Baking a Pie is fun to do

Well, it can be.  IF you have helpful helpers, all the necessary ingrediants, AND a clean working space.  (Good thing I know how to do dishes!)  All of the older girls wanted to learn to bake a few of their favorite things this year.  An extra snow day home before Thanksgiving gave us all a good reason to get into the kitchen and relax about it.

ON THE MENU?  Pumpkin Rolls (GF and regular), Pumpkin Pie (GF and regular), Apple Pie, Peach Pie (which, for once was not a catastrophe...cuz James made it himself with store bought filling and his mom's pie crust recipe.  Don't get me started on the history of Peach Pie), and Key Lime Pie (GF and regular).  The GF stands for gluten-free.  Sounds like a lot of pie, eh?  It is.  Trust me.  We almost used an entire can of vegetable shortening on pie crust in ONE day.  It was insane.

Before we could get started, we made a trip to the store for Key Lime ingredients (cuz I didnt' know this was a necessary Thanksgiving treat!)  As an FYI, I don't shop after November 15th.  As much as I can avoid it -- I do.  People are CRAZY once the Christmas music begins to play.  Seriously, the store owners are doing the psychologists/psychiatrists/and counselors a favor by beginning to pipe those old, familiar tunes through the speaker BEFORE Halloween.  There are the people that can't stand it and the ones who suddenly feel the pressure of the perfect gift and it's just OVER.

Alas, we still missed an ingredient.  Butter.  Really.  Usually, we are sort of overstocked for this, but it was gone.  Luckily, James (my very happy hubbie) volunteered to go back into chaos AND bring home pizza!

Gabrie as the Pizza Girl

Chrissee and Daelynn working on Pumpkin Rolls.

 "Keep your hands out of the cream cheese filling!!  Oh, and by the way, you all better start RINSING your dishes if you think I'm going to be the only one washing them BY HAND every day of my life!!" This was me under the pressure of so many cooks in the kitchen.  Mostly, we just laughed.  I promise.  I even caught some video of the girls, both beaters blazing, singing a little Michael Jackson.  (Check out the results below.)

Bethany stirring Apple Pie filling

 Bethany and I cored, peeled, and sliced enough Granny Smith apples for THREE pies, but we only made one.

Can you read "thanks" on the lattice?

The good news is, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor for DAYS afterward...I think there was pie all the way through Sunday even with all of our guests.  Yummy.