On Friday, the first grade at Caroline’s school had their very own Thanksgiving Feast. This is not to be confused with the feast they had in the cafeteria earlier in the week that involved very tough turkey and nary any sort of cutting utensil to be found.
The feast on Friday was just for the first graders and each class was asked to contribute various things. I’m the homeroom mom (I know. I can’t even believe it myself. Rumor has it I actually have to come up with some crafts for them to do at the Christmas party.) so I sent out an email to the parents in the class with a list of items we’d need for the feast.
Fortunately, we have really great parents and they quickly volunteered for everything we needed with the exception of pies. My co-homeroom mom and I agreed that we’d just take care of the pies so, when I picked up Caroline from school earlier in the week, I asked her what kind of pies she’d like me to make for the Thanksgiving Feast and she informed me that she’d like a cherry pie and a shoofly pie.
I’d only heard of a shoofly pie thanks to the musical stylings of the late Dinah Shore, but when I told Caroline I wasn’t sure how to make a shoofly pie she told me to “go look it up on the google”. I informed her that when I was her age the only way I could have found out how to make a shoofly pie would have involved something called an “Encyclopedia” because we didn’t have computers or “the google”. She said, “Yeah, but they didn’t even have electricity when you were little”.
I think she has the 1970′s confused with an episode of Little House on the Prairie.
Ultimately, I did indeed find a recipe for shoofly pie using Google, but decided that I didn’t have the time nor the inclination to make two homemade pies for a first grade Thanksgiving feast that was going to consist of some turkey roll-ups, chex party mix, and carrots with ranch dressing. So I went to Central Market and bought a chocolate cream pie from the bakery and this.
The night before the feast, I pulled it out of the freezer and began to open the box. Caroline walked in, noticed what I was doing and exclaimed, “Oh! So that’s how you make a homemade cherry pie!”
And I replied, “Yes. Yes it is.”
I just thought y’all might want my recipe.
Disclaimer: Dinah Shore never sang a song about Mrs. Callender’s frozen pies. But I think she totally would have if she’d ever tried one.
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HILARIOUS! That’s my kind of recipe!
I claim that Marie’s pies are a family recipe(somehow she is related–going clear back to Noah’s line) and that qualifies them as being homemade. We love the razzelberry pie here at our house.
Have a great day!
pscole3467 at gmail dot com
We have a fabulous locally owned chain of
grocery stores….they have their own backery….so whenever I serve something from there that gets lots of compliments I say “Oh Grandma Martins made it”
God Bless, and Happy Thanksgiving….
Pam, South Bend
Sounds like a great recipe. I’m sure it made the house smell great as well.
So, a Shoofly pie is a chocolate pie? I guess I’ll google it. (How we ever survived looking things up in an encyclopedia, I’ll never know. BTW, just had spell check fix my spelling of encyclopedia. Clearly, I didn’t use the dictionary either.)
You mean that’s not how you make a homemade pie. There’s some other way! Please tell me it isn’t so. lol
I love this recipe! I wonder if you could substitute some pecans!
I’m with Pamela on this one. If Marie Callenders cherry pie is great, then her razzleberry pie is the stuff that manna must have been the base of, cause it’s sinfully deliciouso. Give P a shot at it this Thanksgiving and get back to me on that challenge!
Now that is my kind of recipe!
That was a fun way to start my Monday! Cute story–and now I need to look up shoofly pie. Which I will do “on the google”, not in an encyclopedia. The only encyclopedia’s I know of are in my mother in law’s living room. I won’t be there until Thursday, so….”the google” it is! : )
Dinah Shore is my great aunt- and I promise you- she would have been right there with you on the store bought pie! Hilarious!
Oh what a feast!
I think Marie has some rockin pies. Last weekend I experienced a coconut pie of hers at my small group meeting!
Worth her baking time, I tell ya!
Have a great celebration! Sounds like fun! Can’t wait to hear what the craft idea will be for Christmas. I have some good ones stored away in my old brain if you need any!
My grandfather used to say “Make your eyes light up and your tummy say howdy!” I always thought he made that up! Well, shoot!
My brother and I are a good many years apart (surprise mom!) When he was about 5 or 6 he declared that mom made the best lasagna ever. Yup! She can heat up a Stouffer’s like nobody’s business!
Shoofly pie is a local delicacy in these parts. Although that makes it sound like pickled pigs feet or something not suitable for human consupmtion.
In my book this is the best kind of recipe. Sort of the like the German Chocolate cake I made for my dad’s bday yesterday. I got the recipe Mizz Betty Crocker and her beau Duncan Hines.
You had me at pie. You had me at pie!
Secret family recipe=I opened the package with my right hand!
Shoofly pie? Yumm!!! Gooey molasses bottom (also called wet bottom) with a thick, sugary crumb topping! It would’ve been worth the time to make it with the right recipe. I find the best recipes on allrecipes.com. Most recipes have extensive reviews to help you decide if you’d like to try it or not.
My Nannie used to teach dancing to Dinah Shore. I’ll have to ask her if Dinah had a love for Marie Callender’s pies.
Love how Caroline just knows that “the Google” will have all of the answers…b/c it totally does.
Your recipe looks fab.
I got a chuckle as usual. I gave up making pie crusts when I discovered Pillsbury makes ones better than mine. I have Sara Lee pie in my freezer because the local grocery always has them on sale right before Thanksgiving. My son says for the people who can’t cook. I would add for the people who want pie but don’t want to cook.
Oh, good! There was a shortage of cherry pie last year, and there’s nothing like a shortage to make me crave something I’d never eat in the first place.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Haha!!! LOVE it!!!!!
