Gratitude in the kitchen

Even my short circuiting led to a very good moment

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I jumped off the traditional holiday dinner ship during our first pandemic Thanksgiving. My kids and I made six sweet and savory pie varieties, which is a lot of pie for our family of four. That said, it felt like a fun and necessary diversion given the times, and we did several socially distanced pie drops for loved ones who lived alone and were following the rules of not attending super spreader gatherings. No pie went to waste!

In the years since, we have continued to focus exclusively on pie, which has been an absolute delight. Other than mashed potatoes (one of Violet’s favorites all year round), nobody in my house seems to care about traditional Thanksgiving food so we just don’t bother making it. And when we attend Thanksgiving gatherings, the hosts always seem thrilled to have us on pie duty.

This year, as I was mulling over pie ideas, I thought it would be fun to try making all bite-sized treats. I figured these would be more work, but also a fun experiment with, and would make for easier transport, sampling delight, and less cleanup—no serving or eating utensils required!

Making these little treats did require a little more effort and offered many tiny moments of delight, discovery, and gratitude. For example:

• We received a Cuisinart for our wedding 24 years ago and though it is definitely worn, it’s still going strong. This appliance made easy work of knocking together a triple batch of basic pie dough + one batch of pumpkin spice dough, as well as pulverizing graham crackers for mini cheesecakes.

• Speaking of old workhorses, in 2007 I bought an inexpensive postage scale to weigh and send orders for my paper design company Posh Peacock. Several years ago I moved the scale from my office to the kitchen and I love any recipe that offers weight measurements since measuring by weight saves time and dishes while also ensuring more accurate results.

• Sticky notes helped me keep track of all sorts of things during my pie prep and execution, including keeping doughs straight.

• I prepped all of the pie doughs on Tuesday night after work and before Laurel arrived from New York. On Wednesday it was so delightful to have Laurel’s company for pie baking. Two of the mini pie recipes required press in cookie crusts that ended up being a bit of effort to press into regular and mini muffin tins. But with the two of us chatting away, it was great fun!

• I needed equal parts of strawberry, blackberry, and blueberries for my mixed berry hand pies, but since these fruits are not in season right now, they’re more expensive fresh and don’t taste as sweet. Instead, I was already planning on grabbing individual bags of frozen fruit at Trader Joe’s and it turned out they had frozen mixed berries in the exact mix of strawberry, blackberry, and blueberry that I needed. And then I checked how much fruit I needed by weight and one bag was exactly what I needed. Tiny efficiencies like that make me so happy!

• Several years ago I got a new rolling pin, inspired by one I saw on the Great British Baking Show. The rolling pin has adjustable circles on the ends so you can roll out dough to a specific thickness, which means that you don’t have uneven bakes. So handy!

• Three of the four mini pie recipes I decided to make were new to me. As I was reading the key lime recipe I was puzzled by how the custard would firm up without cornstarch. I then read a little further and the recipe indicated that part of the magic of this recipe is that citrus is all that is needed to thicken the mixture. Turns out, as soon as I poured the lime juice into the cream it was like magic, just like when I hack buttermilk by adding lemon juice to whole milk. Food science is awesome.

• Baking together was how I “played” with my kids starting when they were toddlers and they are now so proficient in the kitchen. Many years ago I stopped referring to them as helpers because they are legit partners in the kitchen. It made me so happy hearing Laurel and Violet laugh, chat, and plan their handiwork as they piped the cute little chocolate-vanilla mini pies.

• By the time the pumpkin pie (I made a basic one for home), key lime mini pies, and chocolate-vanilla mini pies were complete, and the mixed berry hand pies were totally prepped (I finished the dough roll out, cut, fill, and bake Thanksgiving morning for freshness), my brain short circuited and I felt incapable of following any other instructions. Earlier that day I added mini cheesecakes to my plan since we were prepping to bring treats to two Thanksgiving gatherings and I was concerned about having enough. Seeing my short circuit, Laurel and Violet totally took over and crushed it. I fell in line with the brainless task of washing dishes and I was so grateful for their competence in the kitchen!

Here’s the rundown of our Thanksgiving mini pie menu (minus the pumpkin pie):

• Mixed berry hand pies with a traditional butter dough

• Mini cheesecakes topped with mixed berry compote (the same as the filling for the hand pies—accidental efficiency FTW)

• Key lime mini pies with a press-in coconut cookie crust (I did lemon and lime zest accents just for look)

• Chocolate-vanilla mini pies with a press-in oatmeal cookie crust

What fun this was! And at both gatherings we attended, people did seem to enjoy being able to sample multiple items. I hope you had a restful break and tapped into some small moments of delight and gratitude.