Chapter Nine: A Little Help From My Friends

A few weeks ago as my daughter was watching me make a pie, she asked when OUR pie making day was and I realized that for a month plus I had been a little remiss in proper parenting. She and my son both love pie day, in part because it's fun and in part because they know at the end of pie day they get pie. I started baking thinking this was for me, as a new experience throughout 2017. Then I realized it was as much for me as those around me because they got to enjoy the fruits of my labor. But I hadn't really considered it being for my kids, hands on. Bad mommy.



I should preface this story a bit by saying that in the kitchen, especially when I'm baking, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. When I get in the zone, not even dear Husband likes to "help" because it either ends with, "yeah, that's good enough" or "oh, just let me do it." I'll be the first to admit that it's not a pleasant environment. So I have always been hesitant about cooking with the kids because I know that the "just so" that I want things to be is usually beyond the scope or skills of little hands. I don't want to be frustrated to anger with them and I know they want me in the bad head space even less, because the happier mom is, the happier the house is.

So, this week was going to be a challenge for me.

Girl Monkey and I were deciding on what kind of pie to make. She suggested apple, but I have plans on apple later this year, so we kept thinking. When we went to the store for ingredients, strawberries were on sale for a great price... strawberry pie it is! I was pretty happy about this since strawberry pie from Shoney's restaurant was a particular favorite of mine when I was a kid.

Then Thursday rolled around and I got sick. I slept all day Thursday and was barely able to eat anything until Sunday. Might I say, that of all the things that people "forget" to tell you about becoming a parent, sick days are the most vital. It is the absolute worst to be a parent whose primary job is to care for kids and get sick. I felt that way when I was pregnant with the Little Man because I was exhausted and had a three-year-old. This time I was blessed that Husband saw my devastation and came home early from work, otherwise Little Man would have run roughshod over me all day. While I masqueraded as Typhoid Mary, I succeeded in infecting the rest of my family to some degree. I nixed Sunday as baking day. Luckily, there was no school on Monday and everyone was on the mend.

A friend of mine has a blog where she discusses a variety of topics on making a life worth living. I've been gleaning some of her tips about kids in the kitchen like best practices for teaching knife skills and ways to prep food with younger kids. I was happy for the help, happy to be less stressed while the littles were helping out, and I loved having the three of us work together and have fun while piemaking! Lisa's blog is worth reading on so many levels. (Read more here!)

So today, we baked and sliced and laughed and made messes. I let go of my need for perfection (mostly) and my kids had fun on a rainy February day. What's more? Girl Monkey's day off from school didn't drive me bonkers because we had something to do together!


Maybe this mommy thing isn't as hard as I thought.



Strawberry Pie
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1 1/2 pounds fresh strawberries (or about 4 1/2 cups, quartered)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons corn starch

Make and bake the crust. I included the recipe because I ventured out of my comfort zone and tried a new one. I also tried making mini pies. I baked the shells on a baking stone in mason jar rings. It all worked beautifully. :)

For the filling, put 1/2 cup of strawberries in a pot with the sugar, water, lemon juice, and corn starch. Stir well and bring to a boil. Mash the strawberries well and strain out the pulp. Since you brought this to a boil it should look like red jelly-ish syrup. Mix it in to the rest of the fresh strawberries and spoon the filling into the pie sell (or shells.) Top with whipped cream. Enjoy.