Pie Making 101

Last week, when I traveled to Brigham City, UT, to give several workshops and a lecture for the wonderful folks at Village Dry Goods quilt shop, several generous and wonderful quilters gave me an afternoon I'll never forget!  A year in the making, that afternoon was spent learning to make pies!

If you remember a few weeks ago when I posted my goals for the New Year, I told you about my 2013 goal to make delicious home-made soups, and to learn to make pies from scratch.  When I posted those goals in January of 2013, I was touched and overwhelmed with many, many emails from my dear blog readers who shared their soup and pie recipes, as well as many good tips and tricks for making pie dough.  Janet O was among them (pictured above on the left).  Janet and I became email pen pals through the year, and when Janet learned of my trip to her home state,  we hatched a plan to get together so she could teach me to make pies!!  This was no small undertaking as Janet lived some distance away, and we obviously needed a kitchen!  Shop owner, Fran, generously allowed us to use her kitchen, and Janet, along with the help of her pal, Kim, hauled several large bins of pie-making kitchen needfuls and ingredients down the snowy canyon for my lesson.  What we won't do for a delicious pie!

Kim, Laurie, RoLayne & Fran & me 

Under Janet's skillful instruction, I made my first successful, tasty pie crust from scratch, and mixed berry (one of my favorites!) filling for my pie.  I'm still so excited!!  

 Janet walked me thru every step, and shared tons of pie making knowledge with us.  Honestly, she can have her own show on the Food Network, she was so professional!!

Not looking too bad!

All topped and ready to go into the oven!!  

Janet not only hauled half the equipment from her kitchen, and all the ingredients for my pie...but brought us two pies for us to eat!  Heaven!  The pie at the top of the photo is a pear pie with a lattice top crust.  The bottom photo is the same mixed berry (Janet calls Razzleberry) pie I made. Aren't they beautiful?!

While my pie baked in the oven, we all enjoyed slices of Janet's pies.  Absolutely delicious!!  

There just aren't words to properly express the generosity given to me by all of the comments & emails I've received by my blog readers.  You're all the best and you make me smile every day!!  Thank you so very much!!

How do I begin to thank Janet for her encouragement, and for the fun, fun day I was able to spend with her making pie in Fran's kitchen?  She put a ton of effort into making this happen, and I'll never forget it.  My heartfelt thanks to you, Janet, for giving me these skills, not to mention wonderful memories.  Special thanks to Fran, for allowing us to invade her kitchen for the afternoon, and to Kim, who drove down the snowy canyon so we could all meet!  Each time I make a pie, I'll certainly be thinking of all of you!!  

I have no doubt....now, I'm going to be a pie making fool!  Yum!

I didn't travel to Village Dry Goods just to make pie!  Look for all the fun stuff we did in my workshops in my next post!!

Click here to enjoy Janet O's blog posts!