Food, The Baboon Congress

Wedding Pie

78 Comments

Today’s post comes from Jacque

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, my niece got married.   She wanted homemade wedding pie, rather than the traditional wedding cake. Years ago, when this niece and her cousin and her sister were tiny, my mother started the pie thing. Then the first niece requested of mom that she have graduation pie, so Mom asked us for help. Ten years later, this has come home to roost on the shoulders of my sister and I because my mother no longer does pie. It was all we could do to get her to the wedding itself.

My sister and I and our nieces had done the mass pie bake three times before for high school graduations. All three of them wanted this for their tradition Iowa High School Graduation Open Houses, which is no small party. Our only expectation of each of them is that they help for their sister/cousin’s celebration. They all did.

For the wedding pie my niece Annie was part of the baking in my sister’s church kitchen. Jo and I made and froze all the pie crust in the weekends preceeding the wedding. She ordered pie tins and pie boxes from Amazon which made things stackable and efficient. Assembling and baking the pies took two days, with Thanksgiving Day planted in the middle of the bakefest. The 3 of us made 46 pies, 3 of which we served for the Thanksgiving meal dessert (pumpkin, minced meat and cherry).

Here is the breakdown of pie types:

Cherry (2 crust) 9

Apple (2 crust) 5

Apple crumb (1 crust) 5

Blueberry crumb (1 crust) 5

Strawberry Rhubarb (2 crust) 6

Bumbleberry (2 crust) 3

Pumpkin (1 crust, my least favorite, why even bother. Hrmph) 2

Lemon Meringue (1 crust) 4

Rhubarb Custard Meriginge (1 crust) 3

1 apple which fell on the floor and we scooped up the part that did not touch the  floor and                  ATE IT!

3 Thanksgiving pies

3 types of whipped creamed were served with it: vanilla, cinnamon, and rum.

The whole thing was a hit. Many guests had been at the girls’ High School Graduation parties and came ready for pie. My sister and I got to eat right after the wedding party. We were still eating when our sister-in-law ran over and said,   “People are already serving themselves at the pie station. I hate to hurry you, but look.” We ran over and started serving. It was like bugs to light—wedding guests attracted to pie.

One young man who had two or three slices of various kinds, came over asking, “Can I just have the cinnamon whipped cream. I have had enough pie.” There was plenty. I gave him a plateful.

Our feet were sore and we were exhausted. This was our gift to the bride and groom. Nobody else made them pie! Mom said her pie was good—she had apple crumb with cinnamon whipped cream.

What’s your odd family tradition?

 

 

 

 

 

 

78 thoughts on “Wedding Pie”

  2. Great story!!! My dad loved Christmas lights. He didn’t love the work of Christmas lights and we never had any adorning our house, but he loved looking at other people’s. Often during the holidays, we would take the long way home, driving slowly past homes that were really lit up. Eventually we started going out on Christmas Eve just to enjoy the lights and a couple of years later my dad had little cards made up saying how much we enjoyed the lights. We left them in the mailboxes of houses that we thought had the most amazing displays.

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  3. Clyde – saw the news this morning from Alaska. I’m so sorry – my thoughts are with you and your family today.

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    2. Yes, now a recovery and not a rescue in Lake Clark. She is very even-keeled. She is also probably wrecked financially. I had a former student a few years ago lose three of five children and her husband in a house fire. At times like this I always think of those I know who lost a child, like Barbara and her husband. I think of our dear lost DeeDee, a special student and close friend, daughter of close friends.
      It was a family tradition when our children were home for friends to stay over, along the way collecting three who came close to living with us permanently, our pseudo-children as we called them. Kids escaping home issues or looking for a stable family-type place.
      I had a friend who during deer season found a downed plane, missing for three years with five on board. He was a very sensitive man. It was hard on him.Just after we buried his wife. He ended up marrying a woman whose husband died in a plane crash.
      Now back to the fun topic.

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  4. 46 pies and not one of them was a pecan? Gee, we differ more than I would have guessed.

    I was told all my life that my taste in birthday cakes was weird. My mom always made me an angel cake on my birthday, an angel cake frosted with chocolate-laced whipped cream.

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    2. Pecan was not on the bride’s list. Pumpkin and Minced Meat are the traditional Thanksgiving family favorites, however, I will add, not MY favorites. In fact, BLECH.

