The Pies that Bind

Images from TG at Monty and Emilio's. Pies not pictured. Thanks for the shots, E!

On Thursday morning, after a little bit of a sleep-in, coffee, reading and breakfast, I started my pumpkin pies. Friends of ours host a gorgeous (see above) and mind-blowingly delicious holiday dinner, and this year I was allowed to bring the pumpkin pie, which I very much looked forward to doing. But I would have made the pie anyway.

My mother's pumpkin pie is a Thanksgiving must-have. Mom's pie was one of the few things that I ever remember my grandmother praising about her cooking. Creamy and light, sweet, but not too sweet, with a flaky, savory crust that contrasts with the smooth center. (I took a pumpkin pie made earlier in the week up to my grandparents on Tuesday, only to find that their freezer had been stocked up with homemade apple pies by one of their caregivers. Pie for weeks!)

There have been many things I have gone without from one Thanksgiving to the next, but Mom's pie is never one of them. The secret to her "secret" pie recipe is the very hot water added to the pie filling just before pouring into the crust, which makes the pie light as it steams away during baking.

I thought of my mother as I spun the flour, salt, shortening and butter in the food processor. (Which she always did by hand, but I had six crusts to make.) I thought of her as I rolled out the dough with her rolling pin, one of a handful of things I took with me when I left home. I thought of her especially as I shaped the edges of the pie with my fingers and thumb, about the way her thumbs bend back a little bit more than the average person's, making a little flourish to her gestures and her crusts, and how she always manages to execute a smooth and perfectly fluted pie edge.

Contact with Mom has been sparse lately. She has her hands full with family in Modesto. But the current was running strong between us Thursday morning, whether she knew it or not.

Just before I took the dogs out for their walks mid-day, I checked my email and found a sweet note from my friend Kristin in Eugene, Oregon, letting me know she was thinking of me, too, as her pumpkin pie, made from Mom's "secret" recipe, was baking, filling their house with cinnamon and spice. It made me smile to think of us smelling the same things, sitting in our kitchens, so many miles away.

All of my Thanksgiving recipes can be found at this link. And here are several pie crust variations: Butter Crust, The Very Best Crust, and Mom's Classic Crust. I recommend the classic for pumpkin pie because there is no sugar and it doesn't over-brown. The Very Best is good for everything else. I'll be using that for an apple pie on Sunday with the just-picked Granny Smiths Grandma gave me. The All Butter, minus the sugar, makes a decadent turkey pot pie for the weekend after the holiday. Don't forget the frozen peas.

Love,
Tam

PS- the lack of photos and posts lately has been largely due to the fact that Hughes satellite service has dragged to a creeping, dial-up style halt. If you can avoid Hughes, I recommend that you do so. Their customer service is so pathetic, and so very, very far away, that it is easier to bring a magazine to the desk to read while waiting for pictures to upload than to spend four hours on the phone in order to complain about it. But it has started to cramp my style.

They are the only game in my little wooded valley, so until someone runs a line or puts up a new tower, I'm stuck with them. Should be upgrading to their second satellite soon. I know that I've promised some of you that I would get kid pictures out there for you to print, but I'm going to have to give you a disk instead, because it just isn't going to happen through Hughes.