It’s
time for pie!
Years
ago, during my high school days, I took home economics. I had always loved cooking and baking. Sewing was not my strong point, and still is
not, but I loved working in the kitchen.
Nikki,
my sister, has so many abilities but domestic engineer is not at the top of her
list. Nonetheless, as she drew nearer to
her wedding date she chose to venture into the kitchen. She decided to begin her domestic adventure by
baking a double-crusted apple pie.
Now
I knew my sister had never attempted to bake anything before this, so I asked
if she wanted me to help. Forget that
idea. She said she was very capable of
baking a pie without any help from me.
I
left my sister to her own devices. She
peeled her apples added the other ingredients and giving them the proper time
to allow all the flavors to mingle as she prepared the crusts.
She
rolled out the crusts and cut them to fit the pie dish. Then she piled her apple mixture into a large
mound in the pie shell. She placed it
all in the oven and set the timer.
The
house filled with the pleasant aroma of apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I had to admit, it certainly did smell like a
wonderful pastry. I started to believe I
was wrong. My sister had a domestic side
to her that I had not seen before.
The
timer alerted us to the end of her efforts.
She removed from the oven a large pie piled with the delicious smelling
apples.
Nikki
was very proud of her efforts and brought the pie to me remaking “See I didn’t
need your help”. Well, I will admit it
certainly did smell wonderful. I just
had one question. “I thought you said
you were baking a double crusted pie?”
She said, “I did.” So I asked the
obvious question, “Where is the second crust?”
With a sharp tone, she replied. “It’s
on the bottom, where do you think I would have put it.” I smiled and said “silly me, I would have put
one crust on the bottom and one on the top.”
My
response stunned her. She hadn’t thought
about one on top and one on the bottom.
I am not sure where she got her recipe, but either the crust placements
were not included in the directions or she missed that detail.
Here
we are over four decades later and Nikki still makes apple pies. She learned from her early lesson, and I must
say she makes one heck of a delectable apple pie. She still mounds the apples high in the pan,
but now the second crust is on top, and yes, her crusts are wonderfully flaky
too. Now at family gatherings she
proudly brings her apple pies.
Last
year when I told her I added one of her stories to my blog, she asked which
one. I told her it was the seven red
dresses story. She laughed and said I
thought you would write the double-crusted pie story. I laughed and said I hadn’t considered that
story since I would not want to embarrass her by putting it out there on the
Internet for all to read. She said “Why
not? I tell everyone my double crusted
pie story.”
I am
telling you this so that you know I would never write a story where someone
could be hurt. However, Nikki takes the
story as a fond memory of our early years.
As
for me, I just wonder where the saying “easy as pie” started.
Jan
