on Pie Crust & Gifts

Say what you will about cake, but I love pie.

We feasted on pie at our wedding instead of a fancy hundred layer cake and whenever husband and I feel in need of a little celebration we always turn to a warm pie. 

Yet, until I was married, I had never successfully made a pie crust. I used to chuckle at myself, claiming that one cannot know how to create both tortillas and pie crust, the ingredients being so very similar; all my pie crusts became as leathery at the most flexible tortilla. 

But when we were married last year, Zack's grandmother gave me a small gift. 

"It makes the best pie crust," she said, gifting me with a small recycled shrimp cocktail glass, painted with instructions. Throughout her many years of baking, she had found that the perfect pie crust be measured not with cups and tablespoons, but with flour, salt, shortening and this small glass filled with with ice cold water. 

Marvelously, this measurement works like a charm, and I've used Grandma's glass for every pie since.

We have many wedding to attend this season, and as I prepared for the celebrations, the showers and the extensive giving of gifts, I  tried to think of what I most appreciated receiving when I was a bride last year. There were many thing. Many gifts. Many thoughtful gestures. But Grandma's small glass and pie recipe was certainly one of my favourites. 

With this in mind, I grabbed a handful of juice glasses at our local thrift store (they were a dime a piece) and, using a special ceramic pen, I marked and measured the glasses with the perfect pie crust recipe. Perhaps our soon-to-be-married friends will not welcome this trick as much as I did, for not everyone aspired to be a pie baker. But  hopefully these little glasses with be appreciated for all their worth. What do you think?