Happy Easter - Alone Together Lemon Pie

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:

1. The sounds of my kids playing together (even when they are fighting) because it reminds me that they have each other.

2. 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.

3. The spring weather, longer days with more sun. Great for walks or just opening the window.

4. My home. I love it and I’m so lucky to be quarantined in such a lovely space. Also, heat, water, and electricity.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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?

8. 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.

9. 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!

10. 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.

Eating all of the Irish Food while Social Distancing: Flapjacks

Hey folks, how are you all holding up while holed up? We are making it work and also, making a lot of crafts, messes, food and DIRTY DISHES! We sent our neighbors a quarantine care package, Emmett’s idea, and they sent us one.  We’ve been going on daily long walks, during which some of us invariably fall asleep. And are basically trying not to lose our just minds like everyone else in the world. THAT struggle is real! Still, we are feeling incredibly lucky for everything we have, especially our health and safety and that of those we hold dear. I am also feeling particularly grateful for all of the kits, crafts and art supplies I’ve squirreled away in various parts of the house, for a rainy day, as well as the foresight to have four kids which is 4X the insanity but also never a dull moment and a friend for everyone.  

Five-year old’s mis en place.

Four active children also means burning through food like nobody’s business. I had no idea how much my family eats. Last week, when I couldn’t find any bread at my local grocery store, in an effort to maintain social distancing, I got out my breadmaker instead of trying to find bread at another store. What I found out was, my kids LOVE fresh bread.  And also, I should have bought more bread flour because one bag only makes about 10 loaves. Thank goodness for the food section at Paddy’s which has provided me with a few bags of oats, coarse whole grain flour, and several baking mixes, including scones, Yorkshire puddings, soda bread and this one, for flapjacks. 

If you are reading this, you probably already know that flapjacks are not pancakes. According to Wikipedia, “In the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Newfoundland a flapjack refers to a sweet, tray-baked oat bar, most commonly made from rolled oats, butter, brown sugar and golden syrup.” So, not pancakes, though we have also been eating lots of those. 

I’ve used this type of mix in the past and it cannot be easier. All the delicious smells and fresh-baked loveliness of baking from scratch, but easy enough to throw together and do the cleanup in that 30 minutes between conference calls. #workingfromhome 

The directions on the box call for using butter and golden syrup or making them “healthier” by using coconut oil and honey.  Because I am incapable of following directions, even with a mix, I used coconut oil and golden syrup with amazing, coconutty results. Honestly, I have no idea how much 150g of coconut oil is. I could have gotten out my kitchen scale, but I just eyeballed it based on the equivalent 10 tablespoons of butter that would have been required if I went that route. It worked! 

I was not ready for how much I would LOVE these.  They are sort of in the same vein as the chocolate chip cookie brittle I made back in the blissful recent past when “global pandemic” was for Netflix series’.  Thin and crunchy and sweet but not crazy-sweet. I broke it up like brittle, not bothering to cut it in neat bars, because what’s the point? I used a bigger tray than called for, resulting in thin flapjacks, and reduced the cooking time accordingly. The directions were spot on in noting that the flapjacks would be ready once the edges began to brown. I pulled mine out after about 15 minutes.

I was the first one to dig in and once I started it was NOT easy to stop. If not for the kids, I could have, and would have, eaten an entire tray of these in no time. They were all outside playing and sort of forgot that we had made them, so it took a lot of willpower, but I was able to save some for the rest of the family. Once I let the kids try them…well, let me just say, within about 10 minutes I had to hide the container from them. Yes, there was a not-so-small part of me that wanted to make sure there was some left to crumble over my yogurt for breakfast, but also, they were like crazed animals. Flapjacks. Who knew?

Hope you are sheltering in place, happy, healthy and safe. xo

Quarantine Edition: Phyllo Pumpkin Pie

The last few weeks. I cannot even.  My mind is blown by how much love and (virtual) community I’ve witnessed as well as worry about the health of our most vulnerable populations and our economy as so many lose jobs and don’t have enough savings to weather the storm.  I am also flooded with gratitude that we have the means and ability to keep moving forward and to shelter our children from some of the most devastating aspects of this global crisis, even as my heart breaks for them that they are missing so many simply pleasures of childhood like going to school, the playground, and exchanging germs with friends! Ugh. Tough people. Tough. But we will get through this and it will have lasting effects on all of us. I believe that most of those will be positive. A course correction for the too-busy lives we lead, too connected with our virtual selves and not connected enough to the people we care about with our actual, in-person selves. Believe me, I’m not throwing stones here. One of the immediate realizations I’ve come to as a result of this quarantine is that MY status quo is rushing through breakfast and getting ready for school so that I can be at work and rushing through dinner and the evening so that I can go to bed (and/or do more work). This can’t be me living my best life can it? I’ve realized in the last couple of weeks that I’ve become so used to it that I don’t really think about it anymore...until now. Mind you, working from home and attempting to “homeschool” the kids simultaneously is no walk in the park, but just being home and present with them more is a huge change for me (even though right now, it means working really early in the morning and late into the night). It really makes a person think doesn’t it? Fortunately, I haven’t had much time to think between work, the MILLIONS of dishes I’m doing, snacks I’m preparing, tantrums I’m triaging and the lack of sleep but still...eventually when we come out of this fog and things “get back to normal” perhaps normal will look different and that “different” will be better. 

Until then, there’s pie. Yes. I’ve been cooking. LOTS. Every meal, every snack, every day for six people and we’ve been eating pretty well - another thing I appreciate - being home to start dinner whenever I please. But I keep forgetting to document our dinners.  I’m glad I didn’t forget to document this beautiful pie. The kids are obsessed with making pie so we decided not to relegate pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving only and made one today, in March! It was truly delicious and SO easy to make. Making the crust with phyllo, something I’ve done before with fish pie, was a great idea and gave the kids an additional task - painting the phyllo sheets with butter and sprinkling them with spiced sugar.

Ironically, these days, I’m loving recipes with lots of separate tasks, like, crack the eggs, mix the filling, brush the phyllo sheets with butter, sprinkle the phyllo with spiced sugar - so every child has some way to contribute.  I used “cake spice” from the Spice House instead of the five-spice called for in the recipe, but pumpkin pie spice would work just fine if your crowd isn’t down with the more exotic (adult?) flavor of five-spice. Otherwise I followed the recipe, which can be found here, verbatim with excellent results. Pie is dangerous. I ate so much I wasn’t hungry for dinner. Emmett wants to make a lemon pie tomorrow. He thinks pie every day is a good idea. I’m not so sure. 

Scenes from a walk.

What I am sure of is that this global pandemic situation is temporary and we will get through it. Together. Even if together is “virtually” for a while. Small businesses are being hit particularly hard by this pandemic and the closures that have been mandated as a result. Our family (Paddy) has weathered over 40 years of highs and lows in the retail environment and we are as committed to our customers as ever. We cannot wait to see all of your faces again as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, please shop on this site and contact us if there is anything specific you are looking for or if there is anything we can do to help you get through this.  We may be able to arrange for delivery. THANK YOU so much for reading. We appreciate your loyalty during this tough time! 

Eating pie outside. Still allowed!