The Pie Legacy - Updated for Friday Foto Friends

This post was originally written on 5/5/2012...and since this Friday Foto Friends day also is the Friday before Mother's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share this one today.  I wish I could say that those pies were just baked by me here today...but alas...that hasn't happened in a while!  It's been a bit too warm for pie baking here recently...but reading this sure makes me want some of my mother's pies again!  

So, I hope you won't mind this little walk down memory lane with me today as we look forward to Mother's Day and invite our Friday Foto Friends  to come in for a taste of homemade pie! Click HERE to go over to Deb's at Breathing in Grace and meet our other Friday Foto Friends

Original Post 5/5/2012:

"Her children rise up and call her blessed..."  Proverbs 31:28

I really hadn't planned to write about my mother today...but somehow I haven't been able to get away from the memories...so I may as well put it into writing...

It all started when my husband suggested that I make some homemade applesauce today, and he proceeded to peel and cut up the apples. Since he was doing the hardest part...I suggested that perhaps I should just make an apple pie instead of applesauce.  We then took a vote of all the family members present...two of our adult sons and us...and as you can imagine, everyone voted for pie!  Therefore I proceeded to take stock of my ingredients to make sure I had everything I needed...and of course I just happened to have everything...so there was no getting out of it today!

My Mom---Always enthusiastically baking
pies for every holiday...even the 4th of July!

So, what does that have to do with my mother?  Well, only that my mother was somewhat famous for her pie baking...not just in our home and family, but even in the small town in which we lived...everyone loved Dorothea's pies!  Town's people often requested that she bake pies for them for their Thanksgiving dinners and paid her for them!  I don't know how she found the time to do it! She worked a full time job and had a pretty busy life with her own home and family and church activities as well...but somehow she found the time and the recipients of her delicious home-made pies were always most grateful! 

Because my mother's pies were always so scrumptious and perfectly baked...right down to the tender, flaky crust, I was always a little timid about baking pies, knowing that mine could never be quite as perfect as my mother's! But that's okay...I prefer to remember hers as always being the best...no matter how much I may practice. Her two most famous pies were  #1: Coconut Cream Pie with Meringue, and #2: Apple.  She also made Mince Meat pies for my Dad and my brothers at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that would not make the top of the list for me!  Her Pumpkin pie was also a great favorite.



This weekend (in 2012 when this was written) happens to be the 6th anniversary (now, in 2017, it has been 11 years) of my mother's passing on to glory...and as I stood at my kitchen counter rolling out the pie dough I couldn't help but think about the fact that I was, in my own way, carrying on her legacy. Not that my pies will ever be as spectacular as hers...but they will be a way that I can honor her memory and continue the tradition of making something extra special for my family to enjoy.

My son quietly came in and took some pictures of me working in the kitchen...and as I looked at them later, I thought, "I really don't look much like my mother, but I felt like her today...and I sensed her presence with me, looking over my shoulder as I worked the pie dough and and as I put the ingredients together to make the pie just the way I know she would've done.  It was an ethereal connection...as if she was standing next to me, just a breath away, and I found that very comforting.

Upon looking forward to Mother's Day next week with mixed emotions as I have for the past six  (now 11) years, I find myself still missing her just as much this year as I did the first Mother's Day without her, (which incidentally was the Sunday following her death).  They say it gets easier with time, and perhaps it does...but what I find now is that I want to celebrate my mother's life rather than be sorrowful.  My mother was a godly woman with many wonderful talents and qualities.  She wasn't perfect...but she was the Proverbs 31 woman in so many ways. I thank God for that heritage most of all. 

"Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her;

Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.  Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." 

Proverbs 31:28-31

This Coconut Cream Pie, baked from my mother's recipe, was an afterthought today, when I
realized I had made too much pie crust for one pie!  It was a
delightful afterthought, I might say!

My husband definitely gave the Coconut Cream Pie a Thumbs Up!

Mmmm...Apple pie---fresh out of the oven...almost as
good as Mama's!

Anybody want some pie?  Y'all come!

Baked in loving memory of my mother,

Dorothea Tedlie Mursch

January 6, 1917 ~ May 7, 2006

I love you Mama.