Who Makes Pie Crusts Anyway?

Even though I was asking myself the question "Who makes pie crusts?," I was quick to respond with a "Yes" to the invitation to learn to do so.  This bid to be a participant in the "class" was partly due to the fact that I have eaten the hosting Chaplain's wife's food on more than one occasion, and it has always been a delight.  Of course, she is gifted and has used that gift for a portion of her life as a caterer, owning a couple of  food businesses during those years.  I was fortune enough to meet her three years ago at Ft. Jackson, and she was then and still is now using this gift as a ministry on the base or post to which God sends her and her husband.  There was no way that I would miss this opportunity to learn to make pie crusts!

The invitation gave time and place as well as the ingredients to bring, in the event the attendees wanted to take a pie crust home.  Cool idea!  Immediately, I realized that my choice to pack lightly left me with no large mixing bowls and even had I been bringing everything from my kitchen at home, I would never have packed a rolling pin!  So, with that little confession, dear reader, you must realize that I am one of those women who go to the frozen section of the grocery store to get pie crusts.

What a class!  It was a huge amount of information and fun all rolled up in dough.  After having witnessed this process, I found my mind wandering to the two special people in my life who made their pies entirely from scratch--Mrs. Katie Welch (now in Heaven) and Mrs. JoAnn Vincent!  These two ladies rivaled each other in creating the very best coconut cream pies complete with homemade crusts that I have ever eaten in my life!  After long days at high school, I was so blessed to sit at the dining room table along with Mrs. Welch and her daughters Jennifer and Jane, my buddies and adopted sisters, and devour a healthy serving of coconut or chocolate pie as an afternoon snack with a glass of the best sweet tea ever!  Several years later in life, I would go to church dinners and make a run for a piece of coconut pie made by Mrs. JoAnn Vincent because it was common knowledge that if you waited until you had eaten your meal and then return to the dessert table for her pie, you would be sorely disappointed to find none left.  Oh my!  My mouth is salivating as I think of those pies!

I don't know if I will ever be a terrific maker of pie crusts, but this I do know:  there are some skills worth acquiring and keeping alive, and then there are some women who impact our lives in the best of ways, and I am thankful for the opportunity to have sampled some of both.