Apple Pie
I was a very lucky girl. I was a baby boomer baby and my mother was very much a June Cleaver without the pearls. She was a very simple woman but she was all about the home…cleaning, sewing, cooking. Saturday was our cleaning day so that our home would be in tip top shape on Sunday. Often we entertained the pastor for Sunday lunch which was either fried chicken or oven pot roast with fresh corn, green beans or in winter, home canned vegetables. Of course, there was a homemade dessert. All were so beautiful in appearance. She was truly a Proverbs 31 woman.
Pumpkin and Apple
We didn’t have a large home nor much money but my parents were hard workers who paid their bills and gave regularly to their church. My mother took great care of my dad who walked with a severe limp from having a bone disease contracted as a child. My dad always had a beautifully hoed vegetable garden in summer and worked his entire life supporting his family despite his handicap which would have caused most men to seek assistance. My mother learned mostly how to care for a home as she worked as a maid before she was married at 21; caring, cooking and cleaning for a family in our small town. My mother was the type that worked fast and found it easier to do it herself rather than teach me how to do it. She passed away when I was 24 and she was 58. It was a hard time for me. I married at 18 and was somewhat clueless about cooking. I quickly had a desire to do all those things like mother did. Before she was gone I would call her occasionally, long distance, to find out things like how to make gravy. The memory is a powerful thing. In my minds eye and after she passed away I could see the foods she made, how her hands quickly worked and shaped things like pie crust. I wanted to be just like her. My only real ambition was to be a wife, mother and homekeeper.
Pies at Christmastime 2014
I hope you will indulge me for this sentimental post. My mother was probably the greatest influence on my life. One day when I am better at blogging I will post pictures of this pie process from start to finish. Making pies like my mother is one of the joys of my life. It is her legacy to me. By the way my daughter makes pies too. It’s a beautiful family thing.