Author: Kevin

Recently my family traveled back to my hometown to see my nephew’s graduation. My mom lives on a long dirt road outside of town. While there, her neighbor across the road brought her two dozen eggs. It turns out this is a fairly regular event since she still had some eggs left from his previous visit. So we ended up with the eggs. And what happens when a food photographer has way too many eggs? He shoots them, of course.

Before my Granny passed away, she wanted to leave all her recipes behind so the next generations of kids could cook them for their kids. My Aunt helped type them up, photocopied them, and bound them with two little rings. They then wrapped them up for everyone at Christmas. As a little personal project, I’ve decided to cook up a few of my favorites and photography. Here is the first of them, fried pies.

• 1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
• 3 cups Self-Rising Flour
• 3 cups dried fruit (peaches, apricots, and apples are best)
• Lard or Shortening
• Water

Mix the buttermilk and flour to get a dry dough. Cook the dried fruit in a little water until tender. Sweeten to taste. Drain and mash them. Squeeze out a ball of dough “a little bigger than a hen egg”, or about the size of a golfball. Roll it with a rolling pin on a floured surface until a bit thicker than an average pie crust, (about 1/16th inch thick). For faster results use two canned biscuits per pie. Dab a tablespoonful of fruit filling on the dough. Dampen the dough edges and fold over, using a fork to press the seam closed. In a large, iron skillet, melt the lard or shortening on medium heat until you get an inch to an inch and a half of bubbling liquid. Place two or three pies in the skillet only for a few seconds before turning with a spatula. Handle gently so as not to break the dough. After a few more seconds remove and drain on a paper towel. Makes 12 to 15 pies.

I’ve always believed that people who cook can be separated into two different groups, chefs or bakers. I enjoy cooking and grilling but when it comes down to it, I’m a baker and I think that is something that runs on my Mom’s side of the family. Most years we go to my hometown for Thanksgiving and my mom makes two to four pies. But this 2020 and nothing is normal. It was the year of staying at home, so we had Thanksgiving at our house which meant I was making the pies this year.

There are a few things I enjoy about baking. I enjoy following recipes and making sure I use the exact amounts that are called for in the recipe. I hate the phrase “a pinch of salt.” I also enjoy making my own crust. When I make crusts from scratch, I feel like I have a connection to my grandmothers. There wasn’t remade crust back then. I can remember sitting in my Granny’s kitchen while she was baking. She would make take the leftover crust and make little mini pies for us.

The recipe I used for my crust came from the Food Network. It makes a wonderful crust but the real reason I like it is you make it in the food processor. Just because I’m making it from scratch doesn’t mean I like to do it the hard way. I tried that, cutting in the butter with that weird knife thing, no thank you.