I love a well-stocked pantry. It makes me feel good to can and freeze food so that I can pull out good, wholesome “fast food” to serve at a moment’s notice. My husband, Bud loves pie. One summer, we had a bumper crop of butternut squash, so I reasoned it would be a great idea to make some of these up into pies and freeze them. I rolled
enough piecrust to build a driveway, prepared large kettles of pie filling, and kept my oven going till I had fifty-two beautiful butternut pies ready for the freezer. My kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off, but I was proud of those pies as I wrapped them and stacked them in the freezer, anticipating the pleasure of pulling out a pie from time to time to enjoy after a good meal with family and friends, along with a good story.
It didn’t exactly work out as I planned. I hadn’t taken Bud’s love of pie into consideration but I did get a good story out of the deal. Bud was delighted with “his” pies. All the food at our house undergoes an immediate conversion the minute it is cooked and becomes “his” as in, “Is there any more of my apple pie?” or “Who ate the last piece of MY pie?” I wouldn’t dream of making a dessert to take to work without making an identical one for home. I don’t know if he would be more hurt if I “ran around” or “cooked around” on him. He still hasn’t forgiven me for giving away a strawberry-rhubarb pie over twenty years ago and still brings it up regularly.
Anyway, Bud and I had pie after dinner that night. It was delicious. He finished the pie off the next day after lunch. When he went to get “his” pie after dinner that night and found the pies all frozen, he was horrified. I explained to him, again, that I made them to freeze and serve over the next few months. Apparently, my first explanation had gone straight over his head, like so much of my mindless babbling. (We’ve been married fifty_two years. That’s how it works.) Frozen, in relationship to food he was planning to eat right then, is the F word at our house. We try to avoid it.
Heartbroken and betrayed, he self-righteously pulled a pie from freezer and left it on the counter to thaw overnight. He consoled himself with butternut squash pie for breakfast the next morning, adding it to his new breakfast menu. That was just the start. Unless there was another dessert on the menu, you can bet Bud had butternut squash pie, sequentially going through that mountain of pies in less than three months. When I had the satisfaction of eating the last, lonely piece of the final pie, Bud spoke what were very nearly his last words, “You ate my pie!”
Cute 🙂 And very hilarious–as most of what you write is!
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I love your concept of “fast food” ☺
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I know “everything is bigger” in the US, but your freezer and pantry must be the size of the average British house to get all that in!
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Well I have a refrigerator in the house, a second one(given to me) and a big stand freezer in the garage. I have a pantry that is about 4 x 8. I don’t know why the original owners built it so big, but it is nice.
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Reblogged this on Nutsrok and commented:
Reblog of an old post of mine
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Man, I’m with Bud on this one! I’m not a “baker of pies” (or any other baked goods!), so when there’s a pie in OUR HOUSE, you’d best not be giving it away (RHUBARB or any other kind of pie!!!) 🙂
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That’s what he says.
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Thanks for following my blog. We just returned from rural Illinois, where I grew up and my daughter now lives with her family. I miss the family farm in nearby Indiana, and the long summers I spent there. Your stories are certainly evocative of those days.
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I guess all farm must be a lot alike. Thanks for reading and commenting.
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Learning tons and tons.
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Why thank you. What do you do? I am a retired RN, wife, mother, and Grandmother living in Louisiana. I love to write, cook, read, garden, be outdoors, and camp. I like my life to be as simple as possible.
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I am a teacher, single mother, part time newscaster, and writer. I love to write but dislike cooking. I get amazed when I see all your recipes.
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I love cooking. It feels so nurturing, offering up the best of what I have to those I love. Today it was cold and I made soup. Canned home grown tomatoes, spinach, and onions, herbs from my garden with canned beef from my pantry. Oh yes, also added home canned tomatoes and carrots. Served cornbread steaming from the oven. I was lucky enough to share lunch with my husband and Mother. Will take some to my husband’s aunt when I visit tomorrow. Family is such a treasure. I thank God everyday. I wish I could share with you, too, my friend.
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What I would give to be a part of that meal!
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That’s simple?!
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Well, I guess I meant I like to do the things I love and not introduce drama. I don’t a lot of entertainment or distraction to be happy.
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i was just looking at that list of yours and it was enough to exhaust me!
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I have ADD. Does that surprise you?
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No! And it explains a lot 🙂
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It does, doesn’t it?
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🙂
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I rarely cook but I do make a chocolate pie almost every day. I tried to have chocolate pudding with cool whip take the place of the pie but that was a definite no go. It was back to rolling dough, pudding from scratch and whipping the cream the very next day.
Your storytelling is superb, I’ll be reading more.
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You must make a mean chocolate pie. Have you ever added peanut butter to the hot pudding? It will make you hurt yourself. What do you do with all those pies? I hope you have the help of a expert pie eater. I am so glad you are enjoying my stores. Can I recommend “Mixed Nuts”, “I Wish They’d Had ADD When I Was a Kid” and “Cookie and Uncle Riley?” I had so much writing those. I am currently writing “Rubberneck” with the intention of posting it tonight, but think you’d enjoy if you’d already met “Cookie and Uncle Riley.” Like all of my stories they are real stories of my relatives too crazy to be fiction. I laughed the whole time I wrote both of them.
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My husband loves Butternut squash, I never thought of making a pie out of it.
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Just use your pumpkin pie recipe. I like to add coconut too.
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My pumpkin pie recipe is made by Mrs.Smith… 😉
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Fine woman, Mrs. Smith. She has saved many marriages!
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Your story of Bud and “his” pies made me laugh out loud! I love anything with butternut in it; the pies sound delicious. I think that preserving fresh, home-grown food is becoming a lost art; partially because it can be a lot of work–but well worth it! 🙂
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The pies were great, and just like Bud, they were hard work but well-worth it. There’s nothing sweeter than a man whose pie needs are met.
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Right now in my pantry, I have 240 quarts preserved. This includes canned meat I buy when it is marked down. I never pay full price for meat. I also have chicken and dumplings, tortilla soup, three bean soup, chili, Swiss steak, Spaghetti sauce with meatballs, and Italian vegetable soup with home made sausage. It feels so good to have fresh garden food in the middle of winter. This is wonderful “fast food,” a healthy meal from last summer ready in minutes.
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I think the art of preserving is alive and well at your house!!! Your “fast food” sounds wonderful! 🙂
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Thanks.
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I loved the story of Bud and his pies…. Very nice story. I have similar stories that come from my 30 years of marriage. Althought I do not do pies … It is very difficult! How you do the pies? I do not know how to make a pie mass.
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Well, I just multiply the ingredients
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I will be glad to tell you how if you want me to.
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