Mary's Apple Pie

Call it a prolonged senior moment or a ‘glitch’ in my head - I haven’t quite figured it out. Awhile back, I blogged about looking for the best pie. In all of that, I totally forgot about my cousin, Mary’s pies. Maybe it is because I only see Mary once a year, when I go back to visit her in Utica, New York.

 

But when I’m there, besides visiting my cousins, I am lucky to partake in Mary’s dinners…and they are fantastic. She loves meat and potatoes and so do I, along with pasta. It is her pies that are out of this world. I don’t know her secret but maybe it’s over 50 years of cooking and baking. Her apple pies from the filling to the crust are two thumbs up and five stars. So is every other pie that she makes, like her cream pies and her other fruit pies.

 

What jogged my memory was seeing a family member post Mary’s apple pie on Facebook. When I saw it, I slapped the side of my head and said, “Oh my God, of course! My favorite pie is located 300+ miles from here, a six and a half hour drive to Utica. It’s Mary’s pies.”

 

Just looking at the picture triggered a Proust memory of that pie. I actually tasted it in my mouth and in my mind. It was so vivid that I had to drink some water to wash it down. I called Mary and she laughed about the picture of the pie on Facebook. I asked her what her secret was. “No secret,” she answered. “I just stuff it with everything.” I assume she meant stuffed it with fruit.

 

So that’s the recipe? Like my grandmother and my mother, all those recipes were in their heads, wrist, finger tips, eyes, tastes, and years of cooking. Nothing was written down.

 

All I can say is that I can’t wait to make a trip to Utica in the spring. I can almost taste Mary’s pie.