Thanksgiving Pies

I just put the pecan and derby pies in the oven. Last night, I baked an apple pie, and later this morning, I will finish with the pumpkin chiffon and lemon fillings. I have settled on 5 pies for this year, to share in a gathering of 7 adults and 4 children. I don't think that's overdoing it. I think around 1/2 a pie is just about perfect.

In my family, Thanksgiving, as for many families, is full of food traditions. My mother is the oldest child of 11. She grew up on a farm. A major Thanksgiving gathering at her childhood home, with her mother still at the helm , still takes place each year. I would guess that over the years, they have averaged 40-50 people each year, and it's probably gone done a bit since now there aren't quite so many kids.

Thanksgiving at Grandma's house was always entirely predictable. The stuffing recipe never varied, and was never fancy. The mashed potatoes never had garlic or rosemary, just butter and milk. And I always went back for seconds. And the rolls were just plain divine. With enough leftovers so that we could have turkey sandwiches later. That must be something like 150 homemade rolls. Amazing. It's been many years since I've eaten Thanksgiving dinner with the W family, so maybe something like Wild Rice-Walnut-Cranberry stuffing (a dish I'm making this year) is now on the menu. After all, the family has grown up and expanded, and there are several amazing cooks in the family with broad-ranging tastes. But, my guess is that no matter what more exotic dishes are on the table, all our old favorite stand-bys are there as well.

Living far away from the west for many years, we have had many Thanksgivings without family. In some years, members of AJ's family have come to visit. This year, his brother E is here. We've both made our own Thanksgiving dinners many times and shared Thanksgiving with others. Early on, I learned that, with their recipes, we could just about replicate the Thanksgiving dinner of the W's. Since then, although we've never completely abandoned tradition with Mexican food, for example, we've tried all sorts of variations of traditional dishes. AJ is always in charge of the turkey, and last year he went with Caribbean flavors. I think he used 20 lemons. This year, we decided to try brining the turkey. We'll see how it turns out. We like mashing Yukon Gold potatoes with cooked squash--the golden color is so beautiful on the plate.

But, the one Thanksgiving food area where I haven't deviated (not too much, anyway) is pies. Pies were the crown of a glorious meal at Grandma's house in Franklin. And here, the W family swept tradition under the table. Why have baked pumpkin pie when you can have pumpkin chiffon or coconut cream or raspberry silk pie? There were always a couple of baked pumpkin pies at Grandma's, but they were the only ones with a few slivers left by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around and we were getting ready to drive home. With so many people attending, it was easy to justify making 30 pies. The variety was enormous. Only the very most highly desired pies--like banana cream--were repeated.

Making pies was a ritual. I remember watching my grandma and several of her sons and daughters rolling on pie crusts on her kitchen counter. And I can't forget the large container of lard that was used as the fat in the pie crust. Because of these childhood experiences, having some pie variety on Thanksgiving is essential for me.

One of our first Novembers in New Jersey, we ate Thanksgiving dinner with a family from our ward. I volunteered to bring, among other things, some pies. That morning, I got up early and started to make pie crust. I called Franklin to solicit some advice. My mom and my grandma and all her family made it seem so easy. I finally got some crust together, but was left with a mess and lots of stress. And it just didn't taste as good as theirs, of course. The pies were pretty good, but I felt like I was failing my W family, in a sense.

When we got to our dinner locations, I found out that the host had purchased some pies!!! And some of the other pie contributors used Pilsbury pre-made refrigerated pie crusts. And they turned out to be pretty good, unlike frozen crusts that I had tried earlier. I'm sure that the W family and other highly discriminating palates could easily tell the difference, but to me, it was a revelation. My pies didn't have to be just like my family's pies.

At that point, I decided to continue the pie making, but to leave the crust making behind. I still tend to apologize about it when we bring pies somewhere. I guess it's time I stopped. Giving up the homemade crusts felt like a big concession and almost a traitorous act, but in the end, for me, I decided it just wasn't worth it. In a way, it's sad that a domestic art like making pie crust hasn't survived from their generation to me (although lots of my sisters and cousins are experts at pie crust now), but in another way, it feels like just another way that I've blending my family traditions with my own predispositions and talents. I know my pies don't taste as good as those my W family will be sharing today, but for me, they're good enough.