very little stick-to-it-ivness, and a heart that likes to leap from one lovely ambition to the next, to bother with well-meaning, though doomed from the start resolutions.
Accept, maybe... pie.
I'd like to resolve to make more pie.
I think some time spent in the kitchen, getting messy with my babes, using whatever we find in the pantry, making the most of the season's fare, that's ambition enough in a world and a life that never cease to knock me off my feet with surprises.
Sure, there's other things I'd like to accomplish, places I'd like to see, things I'd like to do, but, as I mix butter into flour with my fingers, help a little boy roll it out, fill, cover and pinch the edges closed, I think this is enough to make me happy. If all I manage to knock off the list of wishes, is a few more moments like these, that's good enough for me.
Happy 2008 to you - the Year of Pie!
* A strange movie, not at all what I expected. It's got a few troublesome holes, plot wise, but it's worth watching.
** The one exception being Tomato Pie - I'm pretty great at making that one!
