Happy Easter - Alone Together Lemon Pie
john barry
How are you this week? We’re ok, definitely eating well thanks to the many people on the front lines still working, delivering packages and assembling orders of groceries that families across America are picking up and having sent to their homes, and to the first responders who are fighting hard to make sure that everyone who is sick is getting the care they need. One major source of anxiety surrounding this epidemic is the knowledge that, sooner or later, COVID-19 may affect each of us personally. Not knowing how, or what that looks like in the coming months is super scary. Not knowing when things will return to “normal”, also scary but less blindingly so.
For us, this week was the week when the big sickness got personal. It’s really not my story to tell, but I will say that if staying home with four kids while trying to work full time remotely didn’t make this whole pandemic “real”, it’s real now. While we pray for our friend in the hospital, we carry on. I keep telling myself that even vulnerable populations have high recovery rates, and while we keep hearing about the thousands who are dying so many more thousands are recovering.
Masons in training. We are at the “will play with anything” stage of our quarantine.
I keep imagining my friend walking through the door in a month or two, offering to help me with the kids, happy that her “immunity” allows her to be out and about while others still have to be very cautious about resuming their regular activities. Yep, that sounds like her.
I hate that she’s missing Easter and that none of us are getting to spend the time with our friends and relatives for the Holiday. I hate that we aren’t going on the Easter Egg hunt circuit this year, just when the kids are at the age where those are the MOST fun. Funny enough, I distinctly remember being at an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood last year, commiserating with the other parents about standing in the line, the frenzied two minutes when all the kids trample each other for eggs with candy or little plastic things in them that litter our homes for weeks. “Why do we do this to ourselves over and over again?” Little did we know, the very next year, we would be longing to have an Easter egg hunt to go to and other parents to commiserate with, in person.
We gave up a lot for Lent this year ya’ll, A LOT. I think there’s a part of each of us that is wondering why this is happening and what we should be taking away from it all. How we will change because of this. There are little things of course, more of us will shop for essentials online, we will probably keep several weeks of dry goods and paper goods in our basements, but there will also be big things. We will be more grateful for each day and remember that we are not guaranteed our jobs, our homes, our communities, the safety of our first responders who we depend on for our own safety and well-being. We are not guaranteed another day to live and breath or spend with our loved ones. We will be grateful for all of the little things that we complained about before. We will have more empathy for others. We will reevaluate our choices, how we spend our time, our lives in general, realizing how quickly it can all be taken away.
So while I’m sad, and anxious and worried about my friend, and the future for all of us. I’m also so incredibly grateful this Easter, more so than I have ever been. I hope I don’t unlearn this lesson if and when the world returns to “normal”. Today, I’m especially grateful for:
The sounds of my kids playing together (even when they are fighting) because it reminds me that they have each other.
The fact that my family and all of their immediate needs (eg. for snacks, drinks, me to pay attention to them, to find something for them, etc. etc) keeps me from thinking too much about the state of the world.
The spring weather, longer days with more sun. Great for walks or just opening the window.
My home. I love it and I’m so lucky to be quarantined in such a lovely space. Also, heat, water, and electricity.
Technology, for making it possible to work, to communicate with the kids teachers and schools, friends and family near and far, and to still feel connected.
My love of cooking. I have a backlog of recipes that I’ve been wanting to try and working my way through them feels like being productive.
My kids somehow realizing that wasting food right now would put me over the edge. Inexplicably, they have been great eaters this whole time and we’ve barely wasted any food. Usually they are notorious wasters, which, unfortunately, might be true of most first world little kids, maybe COVID-19 will change that?
Memories of Easters past, including a few years ago when Paul’s cousins from Ireland came to stay with us. Also, so happy that we were able to see our friends from Japan last summer and spend that time with them - so many people are having to cancel plans to visit friends and family far away these days.
My parents for staying home and staying safe! I worry about them every day but I know they are doing everything they can to stay safe and healthy. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Emmett reminding me that we need to make Lemon Pie for Easter and not letting me off the hook.
As you can tell, those were stated in no particular order because obviously, Lemon Pie is most important, sorry Mom and Dad. Just kidding, but Lemon Pie is pretty great. I love that Emmett has wanted another Lemon Pie since my sister-in-law brought one over last Easter and he has not stopped talking about Lemon Pie since. What can I say? He’s a kid who knows what he likes.
So, to make a Good Friday and even better Friday, we launched the crust portion of our lemon pie this morning bright and early. If I’ve learned anything from living with these people for the last several years, it is that they have zero patience when it comes to pie. We started early enough that we’d be able to eat it in the afternoon.
Graham crackers crusts are fun to make with kids if you don’t think about the graham cracker “sand” that ends up all over your kitchen and house as a result. I just pretend I’m relaxing in a caftan at some sort of beachy high end villa and pretend it IS sand. Being with little kids 24-7 has reminded me that you can always pretend. Aside from fun, the other great thing about a graham cracker crust is that it doesn’t require flour! Because you know what? Flour makes bread, so we can’t be using our precious flour on pies until the supply chain catches up.
I used a very simple graham cracker crust recipe from Martha Stewart. I feel like they are all variations of the same thing, no? Melted butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar blended together, pressed into a pie plate and baked in the oven for a few minutes. The custard recipe is from Stella Park’s recipe for Creamy Lime Pie, using lemons instead of limes, no other changes at all. It’s tart, but still sweet and the milk mellows is out a little. I love really tart pies too, but those scream for billows of whipped cream, which I don’t have at the moment, so I’m glad this pie really doesn’t need it. I love that Stella gives such specific instructions for cooking the custard to ensure success. You really can’t mess this up!
“Don’t zest your fingertips!”
The end result is creamy and tart with a cookie crunch. Perfect for kids and grown ups. Emmett was in heaven and made me promise that we would have Lemon Pie more than once a year AND that we would have it every Easter from now on. I’m cautiously optimistic that I will need to make two or more next year when our family and friends are able to reassemble in small groups and we can reclaim our Holiday traditions. Happy Easter everyone. Stay safe, healthy and grateful. And much love to everyone having a hard time during this hard time.
The calm before the storm.