Stahlke Adoption

The Boys' First Pie

Two days ago, Ruslan ran up to me and asked if they could pick mulberries from a neighbor's tree. He had received permission from her, so with some supervision from Jonathan, Ruslan and Bogdan picked a LOT of mulberries.

(I was pleasantly surprised she said yes. Most of our neighbors are very apprehensive when the kids climb trees. They do climb quite high and with very little fear. Many of the high wire troupes in today's circuses come from Ukraine, so it may be an inborne ability.)

We asked the boys if we could serve the berries as fruit for breakfast the next day. "No, they would be better in a pie." That was new--before coming to the US they had never eaten pie. But our friend Susan often sends pies among her weekly gifts of dessert, so they have become accustomed to them.

Pie is a little hard in the summer, however. We haven't put the a/c units in the windows yet, so I avoid using the oven. The boys were so set on pie, however, that I made it this morning when the house is the coolest. Ruslan was going to help me, but when he heard he'd have to get up early, he decided that it would be fine if I made it for him. He is a teenager, after all, and needs his sleep. I was a little relieved, actually, because I was improvising to make this pie, and I didn't want him to see me taking chances with their berries.

I'm not very good at pie crusts, so Jonathan bought me two crusts last night at the grocery store. The fruit filled one crust, and then I saw the kicker in the recipe. It needed a top crust! I could just see the precious mulberries all burnt without one. Then I noticed the second pie crust in the package and realized I could slice it into strips and make a lattice top. Whew!

The boys were very happy to see it baking in the oven this morning. We'll see how it turned out when we have snack this afternoon.

posted by Stahlkes @ 11:32 AM