Photo of the Day: Nov. 25, 2015 – Thanksgiving Pies, A Team Effort

I must say, I’m pretty proud of myself for making four Thanksgiving pies from scratch! I used my friend Vera Marie Badertscher’s “Perfect Pie Crust” recipe, making two apple pies and two pumpkin pies, and they turned out pretty nice!

We’re gathering at my mom’s house in Old Mission tomorrow, and everyone is bringing something. I’m trying to remember the last time I made a pie from scratch, and it might have been for my dad. He passed away in 2004, so yeah, it’s been a while. As I was making the pies today, I told him the apple pies were for him.

I also kept thinking about all those frontier women, who not only made pies every day, but also bread, meat, veggies, etc. for the hard-working guys in the fields a la “Little House on the Prairie.” All without the benefit of running water and electricity, using only what was in season or what they’d preserved via salting, smoking, drying, etc. Those women were superheroes.

My pie-making adventure is what you call a team effort. I used Vera’s pie crust recipe, the apples are from my family’s farm (Johnson Farms, just north of Mapleton), the bowl and rolling pin were given to me by my forever-friend Dee Ball for my wedding in 1993, and I made the pies on my Grandma Stella’s vintage Formica kitchen table.

You can see more pictures on my Facebook page here and here (feel free to “friend” me!). My husband requested a lattice top on one of the apple pies, and that task required three people and much discussion. My first attempt was all wrong, so I took the strips off and my daughter and I wove them together. I think they turned out ok, albeit beautifully imperfect.

Then my son showed up from MSU just in time to put the finishing touches on (“More sugar on the top, Mom!”).

A very happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you’re surrounded by people you love, because in the big picture, that’s really all that matters.