Life Lessons: Rolling, Rolling, Rolling Out My Pie Dough

Dan bought a lot of red and green apples on his Thanksgiving shopping run--enough to fill a huge oval china platter.

So I made another nice apple pie [vegan Figgy can eat it, too, and this time, I cut out the sugar, using 2 small packets of Truvia]. And a Country Apple Cake--a tender, buttery loaf with tart apple slices in the middle and thick crumb topping, from the cookbook Morning Bakes--is in the oven now. That’s for Staff Appreciation Day tomorrow at Punchy’s school.

I found comfort in rolling out the pie dough. Mine is never perfect, always a bit ragged or uneven, but tastes quite good when you dig in at the table, silver fork in hand.

Metaphor for my life. Imperfectly beautiful. Work of art. Handcrafted. Creative. Sometimes sticky and messy, yet can be saved if you scrape the dough up off the counter and roll it again. Stay centered, rolling to the edge from the center, all around the disk of dough. Don’t go back and forth, just center out, lift pin, center out. Repeat. [My esteemed colleague and friend Sharon Franke taught me that when I was a tester for her rolling pin comparison in the Good Housekeeping Institute.]

Use a light touch; don’t bear down too hard with the rolling pin or you could destroy a fragile dough.

Don’t bear down too hard in your life, either--on yourself or someone else.

Patch the dough together if it falls apart.

No one is perfect and neither is life. Some people can make a beautifully crimped pie crust--friend Debby Goldsmith, I’m looking at you--but not me!

Raked a lot before the rains came. Tired. Good night to you.