Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Pie for the Fourth

Happy Fourth!

Today is the celebration of the birth of a great nation.
The country where my grandparents were born and raised.
And where most of my family still lives.
I both love and salute you, my neighbours!
In the best way I know how.
With pie.
My Mom. Doing what she did best!
Pie.
That king of treats.
The amazing union of lightly browned, flaky crust and yummy filling.
And topped with a delicious scoop of iced or whipped cream . . .
It's like heaven.
In your mouth.
Today is pie-making day. Whenever our family celebrates, we do it with pie. It's a long-standing tradition . . . that spans one generation.
Okay, yes, we started it, but it's still a good tradition!
So, because today is the anniversary of the birth of a great nation, and every party requires pie, I will spend today making it.
Pie, I mean.
I love doing this. My Mom made fantastic pie. Sweet. Flaky. (This is the only place where 'flaky' is a good thing.)
And utterly delicious.
And so, when I make it, using her recipes, it's like spending time with her. I even have the above picture, which I prop up and talk to.
Yes, it's weird, but she's been gone for well over a decade and I miss her.
And now, in honour of this great occasion, I am including eight of my favourite 'pie' quotes:

1. "Keep your knives, we're having pie!"  ~ My Dad. Just before Mom whacked him.
2. "Keep your fork, Duke, there's pie."  ~ The proprietress of a diner to the Duke of Edinborough.
3. "A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around." ~ E.W. Howe
4. "But I, when I undress me
Each night, upon my knees
Will ask the Lord to bless me
With apple-pie and cheese."
                  ~ Eugene Field
5. "Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes."  ~ Arcadia   Robert Green, 1590
6. "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."  ~ Isaac Asimov
7. If all the world were Apple pie, 
And all the seas were ink, 
And all the trees were bread and cheese, 
What would we have to drink?  
                   ~ Unknown
7. "Pie? Is that those round things?" ~ My FIL. Just before my MIL whacked him.
8. "It is utterly insufficient (to eat pie only twice a week), as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents, the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished."  ~ EDITORIAL New York Times, 1902
Which is your favourite?

I have to go. My Mom is waiting.
Happy Fourth of July, everyo
ne!

3 comments:

  1. I like your father in laws quote and your mother in laws reaction.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE pie and used to make apple pies on a regular basis when we were all younger and living under one roof. Now, I haven't made an apple pie in about fifteen years. The only pies I make now are teeny tiny fruit mince pies at Christmas, and you won't know what I mean because you don't have them over there, it's an English thing carried to Australia by immigrants from the UK Even here, not everybody likes them though.
    I like those quotes, they made me giggle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now I wish I had thought ahead and made pie to enjoy today :)

    I like number 3 the best. But the funniest, in my opinion, is number 1 :)

    ReplyDelete

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