Baking Pies with Mimi....

Thanksgiving Eve 2010 

Mimi with Lily and Maggie

Pie baking is a big deal in our family.  It goes all the way back to the original Mimi, Leonie Lemery LeGault, my mother's maternal grandmother.  She was a French-Canadian immigrant who raised 12 children as a young widow during the Great Depression years in Glens Falls, New York. I remember her sitting on a rocking chair by the window at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Bob's house, knitting a sweater and speaking in a heavy French accent.  She was known for her pies, and as I've mentioned in a previous post, my husband will not allow me to publish her pie dough recipe, believing that it is so good it could make us a fortune.  I'm not so sure about that...

But today, on this Eve of Thanksgiving, my mom sat at my counter peeling apples while my two daughters, Lily and Maggie, played with the scraps of pie dough that I made from Mimi the First's recipe.  They had a grand time, and made a fabulous mess which spilled out over the counter and onto the floor.  There was flour everywhere, and before long, their were little girl's footprints in that flour. They tracked it all over the house and up the stairs, and it took me, Mom and Dad with mops and brooms and vacuums to clean it all up.

It was worth the mess, however, to be in my kitchen baking my great-grandmothers pies with my mother and my daughters for Thanksgiving! 

My mom's favorite pie is her Mimi's pineapple pie.  Mimi used to call it "poor man's pie" because she could make it with a 10 cent can of crushed pineapple, which was cheaper even than apples back in the day.  People are always surprised when I speak of our pineapple pie, but it's a staple in our family, and it's especially good the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas, cold out of the frig with a hot cup of coffee.  I can't give you the dough recipe, Rob's orders, but I can share the pineapple pie with you to make with your own dough.  The price of a can of pineapple is not quite 10 cents now a days, but it is still cheaper than apples and it's just as good...

Mimi LeGault's Pineapple Pie
1 can of crushed pinapple
1 heaping tablespoon of corn starch
1/3 cup of sugar
2 pieces of homemade or store bought pie dough
1 egg

Mix the pineapple (do not drain) with the cornstarch and sugar.  Press dough into a pie dish. Pour in the pineapple mix.  Top with the second pie dough.  Press dough around the edges.  Brush top with beaten egg. Sprinkle with more sugar. Make slits in the top with a knife.  Bake at 350 degrees until browned and bubbly, 30-45 minutes.


For the record, we made 1 pineapple, 1 blueberry (Dad's favorite!), 1 pumpkin, and 2 apple...Dessert for the 24 Pifer-Metzger-Poulos-Rhatigans that will share Thanksgiving dinner at our house tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!