Sure, we've all heard of blackberry pie. Most of us have probably had it and loved it. Maybe in summertime with some vanilla ice cream melting ambitiously on top. It's pretty fricken good.
But have you heard of Winter Blackberry Pie?
Because at Finny's house, it is something of a phenomenon.
About six years ago when I started dating Bubba, I started this phenom by innocently freezing the remnant filling from my regularly scheduled blackberry pie. Because I have an issue with waste. Because as I was staring at this last few cups of pie filling all I could think of was sweating my ass off on the hottest day of the year (every year I manage to choose the hottest day somehow) so I could make this pie. Because I could, then, not bear the thought of watching it slide down the garbage disposal.
So, despite lack of space in our freezer (this was back in my Green Box days, a story I'll recount another time), I wedged the bulging Ziploc between the ground beef and a tower of Green Boxes for futures.
Futures came sometime in February when, due to an extreme lack of funds, I was staring helplessly into my freezer for something, ANYTHING, to make/bake/fake for dinner. It was then that I spied the bag of purplish goo frozen into an obscene shape hanging out in the back of my freezer. It was lying next to a discarded frozen pie crust.
Fate!
So, after a long-ish dip in a sink of hot water, the blackberry filling went into the crust (this was before the pastry-cutter came into my life and changed pie crust forever), pie went into the oven and the real reason Bubba asked me to marry him came into being. And, yeah, we ate pie for dinner because that's just how we roll.
Winter Blackberry Pie = Your normal blackberry pie produced in the rainy doldrums of winter when it can be truly appreciated and upheld as the ultimate winter dessert and reason to propose marriage to its creator.
So, now, every summer when I come home with a TJ's bag full of Ziplocs each containing the approximate amount of berries for pies and batches of jam, I clear out a little space in the freezer for the fateful bag of leftie-over filling from which will be produced the ever-famous Winter pie.
Because Bubba smiles real big when I make it and I get to reminisce about summer while it rains and the fireplace warms Rocket's ass.
Yet another day I wish I lived close to the Fin and the Bubba. Damn it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, next time I have a boyfriend and we make it more than oh, two dates, remind me about this winter pie = engagement equation. K?
That's a great shot of Rocket. She almost looks approachable. ;-) Oh, how we love you Rocket!! Ale sends you a big bacio!
ReplyDeleteI've never made a pie. But I did make chicken pot pie the other night with a pre-made frozen pie crust, and I have to say I was pretty proud of myself there.
Next time I visit let's make pie, shall we? You can teach me how to acquire this skill, and Ale will say it is the scrumptiousest.
i like your pie story. it brought back some sweet memories from the day my grandfather died years ago.
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