PIES -- MMMMMM

My parents were divorced when I was quite young. When i was about 15 or 16 my Dad told me one day that he missed his mother's Lemon Meringue pie. He said all he could ever find was lemon meringue pie that was made out of pudding. I asked a few more questions and found out that he wanted lemon meringue pie made from scratch with lemon juice and thickened with corn starch. That began my search for the perfect recipe. Well, come Thanksgiving, which I have made for my family since I was about 15 or 16, I made Daddy a lemon meringue pie from scratch. It was quite a hit and Daddy was so excited to have this pie. It fast became a tradition to have lemon meringue pie for each Thanksgiving.

This year is no different. I planned to make 2 lemon meringue pies and I thought it might be fun to do 2 lime meringue pies this year too. Well, the word got out to my kids that I was only making 2 lemon pies. Yesterday they came down for an intervention to tell me that I was totally nuts and that I had to make at least 4 lemon pies. I could make all the lime pies I wanted but they wanted their lemon pies. My husband has decided that his favorite pie is cherry pie, so if I did not make at least 2 cherry pies, then I was not administering to his needs. Well my favorite is French apple and apple is also my son's favorite. So the tally for pies for this Thanksgiving is 10 made by me. 2 lime meringue, 4 lemon meringue, 2 cherry, 2 French apple. My niece is bringing a key lime and my sister in law is bringing 2 pumpkin pies. That is a total of 13 pies. I believe we are having 16 people come for dinner!! So if anyone out there would like a piece of pie I think we could spare a piece -- LOL.

I had a great time today making pies. One of my sons kind of likes to cook and spent the day helping me make pies. It is a lot of fun to have the one on one time with him. He is 19 and just fun to be around. It is amazing to me how important holiday traditions are to my children. I never understand their improtance when the children were little, but as they have grown up they have refused to let me change the traditions. Those are the things that bind families together.

I think making pies is worth all the love it brings!!!