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  5. My niece had pie for her wedding. My mother made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my sister’s wedding, which she catered. The sandwiches were a family joke. She made the same for my sister’s daughters wedding, the one with the pies. They intend to carry on that tradition.
    In my childhood the “traditions” related to the cycle of the farm and food. First fresh peas and small potatoes in cream sauce. Giblets for lunch during chicken slaughter season. Liver on night we slaughtered beef. Yes, we all like liver, still do. My sister and I used to order it together in restaurants. All watching the calves when they were first turned out in the calf pasture. They go nuts running around. Etc.
    In our family we do crackers for Christmas. English kind that pop open to funny hat and jokes. We did Advent calendar with our kids. My daughter does it now.
    I am typing this. Wound up. Have to stop it. Too much going on. Sandy’s surgery in Monday. Neck traction is so nice, really is. But they are turning me down for a home permanent home unit. Will appeal. Cannot resolve visions issues right now. Glasses were made wrong. Store manager was blaming me for misaligned lenses, screw that would not stay tight, weird thing on one lens, like small crackling. I said sort of off the cuff that maybe I should ask for my money back. In two minutes I was out the door with a refund. Now have to find a new place, not one of the $1000 for a pair of glasses places. Old glasses falling apart. Cannot get a true refraction, so why buy, but have to. Urrgh! I will quit typing. But physical therapist says they cannot really do much any way for a long term solution.

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    3. Re: Glasses. Costco has good prices, but that doesn’t help you if you don’t have a nearby Costco or aren’t a member.

      I also had good luck with Target Optical. If you’re an AAA member, you get a significant discount plus they often have good sales. You can pay a bit extra for getting a replacement if your glasses break. I never did that, but wished I had the last time I got glasses from there ( twin babies that grab glasses can do a number on glasses frames; I had super glue holding things together for several weeks until I could get my eye exam and a new prescription).

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      1. No Costco. Target here does not have an optical dept. I will wait a week or so until Sandy has through the next step n her medical jouirney. Thanks

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  6. We open presents on Christmas Eve. We always have a fresh Christmas tree. It is also traditional for daughter to plan Thanksgiving dinner, and for all family members to get to choose their birthday dinner and any dessert they want.

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  7. YA and I open gifts on Solstice with a nice fire in the fireplace. We used to do a HUGE yule log that burned all night (and we slept in sleeping bags on the floor) but that piece of the tradition has faded away. On Christmas morning we open stockings (if you believe in Santa, he believes in you) and then go to a movie. Haven’t picked this year’s yet.

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  8. we do birthdays on the day. never the weekend after or before. christmas on christmas morning.
    cheese and regular fondue on christmas eve (added chocolate fondue a year ago . i think it will reappear)
    we stopped doing the black birthday cake on nixons birthday (may have to take it up again on the donalds bd)
    a sip of chivas regal on my dads birthday
    a song to orion every time i see him first time in the fall
    im sure there are others

    wow jacque. the pie thing is incredible. do you do pies in real life ordinarily as part of the deal or only special occasion?

    hows lou? is he ready for pie yet?

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    1. I do pies intermittantly, as needed, not just for special occasions. Lou is still recovering from nasty bug we piCked up from grand nephew at the wedding. He is napping now

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    1. If you post the Raspberry Cream recipe, I can put it in Kitchen Congress (not to mention I’ll be eternally grateful next summer!)

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  10. I’m in awe of your pie talent. Never have been able to do pies…I buy frozen crust…I’m shameless!

    As to “odd” family traditions…we all had Angel Food cakes for our birthdays-it was our favorite (?) or so our mother declared as that was the only one she liked to bake. She was not a cook…I don’t mean that in a bad way…she just didn’t like to bake or cook but angle food cakes turned out so festive looking…I think they just made her happy. They always had a drizzled almond flavored frosting. An angel holding one candle greeted the birthday person at the table with balloons hanging from the kitchen/dining light.

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  11. When I was a child, we would gather almost monthly at various aunts’ and uncles’ places and celebrate all the family birthdays that occurred each month. We had lots of February birthdays as I recall, and that was always a big celebration.

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      1. Mine is a February birthday, as is husband’s, son’s, my mom, my favorite great uncle, my paternal grandfather, and a maternal aunt and uncle. Great Uncle Albert and I shared a birthday, and he always phoned me from his home in Baudette, MN, on our birthday

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      1. As adults with little ones…we’d gather at the lake every summer & celebrate a birthday party night. The youngsters got ‘nice’ gifts…the adults were gag,goofy,silly and mostly cheap. Finding the adult gifts can be a challenge but a lot of fun.

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  12. Raspberry Cream Pie

    1 unbaked or partially baked single pie crust

    Fill with 4 c of fresh raspberries

    mix together:
    2/3 c sugar
    4T. flour
    1/4 t. salt
    1/2 t. cinnamon or allspice
    1c. heavy cream

    Pour over berries. Bake at 400 for 35-45 minutes.

    You can use frozen berries, but add an extra 2 Tablespoon of flour. You may need to bake longer with frozen berries. They are juicier. Don’t thaw berries before baking, but put frozen into the crust.

