Coffee Talk: Shortening or Butter

Last year around this time I was recovering from surgery and waiting to hear if we could move forward with “Plan B” with adopting Little A. Had Plan B actually worked we might be parents to Little A instead of the boy. Seems God had other plans. I remember I couldn?t lift the turkey out of the oven. I remember Rhonda being stressed out because one of her friends invited her for dinner and asked her to bring the turkey. Honestly… who invites you for Thanksgiving dinner and tell a guest to bring the turkey?

This year I am watching my little boy play cars on the floor behind me. Decked out in his glow-in-the-dark dino pj?s he is just about the cutest thing evah! Oh how times have changed.

I have been so busy with work this week that I have not taken the time I should to play with my child. This became abundantly clear when he came into my office carrying a puzzle piece. “Puh-yul Peeez!” “Just a minute honey. Mama has to finish this before her deadline.” “Puh-yul!!!! Waaaahhh” I finally finished and we played a jovial round of Puh-yul. I originally had grand plans of only working a part of the day so we could play play-doh with his new play-doh toys. He hates to touch the stuff. Anyway, time got away from me and we never got to play-doh. I thought of the next best thing. Pies!

I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the last 8 years. Once in Vegas (my first and biggest) then every year after wherever we lived. This year I had plans to make dinner at CS?s parents house since Bunny just couldn?t get out to our house. Well, that plan changed earlier this week. But as soon as it changed back to our house it changed back to their house. CS?s sister, brother-in-law and niece arrived yesterday for the holiday. While I could still cook at my house, it simply isn?t large enough to accomodate all of those people. So I am packing up my turkey bucket and heading south. I decided that it was best to cook the pies ahead of time so the boy and I worked on those last night.

He thought making pie crust was too much fun. I let him mix in the shortening and play with the flour. I gave him some dough scraps to roll out with his little rolling pin and that was great! Next came mixing the pumpkin filling. I moved the chair he was standing on over to the kitchen aid so he could see the beater go round and round. Normally he is afraid of the Kitchen Aid. Last night was no exception. He had death grip on my while I poured in the ingredients. It was rather funny. Needless to say in the end we had a good time and he helped with the Thanksgiving preparations. Tomorrow I?ll get the boy and Kicky to help with something.

This leads me to my coffee talk question. I have always made my own pie crust. I bought pie crust one year because I was running out of time and it was horrible. Never again! My grandma taught me how to make pie crust and it is so simple one should never need to purchase pre-made pie crust. I happen to use shortening in mine. Some use butter. So for those of you who do, in fact, make your own pie crust what do you use? Shortening or Butter. And if you don?t make pie crust… well quit being so lazy and give it a try. It is next to impossible to screw it up.