A number of years ago I had decided to make a cherry pie for dessert.
I had the oven pre-heated, the rest of the meal was in the works, the crusts rolled out and ready to be used.
As you may know, it requires TWO cans of cherry pie filling to make a cherry pie. I opened one can and poured it into the waiting pie crust. I took the plastic lid off of the other can so I could pop it open for use only to discover it somehow had an imperfection in its closing and the filling had started leaking out by the pop top ring and there was green mold growing on it.
Dang.
I was far enough along in the process to not have time to stop everything, go to the store, buy another can and get back home in time for this pie to be ready for eating that evening. There were no other pie fillings in the house. Doggone it...
Oh, wait! I did have something else I could use to fill it out and make a full pie.
So I opened up the jar and put some in the cherry pie filling, lovingly placed the top crust on and baked it - hoping for the best.
I did not mention to anyone what I had done and I really should tell you that I am laughing out loud thinking of this misadventure right now, making it a little tricky to type!
So the pie bakes up in its own lovely pie-ness (new word) and cools for consumption.
We eat our meal which I can not begin to tell you what we had to eat for the meal. This cherry pie story completely overwhelms the rest of the meal.
I bring the pie out and cut and serve it. The hubby (Ruben) and both sons, Dante and Troy are looking forward to dessert with great appetite. We just don't have dessert every night and this is a treat.
Troy plows in to his pie (he's maybe 15 or 16 here), chews thoughtfully and asks me "What kind of pie is this?"
"It's cherry pie." I respond with a straight face and in a serious tone.
He takes another bite, chews it and is obviously trying to figure out what IS that other flavor in there? "Cherry and what else?" he finally asks.
Okay I have to admit that at this point keeping a straight face is pretty much out of the question as he has a look on his face that screams a belief he is somehow being duped.
I start laughing as I say "Mincemeat." My explanation as to my resorting to mincemeat is so ignored. I like mincemeat, personally. My sons - oh not so much.
Roll forward these several years. Cherry - mincemeat pie is NOT forgotten. I receive many reminders from my sons over the years and we actually all laugh about it. So on Friday (2/1/2013) I get on SKYPE with Troy and he starts relating a story to me.
His opening commentary is "Well, I have a story to top the cherry-mincemeat pie, mom. That was really mean by the way."
It was NOT mean - you just read my explanation!!
Troy continued. "I made us lunch today. We had some gnocchi, I made a salad for the lady (as he frequently refers to my lovely daughter-in-law) and we were both in the mood for some dessert. So I go into the kitchen, cut this chocolate in half to share it equally, and I take a bite out of mine." He holds up the two pieces and you can clearly see there is a bite out of part of it.
"Then I think, hmm. This is not chocolate. Oh - it's soap!"
When we had gone on our vacation out West last year I had run across the cutest little white bear shaped soaps at Yellowstone and I bought two Buffalo shaped soaps for Dante and Troy as well. I had put them aside as little stocking-stuffers for them.
Troy CLAIMED that these several hours later his tongue was still numb from the bite of soap. Come on - have you ever in your life seen chocolate wrapped in ONLY cellophane with no label on it? Food always has some label on it.
I guess this will also go down with the charcoal cookies I bake all of the time. STOP!! I am actually a good cook. ONE SINGLE time I put cookies back in the oven for just one minute more and completely forgot about them. They did look like charcoal when I remembered. But that was one single time!!!
Family. Let's share those good times.
Remember to check for your food labels!