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    4. what a wonderful and simple recipe.
      berries sugar cream and spice a dasjhh of flour and a dash of salt and its a masterpiece. i love this type of recipe. thanks renee. now if i only had a supply of raspberries to harvest in my yard. i gess i can try it with the berries i pick form the trail on my walks next spring. woo hoo. i will do it

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  13. Forty-six pies is quite the undertaking. Having never baked a pie myself, I’m awestruck. Had to laugh at the idea of you giving that young man a plate of cinnamon whipped cream. Great story.

    Most traditions in my family center around food. Not necessarily related to special occasions, just food. I’ve mentioned before on this blog the tradition of my dad sitting in a lawn chair on our front lawn shooting blackbirds that were feasting on the cherries in our huge cherry tree. This was an annual event at the height of cherry season, and it was my job to carry all the dead birds up to chimney sweep Andersen’s wife. It was her job to clean and prepare them for an evening meal. I’d make numerous trips throughout the day; blackbirds are small, and it takes a lot of them to feed four adults and six kids. I’d trudge back and forth between their house and ours, carrying the dead birds by their feet. At the time it never occurred to me that there was anything unusual about this. In retrospect, I wonder what the neighbors thought. I can’t imagine that there are very many people in the world who have actually eaten blackbirds.

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    1. What a remarkable story! In the Mother Goose rhyme it takes “four and twenty” blackbirds to make a pie. I often made pheasant pie, but it only required two birds.

      My maternal grandmother’s town (Manchester, IA) was once occupied by so many blackbirds that the town declared a special “season” on them. People all over town shot as many blackbirds as possible. My sister and I arrived for a visit the next day. We couldn’t walk the sidewalks without stepping on dead birds. They croaked when we trod on them

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      1. They were, Jacque. Of course, at the time I was six, seven, eight years old, so didn’t really think about it. Now, looking back, I can only imagine the amount of work Fru Andersen had to do to put that meal on the table. I couldn’t say for sure, but I think post-war rationing may have had something to do with not wanting to waste those birds. Surely they were a lot more work to prepare than anyone would do today.

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    4. i often wonder why we are so particular about what we eat and what we dont. the idea of rabbit or squirrel is an appalachian meal that most people in town wouldnt eat and i can see maybe passing on eating skunk but what about other critters. all the critters there are out there it seems odd to me that we limit it to beef and pigs for the most part. the chicken family got picked on, all other birds for choosing got passed . we could be eating bald eagle if the were raised like trkeys to be eaten. clip their wings and bild an aviary to let them fatten up like veal. fish get lumped into the catagory fish but whitefish act as a holding bin for all the unnamed fish that we eat. i have aquaintances who think exotic meat is cool, boar, lion, wildebeast. i guess if i were a nomad living on the african plains or a native american living before the the 1800’s the idea of eating anything that walked wold be different than it is today. why not bear and moose and elk and racoon and porcupine and weasel and snakes and bugs and underwater crustations. i talked with a french gy years ago about how his grandmother would go out after a rain and catch the snails on the sidewalk and bring them home to fatten up in a dish that acted as a coral where the feasted on herbs and butter before being called as special dinner guests. he said they were unbelievabley delicious in italy they eat horse. in china dog and cat and all sorts of things in cages outside of the local diner for the choosing. maybe i dont wonder why we limit it to beef and pigs whe i start naming them off. maybe not at all.

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  14. In many marriages the first years involve artful blending of two different holiday traditions. I suppose there are families for which this is not significant because some people are casual about how they celebrate special days. In my case, the two family Christmas celebrations could not have been more different, and each family was fiercely committed to its style.

    Her family: Christmas was Christmas Eve. My family: Christmas day.

    Her family: Christmas music was traditional European, especially Vienna Boys choir singing in German, and the King’s College celebration was the centerpiece of the whole thing. My family: Jackie Gleason’s orchestra playing pop songs in a sappy, wistful way.

    Her family: Christmas was very traditional and European. My family: could not have been more American and contemporary.

    Her family: the more celebrants, the better, including many guests from other families or even other cultures. My family: just the immediate family, and the very idea of guests was abhorrent.

    Her family: everyone tears into gifts at the same moment, with general chaos, much noise and the flying this way and that of ripped gift paper. My family: each gift is opened in turn, with everyone watching in suspense while one person collects torn wrapping.

    Her family: “it is the thought that counts.” My family: Christmas was the center of her year, and she spent months contemplating and planning the “perfect” gifts for each person.

    Her family: as Catholics, Christmas was all about the Jesus story. My family: there is no Christ in Christmas.

    I could go on.

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    1. Growing up, we always opened one at a time. These days YA and I spend Christmas Eve with good friends… this year there will be 26 of us. One at a time takes FOREVER!!

