My mom makes really good pumpkin pies and I really have never had to know the skill. However I figured that I am now old enough to see if I could do it. So during Thanksgiving I asked for crust making lessons. My mom has made so many pies that her lesson is to put about 'this much shortening in' and then 'about this much flour' and then cold water. The cold water is 'hold the bowl under the faucet' and 'one time in, two times in, and a third time in and that is about right'. So needless to say it is hard to duplicate her crusts. My home teacher, Bro Ange, said that his wife loves pumpkin pies and they usually just get the frozen ones, which in my mind is as gross as you can get, because pumpkin happens to be my favorite and I can't even eat the Costco ones, just the homemade for me and really just my moms. So I thought I am going to make him and her a pie. So I got all the ingredients and went for it. The crust as I was making it looked about right so put it in the pie pan and put the filling in and started baking it. I had quite a bit of the crust dough left so make crust, which is the leftover dough flattened out and then butter and sugar and cinnamon and bake it. So that baked and I pulled it out and to me it didn't taste good so I thought the pie would be a flop to. So the pie finished baking and I pulled it out but I didn't try it because I was disappointed because I thought that the crust didn't work out. Then the next day I thought I should try the pie just to see if the filling at least tasted good. So I cut a small piece out and ate the pie crust included, and miracle of miracles, it tasted good. The crust even did. I was so excited. Now it wasn't as good as my moms but it was tasty and held together and everything. So I cut two big pieces out and ran it over to Bro Ange and his wife to try. I told them I am going to keep practicing and give them a better one when I perfect my crusts. They were fine with that idea.
The reason that it took me so long to try to learn to make crusts is when I was about 12ish, my mom wanted me to learn to make bread. I wasn't really into it and she was so insistent about it. I kept asking why all the sudden I needed to learn. She would say because someday she wouldn't be there to make bread and it was something I needed to learn. I will come back to that story in a minute.
When I was really young and we read in schools out of the reader books in a group there was a story about a Navajo kid who needed to finish weaving a cloth, however she didn't want to finish because she knew that when the cloth was finished her grandma would die because the girl would have learned the skill of weaving. Somehow in my mind the day my mom wanted me to learn to make bread and her insisting that I learn in my mind was the same as that story. So I figure that if I didn't learn how then she would be there forever. That thinking continued to other skills that my mom had like making pies. If I couldn't do it then she would always have to and stay around forever. I am still a little paranoid but am trying to get beyond it. I think the lesson I take away from this is some stories that teachers make kids read are not healthy and give kids phobias they spend the rest of their lives trying to overcome. Unfortunately one story that might effect one kid, another kid probably doesn't even remember. Through all of this I did make a really tasty pumpkin pie. So Number 31, make a pumpkin pie...check.
i'm seriously thinking about doing this during my 40th year. it starts in two weeks so i should probably start my list, right?!
ReplyDeleteYour list is your list...that is the beauty. You aren't 40 for a few more weeks. I still don't have the whole list written out. When I see something cool to do I add it to the list. I had about 20 on the original list and there were some that had to be done in the summer and I didn't get to them so I had to revise. It is whatever you want to make it because it is your rules.
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