My Grandma is great at EVERYTHING. She's a very young 89 years old, with sparkly blue eyes, energy to spare, and the warmest smiles and hugs in the world. Our family looks to her for comfort, wisdom, and love, and tries to surround her with the same. I have been trying to master her pie crust recipe (or method- she never measures and seldom writes down instructions) for years to no avail. Her pies are always delicious and flaky, often with fruit from her own garden, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries. She knows who likes what pie best, and usually has one waiting if they are visiting.
Last weekend I was able to visit and stay with her for a couple of nights, and mentioned that I had never been able to get her crust right... she had written it down for me once. With her usual loving, sharing heart, she jumped up and said," let's make it together"! Her blueberry bushes were asking to be picked, so in a flash, I had a plastic bucket tied around my waist and in no time filled with berries. With all the rain they've had in WNC this year, they were quite tart, but plentiful.
She patiently showed me EXACTLY her secret tricks; fluffing the flour directly in the bag, how to mix the cold water and corn oil so that it blends and doesn't separate, using wax paper to roll out the dough and peel off into the glass plate. ... all the things that she does, step by step. Our pie turned out wonderfully, of course.
Before I left, I was able to pick enough berries to take them home for making one solo with her simple, but specific knowledge. As I fluttered around my own kitchen, fluffing the flour in the bag, combining the water and oil to her specifications, and rolling between wax paper sheets (using the rolling pin that my Grandfather made), I knew this would be my best pie ever.