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  15. Re deaths in Alaska: bodies are too deep in remote spot to do recovery.
    Now, my sister just got an email that our grand daughter’s godfather, husband of my daughter’s maid (really matron) of honor, committed suicide this morning. Depression from Parkinsons, like robin Williams)

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    4. it just dawned on me we are 13 days from the shortest day of the year and the snlight in alaska is a matter of the sn peeking over the horizion for a short short time. driving another plane over the route is going to be challanged by moonlight or not clouds or not in addition to the other factors.
      alaska is such an enigma. i am so sorry for your friend clyde. i cant imagine how you find peace in such a set of circmstances.

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  16. Nothing very odd about my family’s traditions. My sister and I used to make rosettes on Christmas Eve, but these days we usually have to work on Christmas Eve, so we skip it. Something to do in retirement, I suppose.

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  17. We opened gifts on Christmas Eve, like my mom’s family, except if we stayed at my dad’s parents, then it was Christmas morning. We sometimes had oyster stew on Christmas Eve; not sure if it was from my dad’s side (Norwegian) or my mom’s (Swedish). We would then go for a drive, like VS’s family, to look at lights, since we never had any outside.

    I learned to make a Cardamom Wreath Bread from a Sunset Magazine recipe, and I got in the habit of making that for Christmas morning. And if I have my sister around, we’ll do fish (boxed salt cod) and lefse.

    I like to have eggnog in the house during December, and now (thanks to Bill) the candy jar contains the Cadbury milk chocolate balls…

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  18. my childhood was one where my dd worked for his father in law. my moms dad was a construction company owner. he built roads and bridges. drove the new thnderbird every year when i was a kid til he switched to cadillacs
    my dads dad was a bricklayer. very stoic. had a packard because he always wanted one and when my uncle hit it big he bought his dad a packard late 50’s a big old boat that was the thing that made my gradpa feel life was worthwhile.
    for christmas my dad had little money and his family had grown p with a pair of socks and a new pair of underwear as the girts with an orange foe a stocking stuffer.
    my mom was a daughter in the family of a p and coming guy and her mom was a society page kind of woman so when christmas rolled around we all looked forward to grandpa coming by and making certain we knew which wrapping paper was his to be opened in the morning after santa came by.
    i think my dad resented not beiong paid enough to look after his family enough to by gifts like my grandpa did and he was at the same time opposed to the whole idea. he thought the cardboard box was the best gift each year as my mom wanted to shop shop shop.
    my kids grew uop with lots of gifts and we spoiled them rotten. it is a wake up to realize that the world only works that way if you are in that place. if yo are not it is hard to watch. people pissing money away on this that and the next thing when it could be better spent.
    a good healthy view of both sides of the equation.

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  19. It was also tradition that when I was a child and had a really bad cold, my dad would put a bottle of peppermint schnapps in the freezer, get it really cold, and give me a shot of it. I slept really well after drinking that.

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  20. The first of my siblings to get married, Tim was going to wear a white tux. The night before the wedding, my mom said to Tim, “Make sure you wear white socks. We can see through those tux pants and it will ruin all of the wedding pics if you’re wearing black, dress socks. So make sure you wear -white- socks.” Tim said that he had under control.

    The next day, the weather was problematic but everything seemed to be going ok. I was in the church pew next to my mom when she suddenly whispered, “Oh, my Lord…look at Tim’s legs!” Around of each of legs, and plainly visible, were stripes of blue and red. Yes, Tim’s idea of ‘white socks’ were sweat socks…-striped- 1970’s sweat socks. You can see them on all of the pictures. And we always have a good laugh at that.

    But ever since then, someone has had to wear red & blue striped sweat socks as part of their wedding dress.

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      2. so how many variations on how to incorporate withe sox with a red and blue stripe have you to report on and could yo pleasse be specific about how it was done.
        what was your situation at you wedding?
        will yo incorporate it into your next wedding?
        has it shifted to the point where the second generation has embraced this illness? the daughter or son of other family members?

        good to hear from you tgith.

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    1. i love this blog clyce . thanks for putting it up. i havnt had time to get caught up since the november and thus far in december has been challenging but i do love the stories and have sat down 4 or 5 times since october intro to the south of here opening.

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  23. My search for the perfect shampoo: I am supposed to clean my eyelids and eye lashes twice a day, as a part of my psoriatic arthritis dry eyes. It has to be a no tears product. So bought J & J, forgetting the smell of J & J baby products kept me on the edge of sick during my children’s babyhood, made he sick during my grandchildrens babyhood. There is a special product for cleaning eyelids, which my eye dr. mentioned but said baby shampoo was about as good. Well, that product has a scent. Ordered Bert’s Bees no tears, no fragrance, which it turns out smells like honey. My wife bought a product at Hallmark of all places that was a no tears odorless product, except an inch below no fragrance it lists a scent. This is the first time I have had to really battle the issue. I am short of trust right now.

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    2. I thought I had a solution for yuo because Dr. Bronner’s has a baby fragrance free soap (which should be diluted), but it is not tear free. Dang.

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