Just a bowl of cherries

It's Valentine's Day week, and I decided I wanted to make something red. Initially, I thought I'd bake my childhood favorite: red velvet cake. But when I was telling a gentleman friend about my project, he exclaimed his love for all the traditional pies--apple, peach, and cherry. So, this week I made a cherry pie. It's red, it's classic, and it was suggested by my valentine. Cuuuuute.

Cherry pies seemed dull to me as a kid. I preferred anything with chocolate. But my appreciation for cherry pie has grown as I've gotten older, and makes me nostalgic for an era I experienced only through Twin Peaks.

A cup of joe, a slice of Norma's pie, and a supernatural killer on the loose--ah! the good ol' days.

Cherry pie is just so...American. White bread, white picket fence, white grandma in the kitchen America.

Norman Rockwell. Heaven help me. 

And so it makes sense when that opiate-eyed songstress of dark Americana includes them in her song along with Pepsi-Cola..."my eyes are wide like cherry pies."

With all this, along with a couple cans of cherries, I filled my homemade pie crusts to the soundtrack of Georgia Gibbs, Perry Como, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Martha Stewart cherry pie

My cherry pie

I made a canned cherry pie with a flaky crust, substituting butter for shortening. The filling was delicious! I hope it's as good cooked. I had some trouble with the crust, and I hope it turns out. Last time I made a crust I rolled it out too many times and it was all tough and difficult to cut. This time, there was just one terrific curse yelled out while I was attempting to move the dough onto the pie plate and it tore into pieces. Other than that, it looks ok. Kinda black around the edges, but I'll knock those off when it cools, before my guest arrives.

Creating is a continual lesson in the futility of perfection for me. I want so much to be good at something, to present something perfect and have a perfect little party, but it never happens. Really, it can't happen, and so I just have to laugh about it and move on. "You live and you laugh at it all!"

You work, you slave, you worry so, but you can't take the dough when you go.

And finally, you need to watch Rachel Dratch in the 30 Rock Valentine's Day episode: Happy Valentime's!