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The Gift of Pie

11/30/2012

Tonight at a Catholic rectory in the Northeast section of the Bronx known locally as Wakefield, a pastor and presumably some cohorts will be enjoying the RWS Mincemeat pie I dropped off earlier today. (RWS - my mother's initials, and her recipe, for the most part.)

On the Upper East Side in a modern high rise a young family will be slicing into BillyPaul's Ultimate Coffee Cream pie some time this weekend along with a classic coconut layer cake. In the warmest of homes, winter weekends call for a good stash of handmade goodies, don't you think?

On Thanksgiving, my pies were part of 60 different celebrations. Pie Country hand-made, hand-rolled, and hand-delivered over 100 pies in a dozen different flavors, 300 pie babies and an assortment of other baked goodies. Then I took a break to catch my breath and restock.

Tomorrow we'll be dropping off at a benefit for the Rockaways, and spreading more pie bliss. Pie just makes people happy. It's that simple. Pie is love.

Don't forget that you can spread pie love too simply by giving the Gift of Pie to your friends and family. From one pie to an assortment of pie babies to the true gift of guaranteed happiness - a subscription to our new Pie of the Month Club! Just email me at [email protected].

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Friends, Family & Hurricane Sandy

11/5/2012

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If you haven't heard about Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City, then you must be on a space exploration!

Wow! I guess we were hit.

My family home and my business both lost power on Monday night.

Last night it was restored, so almost a solid week without power.

And I am a digital nut! My whole business is based on power -- from heating the ovens to confirming orders online or even on the phone.

We were completely disconnected.

Well, not completely.

Thank you, smart phone!

I think I would have killed someone or at least gotten very drunk without my smart phone.

It was all just surreal.

We weren't suddenly tossed into blackness, nothing so dramatic.

Instead, we went to sleep thinking we had seen the worst of a strong storm that had blown our ill-installed awning off the front of our house already. We awoke to no power.

There was sunlight. I made eggs and bacon for my husband and son, a good strong pot of coffee.

Our two blocks did not have power, we determined, due to the above-ground power lines that are strewn haphazardly down and across Riverdale Avenue in the Bronx borough of New York City.

My son and I went for a walk as my husband worked remotely on what battery power he had left. His office had sent an email the day prior, instructing that if you couldn't make it in, then to just work remotely. Joe had power on hi s battery and had a lot of writing to do, he had just started this new job last week, he did not want to fall behind.

As Matt and I walked, we saw branches down everywhere. There were a few power lines down, not like there were with Irene, though. There is a felled tree in our back yard, I told Matt as we walked. You can see it from our bedroom window, it's lucky it didn't hit one of the row houses. As we wound our way past various debris, we came upon another felled tree, right on top of a car. All the other cars around it were fine, unscathed. Matt took a picture to post online. We continued down the hill and took a short cut through a neighboring parking lot. Just the day before, my husband and I had walked in the exact opposite route while watching this white car park on the left side of the lot. It took great care to park precisely in its designated spot.

Now, in its place lay a large oak tree, clearly that tree had been so battered by Sandy that it needed to just lay down and rest. Do you think they can replant it? I wish they would try.

And there, there on the right, there was the white little nothing car that Joe and I had watched park.

Oh, it must have gotten out of the ... before I could complete my sentence, I had come from around the back of the vehicle to the front where I saw the classic gigantic single shattering clobber to the windshield that oak must have done. Wow.

That night we called Full Moon Pizzeria on Arthur Avenue to see if they were open. Matt had gone to powered neighbors to connect. We all ate pizza with peppers and onions.

*******

Our friends went home and turned the lights out before they went to sleep. We went home, lit some candles and decided to put an extra layer of blankets on the beds. Don't open the fridge unless absolutely necessary. Nothing from the freezers.

I worried about our freezer and fridge in the garage. Our landlord never gave us the key to the garage, just the code for the digital entry pad. That is my business freezer & fridge, or at least one of them. The main one is at WHEDCo on 168th Street. I wondered what was happening there too. Silence came over me and stayed with me for the most part, what could I say? What could I do? I had to seek help for my family when I wish I could have been offering help to the thousands in Brooklyn and Staten Island that so need it! We were safe, dry, not very warm, but we had food and we had options.

We had options.

At some point it dawned on me that we shouldn't just stay huddled up in bed under the covers in the dark. At some point it dawned on me that we need to get our son to better conditions.

I checked around.

(Thank goodness for the smart phone.)

I needed to secure a place for him quickly. You see, I am a quintessential New Yorker. I see the line about to form, I see that others are going to be looking, to be imposing on friends and family and whomever. Bed space would be much tighter than usual! But I had to do this for my boy. And I needed to find a place for some of my dough and someplace I could do a little baking if necessary (and isn't it always necessary, especially in time of storm?)

It was such a phenomenal moment when I texted my technically-ex sister-in-law who lives in a two-bedroom on 72nd & Riverside and asked "Can Matt stay with you?"

The response I got was immediate.

One word.

Yes.

No questions. No hesitation. Nothing.

Yes.

What a wonderful woman she is, my Susann!

His school happened to be one of the 3 or so schools that actually opened right after Hurricane Sandy. He went to school on Thursday and again on Friday. He is there today for play rehearsal, and he will be there again tomorrow. It is not known as a "rigorous" school, but it is a passionate one.

Matt does not like to miss a beat, so to speak, so being able to continue at school uninterrupted was a real boon to him, thanks to Susann.

*******

One of the very first days of the storm I spent making dough in my friend Donna's kitchen on 90th and West End. The very next day we moved in across the street to our friends M&K's apartment. They drove up to Connecticut for the weekend to check on their country home. We could stay with them in the city for as long as we needed, they offered so warmly.

Another friend texted to say that her son could now return to his downtown apartment, so there was room at her place if we needed it. She stayed in touch and continued to expect our arrival at any moment.

A new acquaintance I haven't seen in ages posted on FB that I could come bake in her kitchen, she had internet, ovens, counters, refrigerators, whatever I may need. That made me smile.

It all made me smile, really.

It was such an odd kind of nomadic feeling, especially for the few days when Joe and I stayed in the Bronx without power, before we moved to our friends' warm and luxurious abode on the Upper West Side. I could not feel badly for us. We were all fine, nothing was really wrong, we just did not have power.

This I knew intellectually.

And I'm glad I acted accordingly, as it was not how I actually felt.

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The Gift of Pie

How to roll out your pie dough

Friends, Family & Hurricane Sandy

The Baker

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