Friday, November 26, 2010

RevGals Pie Debate

1) Are pies an important part of a holiday meal?
       If I had to choose which was more important, pie would win out over turkey even.  I made pumpkin, pecan chess and bourbon chocolate pecan.  Long ago, though, I went from apple pie to apple crisp.

2) Men prefer pie; women prefer cake. Discuss.
       I prefer pie over cake any day.  In my immediate family, we used to do birthday pies rather than birthday cakes. 

3) Cherries--do they belong in a pie?
       Yes, but not sweet ones.  Years ago, we could get sour cherries during the season but since I moved back south, I can't find them.  Anyway, I would can lots of cherries and we would have cherry pie all year.  Yum!

4) Meringue--if you have to choose, is it best on lemon or chocolate?
       Lemon definitely.  I don't really like chocolate pie, probably because it is rarely dark chocolate and there's no point in eating any other kind of chocolate.  But meringue is the very best on key lime!

5) In a chicken pie, what are the most compatible vegetables? Anything you don't like to find in a chicken pie?
       Carrots and peas.  When I was a kid, this was about the only way I ate peas.  You can add potatoes if you have to but keep everything else out.  No beans, turnips, parsnips or anything else.

There is only one cake I would ever allow at a Thanksgiving dinner.  That's an apple stack cake.  Our grocery store was selling them last week.  I finally had to tell a manager that what they had was *not* an apple stack cake.  They had taken yellow cake layers, sliced them in half and put apple butter between the layers.  Absolute heresy!  I have experimented with using gingerbread cookie layers rather than sugar cookie ones.  It is good but still not as good as your basic short cookies and applesauce with or without cinnamon.  My aunt uses half applesauce and half apple butter - both home made - but I prefer just applesauce.

Today is the day we eat desserts for breakfast!  I confess pecan pie does not make a good breakfast but I often feel like the only reason I make pumpkin pie and apple crisp is so we can have them first thing in the morning.  A great way to start the day, especially when the weather is lousy like today.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Thanks!

Here’s my Thanksgiving prayer.  If anything in it leads you into your own prayer, you have my permission to stop listening to the sermon and go where prayer takes you.


Good and gracious God, I thank you that I am not a wandering Aramean. At the same time, I thank you that my ancestors were. I cannot begin to imagine the hardship they faced, the days of wondering if it was worth it or whether it would just be better to lie down and die. I thank you that they remained faithful followers of yours, trusting that the Lord their God was there always.
I thank you, too, that I did not have to find my way through the wilderness of this country when it was settled. I wonder sometimes what made people move off the coastlands and start walking towards the mountains. Thank you for those who had the zeal for exploration. I know that I can live here between the Cumberland Plateau and the Smokies because people living many years before me made it possible.

And thank you for the circuit riders and family Bibles, the tent meetings and riverside baptisms. As much as I love my mostly proper Episcopal Church, I am truly thankful for all of the men and women that made sure wherever they went on this huge continent, you went with them.

Thank you, God, that I got to make the decision to follow your loving Son after the crucifixion/resurrection. I confess that I wonder sometimes if I would have done what the crowd did and allowed myself to be swayed from Hosanna to Crucify. I am most thankful to have been spared that particular temptation.

You see, God, I don’t think I have what it takes to be a wanderer or to settle land that doesn’t look like it would support any crop other than more trees and rocks. I’m not sure I would remember to be faithful in prayer and reading of Scripture and tradition if I didn’t have a church community to worship with me. And I see so many people who, when confronted with adversity, turn away from you. It isn’t that I have lived a charmed life with no difficult decisions or times when I have felt alone. There have been plenty of those and I suspect there are more of those times in store before I leave this mortal coil. But all of those who have walked with you before I ever came to be and those who taught me to walk with you and with them have made it possible for me to give you thanks even when I cannot see the light anywhere.  And thanks for those who taught me to walk this Way.

So, on the eve of the day which we set aside to be thankful, I want to give you thanks especially for your peace. It really is beyond all understanding and I like that about it. I am a better person knowing that your peace guards my heart and my mind in Christ. May I keep on doing the things you have given me to do and may others come to walk with you because you walk with me.

Thank you.