The proof is in the pie

A couple weeks ago I decided to make Lemon Meringue pie! Now most of you would probably think "big deal", as much as I talk about food chances are I probably bake a pie every now and then. The truth is, I had not baked a Lemon Meringue Pie in 13 years! That’s right! I love pie, it's my favorite dessert I prefer fruit pies, none of those Bostoncream pies or Oreo cookie pies but fresh, home made berry and fruit pies!

They are reminiscent of my childhood, growing up my mom made everything from scratch and in the summer it was all about berries and pies growing up in Quebec. We even picked our own berries, we would make it a big family outing, and we didn’t go to those farms on the site of the road with signed “Pick your Own”, no, we’d go to the woods and find berry patches, do you realize how dreadful it is to pick blueberries in the heat of August when you're 5??? Pretty darn dreadful, but the rewards are so sweet! There's nothing like a fresh warm piece of blueberry pie eaten after a good swim on a warm summer night and even more satisfying when you picked your own berries. My siblings and I swore at times we recognized the berries we had picked and would have fights over the very big ones, we just "knew" we picked the biggest raspberry or blueberry! Sometimes people try to feed me store bought crust and call it home made, but I always know the first bite I take. People have tried to fool me before and then they'd say something like "oh well I rolled it myself and dropped in the filling!!! THAT's not home made my friend, sorry!

Back to the Lemon Meringue pie, I used to make pies with my mom, I didn't even have to look at recipes anymore, I could just make dough, roll dough, drop whatever in the middle throw it in the oven and I’d have a pie so it was quite surprising one day when I made my Lemon Meringue pie and the meringue wouldn't work, so I tried and tried, I am not a quitter normally but after trying several times I just gave up and never made it again, so what I’m a tad bit stubborn! But with summer coming around the corner and I had these large lemons and it was just calling my name, I had to make it! And it was a success, well the meringue was, I was so focused on my meringue that I didn't quite perfect the filling, but that's something I can easily fix and definitely won’t wait 13 years!

That same week end I was talking with my son about my friends, how each one of them is so different, I have about 4 girlfriends that I am very close to and have known for some time now and each one of them is completely different from the other. I was out and about with one of them later that day and it struck me how she can be kind of like a lemon meringue pie, a little finicky and needy and everything has to be just so for it to be just right, yet so sweet and giving and fresh. You have to treat the lemon pie differently then the other ones because it's a bit more fragile but then so rewarding when you get to enjoy it!!! So all this comparison with this friend made me think about how each friend is just like a different pie, for example I have this life long friend, she can be best described as an apple pie, reliable and always exactly what you need when you reach for it. Warm and inviting, you just can't say no to a piece of apple pie. Then there's strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb makes no excuses for what it is, it just is, it knows where it stands and what it wants, but then you mix it up with a little strawberry, which is what happened to one of my friends a few years ago when she got a child and it softened some of those hard characteristic, but you can always count on the rhubarb to come through and tell you just how it is! Can't argue with that, rhubarb will get you to settle down and not be so aloof. And last but not least there's the blueberry pie, sweet and a little emotional, I mean blueberry pie is very nostalgic, but there's something about it that's so comforting and when you eat it it's like coming home, it knows your secrets and you know they’re safe right where they are. Blueberry pie is a bit darker and juicier then the others, a good mix of the good and the bad together, where you can just be yourself and surrender to it a little!

So maybe you know just what kind of pie you are or maybe you are still working on perfecting yourself, that’s the beauty of pie, it’s a little different every time!

Love you friends!

I should have taken a picture of my own pie but i ate it too quickly so here is an image from The Spill blog