On, In and Around Mondays: The Impossible Ritual
I peel in a circle, always. Long spirals fall, make us smile.
Apples, cinnamon, sugar, lemon juice. Then the dough, rolled and placed into a blue stoneware pie plate. I pile the apples inside it, impossibly high (this is how I learned it from my mother).
My Eldest works beside me. Besides the apple filling, we also do cherry, blueberry, pecan, and this year raspberry to please my sister (who I haven't seen on Thanksgiving in years).
In about four hours' time, it is finished: the five-pie outlay. I do this every year. It is more than we need, like the apples piled impossibly high.
Part of me says no to this display of abundance. And that is why I must engage in this ritual.
Like the wine berries in the woods that we pick in June (and never come to the end of), these pies are more than my little world needs. I remind myself that, soon enough, Lent and fasting will come, like the woods empty of berries. And that will be a different time, also essential to our understanding of life.
But for today, it is feasting. I want my girls to learn this from me, their mother.
Pie photos by L.L. Barkat.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
Labels: family stories, On in and Around Mondays, Thanksgiving
posted by L.L. Barkat at 8:00 AM
18 Comments:
I completely love this piece.
and L.L.
I appreciate your visits and comments so so much. Thank you. It feels like abundance in a different way.
And I want to be on and around your place where the pies are!
Wow -- Great piece. Great pies!
A pot of tea with that, please!
Great post.
There is something about pie. I remember my grandmother, and my mom and my wife, all involved in the intricacies of the perfect pie.
And dollops of ice cream melting next to the hot berry pie just makes me happy, happy, happy.
For some reason this part made me a little teary:
...to please my sister (who I haven't seen on Thanksgiving in years).
And I'm with M.L...I want some of that pie! And, yay! I submitted my link today.
I followed Laura at the Wellspring over to your place today and am so glad I did. Pies definitely speak my love language. I don't think there is such a thing as an overabundance of pie. And I make pie because I watched my mother, through the years, bake hers with love. I like to think that I honor her with flour and shortening and spices and sugar.
Love. This.
Lemon meringue is my specialty. I'll share if you'll share.
They look scrumptious L.L. I think you are teaching your girls precious truths. I thought about Jesus commending Mary when she poured out the whole vial of that costly perfume. There was a difficult time coming.
I love this post! The pies, the wine berries, the handing down of traditions to your daughters. You remind me of my own dear mother. Beautiful! Blessings.
Oh my the pies -- love, love it! My favorite part about Thanksgiving I think. And I love how you make them with your girls -- my husband did that with our youngest this year. I took pictures (I don't do pie -- but I gladly eat them!).
I love pie-making time at Thanksgiving. Although yours are so much prettier than mine. My sister made a comment about my rag-tag crust, and I said, "In this house, we don't worry about pretty. We're taste people."
Maybe at Christmas I'll worry about pretty, too.
My dad always peel his apples in an endless circle of peel, and it fascinated my boys. They'd sit mesmerized, watching him.
You're right -- life definitely has an ebb and flow, and if it is the time for feasting, I say be blessed by that.
The pies look delicious! Do we get a slice for hanging around on Mondays? I like Maureen's idea of serving tea with that.
Would love to hang around your place on Mondays or so. I think I'll like it here.
Enjoyed the post.
Blessings,
Janis
Just have to comment that I love thoe family traditions that just can't be ignored--that are responses of the heart. Besides, the pies look stunning.
Sounds like Ecclesiastes 3.
So I come here after being unplugged for a while, and this is what I find. *deep sigh*
Where did you get those, anyway? I want some of that. (I don't mean the pies; I mean your beauty and wisdom.)
By the way, I've had God in the Yard for quite a while but haven't gone through the whole thing yet. (In contrast with Stone Crossings which I read in about 24 hours.) I'm a little nervous about GIY, for some reason I can't put my finger on. Maybe scared, even (no explanation there, either). But, there will be a time for that, too, I guess.
Pie...have you seen the movie Sweetland? The bonding over a plate of warm pie is universal.
The joy of pie! I made pie with my girl for Thanksgiving....not such an abundance as yours but a pie we'll remember and repeat.
Thanks for this place to share stories!
Your pies are so pretty! Mine taste fine, but aren't ever pretty...I could use a tutorial someday, in case you need a post idea for next year. :)
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