What I would have written ...

This is the picture that I took on Saturday for the blog I intended to write last night.  I wanted to call it 'Traditions' and I would have told you about Great-Aunt Angie and how she used to make this pie for seemingly the whole world.  I can remember the first year that Aunt Angie decided that all the pies were just too much and gave my grandmother, her sister, half a pie which left us with barely a bite each.  I guess, when you see 80 come and go, pie for the extended family is a bit much.

I was going to tell you how the year after the year that we only had half a pie, I started a movement for the next generation to learn the recipe.  I was swamped at work, and despite working till early that Saturday morning, made my way to Brooklyn where it turned out, I was the only one of the next generation not to bale.  I didn't really consider being alone with Aunt Angie until, upon my arrival, she gave me the itinerary:  first, we'll have a muffin and some coffee, then we'll make the dough, then we'll eat lunch while the dough sits, then we'll make the pies and then, if you want, we can have dinner.  Um, ok?  So, I'm spending 12 hours with Great Aunt Angie??? I actually made it home for dinner, but the pie IS a day long affair.  I understood why she hesitated to make them for everyone and their brother (literally) because rolling the dough is HARD.

The Easter after my lesson, I made 6 pies all by myself.  It took 6 hours and there was flour EVERYWHERE.  Last year my friend Carrie helped me ... it still took 6 hours but the flour was more contained and it was more fun.  This year, as evidenced by the picture, there were more pies.  When I was waiting at the deli for the supplies to be sliced, the deli guy asked me "what I needed all this stuff for."  When I told him, he said "I didn't think people of your generation did this."  

In the blog I intended to write, I would have told you how I thought back to my day with Aunt Angie and realized that maybe people of my generation don't make pie.  But pie on Easter is a tradition and I want to keep it up ... this year, Carrie and Lisa came over and they each brought a rolling pin.  We ate sushi and drank wine and rolled three pies at a time.  It only took 2.5 hours.  I wanted to sum up with my modern take on the tradition - you don't have to be a stereotypical little old Italian lady to make pie, it doesn't have to take days and days of back breaking dough making, it can be three friends, three rolling pins, some wine, spicy tuna rolls and good conversation.  It can be fun.  And you CAN get pies on Easter ....

Unless, when the phone rings Easter morning its not Grandma asking when you are leaving and when she should put the water for the ravioli on.  Instead its Grandpa saying that Grandma fell and dislocated her shoulder, he called 911 and they're at the hospital.  When they're finally home you begin the hour drive and when you get there you realize that the situation is a disaster.  In one stir of the pot they went from getting by to not.  And in our world of easy fixes, this situation does not have one.  But you realize that even the hard fixes can't happen on Easter night so you put the water on for the ravioli because you have to eat.  And then you realize that you left the pie at home.