Pie-Crust Take- 2

Two years ago when we arrived in Mobile I was unsure if I was going to homeschool. Lucy was about 6 weeks old, Jack was 1 and I could not imagine myself sending Emily to school for 7 hours a day. She would miss all the "fun" of discovering our new home and our new baby. Still, I was not sure how to go about the whole homeschool thing. Aren't most homeschoolers weird? Within the first few days of arriving in Mobile, after a 7 day drive from Alaska, I had to go to an orientation for the "church" school I would have to enroll under if I decided to homeschool . Being new and nervous I was overwhelmed, to say the least. As soon as I walked in the door I saw Kathy. She sat with her friend Shelly, and the two of them looked so normal, not weird at all. They were cuttin' up and smiling, having a good time. Being the NEVER shy person I am I walked right up and began asking all the "first-timer" questions. They were so great and answered all the "socialization" questions I had.

Two years later and a couple more kids between us, Kathy and I have become BIG Pioneer Woman fans.





And because  PW's cookbook came out this week we wanted to have our own Pioneer Woman Cookbook Party. And since we both ordered ours off Amazon, neither of us had the cookbook today for our cooking party. That did not stop us.

Lucky for us Pioneer Woman is in Southern Living Magazine this month and so are several GREAT recipes. Some by PW, but mostly just good Southern Living stuff! I was going to use one of PW's recipes from the magazine, but I could not stop thinking about the pumpkin pie on the cover. And since I am still trying to master the art of pie-crust making I choose the pumpkin pie from the cover.  I have always had a hard time following the rules, even ones that I make up.

I bought my ingredients, packed up my gear and headed to Kathy's for a fun afternoon of cooking.

We got to work right away. We knew the pie would take a long time to cook so I jumped right in and began rolling out the dough.

Let's just say I still need a little practice with the whole rolling the dough transferring thing.

I was not discouraged. I knew we had 2 masterpieces in the making.

We crumbled, mixed and stirred, all the while 11 little helpers would come in and out of the kitchen.  That's right, between the 2 of us we have 11 children.  This is the crowd I run in, big and Catholic!!

  I was trying to be a good mom and a good friend during all of this, but I was a little obsessed with the pie crust....

And my dear, patient friend was getting a little tired of me saying, "What do you think, does the crust  look OK?"

I am proud to present to you 2 pumkin pies housed in a homemade crust.  And nothing is more fun than that...well, maybe having your own cookbook published, or winning a new remodeled house by HGTV or having people read your blog about cooking with a friend.  Ok, there are other fun things that can happen.  But, for me, making my own pie crust and liking how it looks and tastes is pretty exciting!