Just Call Me a Pie Maker...NOT!!

Disclaimer: This is a super long story. Sorry!

This year I decided that it was time for me to learn how to make a pie.  I mean I'm a mom now and moms should know those things, right?  So, I called my sister Marie and asked her if she would let me come to her house to make pies with her on Wednesday.  (f.y.i. she is an awesome pie maker/mom!)  Who better to help me make my first pie?  Just a little side note, my mom would spend all day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving baking up a storm.  She seriously was the best cook/baker.  I always had good intentions to help her, but somehow I would end up just hanging out with my friends.  I totally regret this now.  I mean I still love my friends, but all of those years I could have learned how to make a delicious pie from an expert, not to mention I could have had many great memories baking with my mom. 

My mom, the Thanksgiving dinner queen.

Anyway, back to my pie day prep from hell.  After Ellie woke up from her nap on Wednesday I packed her up and headed to the grocery store to buy my supplies.  You all know that the grocery store is not my favorite place to go, but when you have to bring your baby in the heavy car seat it makes things even more difficult.  So, I wandered up and down the baking aisle that was completely packed with last minute shoppers like myself until I found everything I needed.  I was actually quite proud of the fact that I was in and out of the grocery store in a pretty decent time. 

I pulled up to Marie's house and luckily she was outside, so she could help me bring in all of my bags.  That is always a pain when you have the car seat, diaper bag, and bags and bags of groceries.  When I'm carrying that many things sometimes I want to just stop and faint because it takes way too much energy to get from the car to wherever I'm going.  So thanks Marie!  When I got inside and started unpacking my bags I realized I forgot 3 very important items!  Seriously, I even had a list!!  Back to the grocery store for me.  Thank goodness I hadn't gotten Ellie out of her car seat yet.

When I got to Marie's house for the second time I put Ellie down for a nap so that I could make some pies in peace.  I couldn't hear her outside of the door so I assumed she was asleep.  The first pie on my list was a banana cream pie.  I'm sure a lot of you know that I'm definitely not a banana lover (I'm dreading the day when Ellie starts eating bananas), but Greg loves that pie and had it growing up so I thought I would attempt to make him one.  My other sister Lindsay, who is in culinary school, gave me a recipe and warned me to make sure to stir continuously so the mixture doesn't burn.  Well, I did that, but somehow I still seemed to burn it.  Typical me.  The mixture was supposed to be a beautiful creamy color, but instead it had tons of brown chunks in it from the bottom of the pan.  So the first attempt went down the drain.

Being the good wife I am (ha ha), I wanted to try it again so Greg could have his pie.  This time I didn't turn up the heat very high because I was so afraid of burning it again.  (I did not have enough ingredients to do the pie 3 times!!)  So I stirred the mixture like a champ.  I mean I had a bad arm cramp from stirring so long, but I was not going to let that stop me from making a delicious pie.  I finished and thought it still looked a little runny, but I decided once I let it sit in the fridge it would set a little better.  So in the fridge it went.

My next pie was an apple pie that my mom would make every year.  I had to keep the tradition alive!  I started to peel the apples when I heard Ellie crying.  She had been "asleep" for over an hour so I figured she would be nice and rested.  When I went in to get her she was crying with tears and all.  This is weird because when Ellie wakes up she is a very happy baby and is very excited to see me.  I knew she needed more sleep, but she had other ideas.  I put her in her car seat on the table and went back to peeling apples.  I only peeled one apple before Ellie began her crying fit.  This is when I realized that Ellie probably never actually slept.  (She does every now and then.  Sometimes she will play in her crib for an hour or more).  I knew I wasn't going to get anything done with her crying, so I packed everything up and headed home.  Not quite what I had pictured my pie day like.

The first thing I did when I got home was put Ellie in her crib.  Ha ha!  She screamed and screamed.  I wasn't in the mood to deal with her, so I let her scream it out in her crib.  Luckily she only screamed for a couple of minutes until she finally fell asleep.  I went downstairs and continued peeling my apples.  I sat all by myself in complete silence peeling apples.  I started to get extremely sad because this was my first time away from my family for Thanksgiving and I was really missing my mom.  I wanted to be able to talk to her and have a fun day baking with her, but instead I was sitting all alone.  Of course I started to cry.  So I'm peeling apples and crying.  I wanted to give up, but I bought all of these apples that I knew I would never eat, so I kept on going.  Needless to say after 3 hours (that is not an exaggeration) I finally finished my apple pie.  Oh, I bought the ready made pie crust so I have no idea why it took me 3 hours to make that pie.  The pie actually turned out so I was happy about that.

After having a good cry and feeling totally depressed that I was the worst pie maker in the world, I decided to check on my banana cream pie in the fridge.  Don't worry it was still completely soupy!  Apparently, I didn't get it hot enough so it wasn't able to set.  More tears.  I told Greg to eat it because there was no way I was going to bring that out in public.  It was so soupy that Greg would cut out some of the crust and then literally pour the mixture part into his bowl.  He couldn't even spoon it out!  It did taste really good thought, so maybe next year. 

Wednesday was one emotionally crazy day, but now that I look back at it, it is absolutely hilarious.  Needless to say, Thanksgiving turned out to be really fun.  We went with some of Marie's in-laws that live up here.  I'm so thankful for my family and especially for my mom.  I have realized since she has passed away how much she did for me.  I never realized exactly how much she did for me until I had my own baby.  What an AMAZING person she was.  I could not have asked for a better mom.  I just wish that I could tell her how grateful I am for her and spend one more fun day baking with her.  I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!