A Pie for Grandma

Amy and Michael's son, Ryan, discovered the blueberry and huckleberry bushes surrounding our pasture and diligently picked berries for a good hour while the other kids played badminton, rode bikes and scooters, and enjoyed Paul's swing. When he brought his berries into the house he announced that he was going to "make a pie for Great-Grandma." (His Great-Grandma is Amy's Grandma and my mother. We're used to calling her Grandma, but not used to Great-Grandma, so it took me a second to realize who he was talking about.) Amy and I explained that making a pie would be a bit of a problem given all the activity in the house at the moment, but he was adamant, so I said we'd save his berries and see if we could fit pie-making into the next day's fun.

I figured Ryan would forget all about the berries and the pie, but the next day when he arrived he announced that it was "time to make the pie," and so we did. Having no Crisco or lard in the house and not wanting to get the counters dirty by rolling out dough, I hunted up a recipe for an oil based crust that was shaped right in the pie plate.


Having no white sugar --what can I tell you? I just don't cook or bake much right now! -- we used a brown sugar Splenda mix. And having only a cup or so of berries, we added whatever berries and grapes we had in the fridge. That gave us a filling about an inch deep, so Ryan made a crumb topping which filled out the plate.


Ryan was very excited about his pie, and literally watched the timer as it ticked down the remaining minutes until it was done.


The next day we all went to visit Grandma (aka Great-Grandma) at the rehab facility, bringing her Ryan's pie and vanilla ice cream to go with it.