A Traditional Farm Life - Never Fail Pie Crust

A Traditional Farm Life

By Shasta Hamilton

Greetings from Enterprise, dear friends!  There are three watermelon plants emerging from the newly worked soil at the foot of the steps off our back deck.  If I were writing in May this would not be unusual, but it is already the second week of September.

My oldest daughter recently pulled out the weeds and hoed up this small area in hopes of planting some fall flowers.  She scattered the seed, and we are patiently waiting to see what comes up.  With the rain showers we’ve had recently, we just might have a chance.

It just so happens that our back porch stoop was the place our children were recently eating watermelon and spitting the seeds into the weeds. The weeds are now gone, but the seeds found their way into the freshly turned earth and are doing what seeds do when conditions are right—germinate.

Carpe diem.  If I can remember back to my high school English class in the early 90’s, this Latin phrase means something like, “Seize the day.”

While their future is all too uncertain, our little watermelon friends are seizing what my husband and I have referred to over the years as “a carpe diem moment.”

Probably our favorite carpe diem moment happened about twelve years ago when my husband was pastor of a small church plant in Fredericksburg, Texas.  Our oldest son was just getting his sea legs and learning to walk from the couch, to the chair, to the coffee table, etc.  My sister-in-law sent a care package including one of those jumbo-sized boxes of Cheerios—every toddler’s favorite snack food.

The details are now foggy, but we must have opened the care package on the coffee table in the living room, opening up the box of Cheerios as well to give our little guy a treat.

I left the room, leaving the opened Cheerio box on the coffee table.  Upon returning I found the vast majority of the Cheerio box emptied upon the coffee table, and our toddler grabbing fist fulls of Cheerios and stuffing them into his mouth as fast as humanly possible.

Carpe diem!

This afternoon my husband took a trailer of scrap metal to the “back 40” to unload.  The appointed spot was a concrete slab upon which an outbuilding once stood many years ago.  Our two oldest boys recently finished scooping off the years of dirt that had settled on the concrete, and swept it clean to accommodate its new re-purposed future.

As it turns out, this re-claimed spot just happens to adjoin our youngest children’s play area.  We were amused to find the concrete pad had been taken over by a Tonka truck construction crew in the short time since the dirt and weeds had been cleared.  After what seemed like scores of plastic loaders and dump trucks were removed from the premises, the afternoon project was completed.

Our six-year-old son wouldn’t be able to translate the phrase, “carpe diem,” but he sure knows what it means!

It might be a stretch to try to roll carpe diem and pie crusts together in the same sentence, but if you’re ready to “seize the day” and make a pie (like last week’s All-American Apple), you can’t go wrong with this recipe from an old family friend and accomplished cook.

Never Fail Pie Crust

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup lard or shortening

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 egg

1 tablespoon white vinegar

5-6 tablespoons cold water

1.  In large bowl, mix together flour and salt; cut in lard or shortening until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

2.  In measuring cup, beat together egg, vinegar, and water with a fork.

3.  Add liquid to flour mixture and toss with fork until flour mixture is moistened and makes a ball when squeezed together.  Add additional cold water if needed a tablespoon at a time.

4.  Divide into 4 equal pieces.  Shape into round balls and then into flattened disks.

5.  Place on disk between floured sheets of waxed paper and roll from center out until crust edges meet the edges of waxed paper.  (Turn over occasionally and remove and reposition waxed paper to remove wrinkles, sprinkling on flour if necessary to avoid sticking.)

6.  Remove top sheet of waxed paper.  Center pie pan over exposed crust and invert; remove second sheet of waxed paper.  Gently ease crust into pie pan. 

7.  For a single crust pie, trim off extra crust, leaving 1/2” hanging over the edge of the pan; fold under and crimp edge.  For a double crust pie, trim off bottom crust using edge of pie pan as a guide.  Fill as desired, roll out top crust and place over filling.  Trim edges leaving 1/2” hanging over edge of pie pan.  Tuck this extra under the bottom crust to seal contain juices; crimp to finish the seal.  Cut vents to allow steam to escape and proceed as your recipe directs.

Yield:  4 single or 2 double crusts.

Copyright © 2015 by Shasta Hamilton

Shasta is a fifth generation rural Kansan now residing in Enterprise, Kansas.  She and her husband own and operate The Buggy Stop Home-Style Kitchen with their six home-schooled children.  You can reach The Buggy Stop by calling (785) 200-6385 or visit them on the web at www.thebuggystoprestaurant.com.

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