Pie in the Sky

Wednesday November 25th 2009 9:00am

The expression "pie in the sky" entered popular culture in 1911: it refers to a dessert so sweet that it can only be found in heaven. If you are craving something before you die, I recommend you try where the Pie Maker makes his pies. If you are craving something...else, I recommend you try where the Global Minisitries Intern makes his pies.

Yesterday, I spent my entire day at the office researching and determining a multitude of grants that we could apply for. It was kind of a fun day. Towards the end of my day in the office, I helped Heidy stamp some official papers. I helped Heidy stamp 450 official papers. It took a while.

Also while at work, I managed to research alternative forms of pie making, where I found a perfectly acceptable alternative to a pie pan in a skillet.

I was excited to try out my new pie making practice, and after returning to my apartment, I made some dinner and then prepared all of the necessary ingredients to bake a pecan pie.

At that very moment, young Alan was 21 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 10 hours, 32 minutes and 17 seconds old.

I began with the crust, but without proper measuring tools, I was largely reduced to "eyeballing" some of my measurements. After cutting the crisco into the flour and salt, I added the water one tablespoon at a time, as per my mothers instructions. Slowly but surely, the pastry of the crust began to form in the center of the bowl. When it was ready, I rolled it into a ball, lightly floured my counter top and began to roll out the pie crust. Now, when I say "roll out", what I mean is that I don´t believe rolling pins exist in Honduras, due to the fact that not only could I not find any, but no one had any idea what I was talking about when I described it to them. When I say "roll out" what I mean is, I used a round container that is most commonly used to hold my oats for oatmeal. It worked...well enough. I spread the crust out in the middle of a 9 inch skillet, and was surprised at how not terrible it looked.

I then combined the ingredients of the pie, and slowly, the conglomeration resembled pie filling. Especially with the addition of the pecans. I poured the mixture into the pie crust filled skillet, set the oven, set the timer, and got to work on a second pie crust. For the upcoming pumpkin pie

The expression "beginners luck" entered popular culture in relation to gambling, and the seemingly magical ability of some beginners to successfully achieve a desired outcome of something that would typically take more practice, training, or skill.

My second pie crust attempt did not go as smoothly. It kept sticking to the oatmeal container, and when I finally did get it rolled out, I couldn´t pick it up to put it into the second skillet. As the first pie was nearing completion, I was able to scrap together enough of the pie crust to put into the second skillet. It looked much more like how I had anticipated the first one to look.

As I read the instructions on the back of the can of pumpkin pie filling, I realized I didn´t have any evaporated milk. I decided to call it quits for the night, resume my work in the pie hole some other day.

I pulled my first ever pie out of the oven exactly 45 minutes after I put it in, and was very impressed with how normal it looked. After waiting a while, I had a small slice and was even more impressed with how normal it tasted. It inspired me. Perhaps I won´t completely butcher this upcoming Thanksgiving meal.