Three-Pie Times, Part One

     I’m not exactly sure where it came from – I think maybe Tom made it up – but we have a sort of ritual  in our family that goes with the serving up of pie; that is, whenever  a pie is set upon the table  for dessert somebody invariably declaims:  “In time of trouble: Pie!”
       Of course if pie were actually the remedy for troubled times, then what the world would really need now would be pie, sweet pie.  And lots of it.
      But then even if it doesn't end up  solving any of our current national and global worries, what’s not to like about a slice of good pie even in the worst of times?
       And so I suggested that during our visit to Chicago I make a pie to cheer us all up during these troubled times. 
     The consensus was that this would be a splendid idea,

...especially if the pie were everybody’s favorite, Cherry Almond Streusel Pie,

...the recipe for which can be found in several previous posts, but which I’ll re-post here for the sake of anyone else who might be needing some good pie to help them cope:

Cherry Almond Streusel Pie
The Pie:
2 cans of tart red cherries.
2 tablespoons of quick-cooking tapioca
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
 1 9-inch unbaked refrigerated roll-out pie crust

The Streusel:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup slivered almonds
      Mix the cherries and their juices with the tapioca, sugar, and cinnamon.  Let stand for 15 minutes. 
    Mix the flour and brown sugar then cut the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture is crumbly.  Mix in the almonds.
    Roll out the pie crust, place it in a 9-inch pie pan  and spread the cherry mixture into the pie crust.  Spoon the streusel mixture over the cherries.
    Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes, until the filling is bubbly and topping well-browned.

      Since in times past I’d not succeeded in finding canned tart cherries in any of the supermarkets in Claire and Miguel’s neighborhood,  this time I brought the cherries with me from Columbus and also a box of Minute Tapioca just in case that item likewise proved elusive.  I figured we could find the rest of the ingredients locally.
     So on Friday morning pie-baking was on the agenda.
     Right after breakfast.
     As Miguel had to work and Tom was spending the day visiting a friend in a Chicago suburb,

….Claire walked from her place in Logan Square to pick me up at The Urban Holiday  Lofts,

…then we walked back to Logan Square,

…until we arrived at the restaurant that Claire had picked out for breakfast, which turned out to be closed.
     But we’d passed another place along the way called The Cozy Corner that Claire had never been to,

...but which looked promising,

…not to mention confident of its quality.

     It was, in fact, a cozy place,

…but not too crowded.

     The staff was friendly, the service good, and the food great.  The French Toast and pancakes were the fluffiest,

…though especially praiseworthy were the hash browns.  I’ve had manys the great breakfast potato of the sliced or chunky variety, but it’s rare to come across really good hash browns.   These were some great hash browns.

In fact all the food being served up looked so good, 

…. that we decided to bring Miguel and Tom back the following morning.

     After our very satisfying and gratifying breakfast we walked back to Claire’s house,

…to drop off the canned cherries and tapioca that Claire had  been schlepping for me since we left the the hostel.

     Along the way we passed:

… a little tree for which some caring Chicagoan had knitted a scarf, 

…a moonscape on a building,

…and a medical clinic with good values.

      Claire's house outside,

...and inside.

     After we dropped off the cherries and tapioca,

...and said hello to Sassy,

    …we headed back out to pick up the rest of the pie ingredients at a nearby Mexican supermarket,

...where the walls were painted to look like a hacienda.

    Rather than make a pie crust from scratch  - which I can do like ringin’  a bell – I wanted to buy a package of Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts to save time.  But doing so presents the dilemma of there being two crusts per package and only one crust is needed for a Cherry Almond Streusel Pie.  So I suggested that I also make an apple streusel pie to use up the second crust. 
    Claire liked the idea of having an apple pie as well, but admitted that she’d prefer a regular two-crust apple pie. 
     This meant that we’d have to buy a second package of pie crusts for the apple pie, which would bring us back at where we started,  still with an extra crust.
     To solve the recurring quandary of the extra pie crust I suggested that I make one more one-cruster, maybe a pumpkin or pecan pie. 
     Claire  immediately cast her vote for a pecan pie, so pecan pie it was to be.
     The only snag was that I’d never made a pecan pie before and so knew neither how such a pie was made nor which ingredients we needed to purchase.  But that problem was easily solved when Claire pulled out her phone and pulled up a pecan pie recipe from online, from which we learned that the only additional ingredients we’d need to buy were pecans and light corn syrup.
         Our shopping done, we headed back home  laden with the necessary provisions to bake not one, but three pies.   But it was all right.  We’re living in times of extraordinary worry and anxiety.
        These are definitely three-pie times.
        To be continued…