Christmas crafts – I’m doing a “crafts” party in Decembr for my daughter’s birthday. I went to Hobby Lobby this weekend and they have all kinds of ceramic ornaments that can be painted. I even found acrylic paint with directions for “setting” the paint (baking in the oven) so that it can be like a real keepsake. I got the snowmen. That might be something you want to try. Not sure how you could set the paint at school, but I’m sure the google might have more directions.
Ooo, homeroom mom. Daring you are. Emma’s homeroom mom is pretty cool. She came up with some neat “Fall Party” craft ideas, so if you need any suggestions for Christmas crafts, let me know.
Emma has a “Friendship Breakfast” today. For some reason, they are not calling it a Thanksgiving feast. I have no idea why. I just had to send apples with her. Some other poor parent is going to make pancakes, right there.
I guess there isn’t a cookbook tour in your immediate future, but I’ll tell ya this … that is MY kind of recipe!
A few tips from a first grade teacher:
1. First graders would probably not EAT shoofly pie. They might lick whipped cream off of it. I’ve had parents bring “healthy” things that their children would not eat at home, let alone at a class party when it is sitting next to something made purely of sugar on the food table.
2. Your best friend for Christmas party crafts is the Oriental Trading Company catalog: little kits that are precut and prepackaged. Heavy on the WOW factor.
3. Avoid glitter on crafts. It has an afterlife of several hundred years and the teacher will think of you each time she finds more to clean up in March and April. And not fondly.
Ha! We make homemade pies the EXACT same way! LOL!
Ha! We make homemade pies the EXACT same way! LOL!
If you ever get in a pinch for a Shoofly Pie let me know…. I live in Amish Country and they are a staple here. Believe it or not, they ship tons of them out of this place every holiday season! I had never heard of them or tasted them (being a Tx girl) until I moved to PA.
I have to say they are NOT my fav and I think they got their name by the amounts of flies they attract because of their total grossness. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for a great laugh! Made my morning.:)
I’ve always wanted to make a shoofly pie too, and one of those treacle tarts Harry Potter is so fond of. I think they’re similar. Let me know if you ever try it out. I watched “unwrapped” one night and they showed the Marie Callender’s pie factory and, OMG, made me want one. Unfortunately here in Backwoods, Alabama, I’ve never seen one of those in the piggly wiggly! Or even the nearest Wal Marts, which is 22.3 miles away. Maybe I could order one off of the google.
I’ve been reading the comments up above mine, and I second the lady who said glitter has an afterlife. I still have royal blue glitter in the carpet in the trunk of my car since my daughter rode in the homecoming parade her junior year of high school. In 2004.
That’s quite the girlie you have there and she’s only six??You have a lot of fun in front of you.
This made me laugh. Twice!
Shoofly pie is so easy and my kids love it. Whether or not your family would like it, I have no idea! Just buy a pie shell at the store and fill it with the shoofly recipe. It’s super easy. (Use at least 1/2 dark Karo or King Syrup – no need to use a molasses that is too dark or no one will eat it!)
You are so a woman after my own heart! Thank you for this…
Happy Thanksgiving, if I don’t get back this way again before…
Much love to you and that sweet little Caroline of yours…two funny and sassy girls!
Oh man. I LOVE shoo fly pie. I grew up in Amish country and we had them quite often. We even had one at my wedding!
Maybe that’s odd…. Have a great holiday!
Aah!!! A recipe I can follow without having to use “the google” to look up ingredients or cooking terminology:)
I will share my little pie making secret: let the pie thaw a bit, then re-crimp the crust so it looks “homemade” and not so factory perfect.
Hey! You stole my pie recipe! Actually, mine calls for the Razzleberry Pie. Mmmmmmm…..and now I might need to go to the store. Glad you have good parents to help out! As a former public elementarty school teacher I know how difficult life can be without them.
I love your title! I have never had shoofly pie or even really considered that it was an actual pie but my grandad used to sing me the song when I was little and now I sing it to my kids. Awww, sweet memories. Thanks!
This was good…I mentioned encyclopedias on my blog the other day too…boy, they seemed great in their day but now that we have the internet we know that was an illusion.
Happy Thanksgiving! Will Mrs. Callender also be baking your pumpkin pie? I have no problem with that btw : )
This post made me laugh so hard! That’s my kind of homemade pie.
“the google” made me thing of “the steinmarts” and I know I have my people confused but it still made me smile!
Does anyone have encyclopedia’s anymore?
Yum, I love cherry pie. And shoo fly pie does not sound appetizing. Who wants a fly in or near their pie? LOL
OK, rather than writing a 4 paragraph comment, I’m posting my silly pie story on my blog. You won’t believe how dumb I was.
Mary
THE Google. She is hilarious.
I grew up begging my mom to make homemade pies with me for Thanksgiving. I wanted to do apple pies with lattice work & pumpkin pies with leaves cut out of the extra crust dough. She refused year after yer. She always used your recipe!
ROFL! My husband today had to un-confuse our 7-year-old son after my son started throwing a fit because we aren’t going to let him watch a movie tomorrow on the 2-hour drive to Kansas to visit my 86-year-old grandmother. When my husband explained that not only did we not have DVDs in cars, but we barely had VCRs when we were young, I think my son’s mind exploded. Kids are hilarious.
Wow! Homeroom mom AND homemade cherry pie! You are the queen!! LOL! Thanks for the “recipe!”
I like your way of baking! Hey, those first graders wouldn’t appreciate the hard work that goes into an actual homemade pie!
Let them make cards for people in nursing homes, or returning soldiers, if practical, for their Christmas party craft. Easy, and community service all rolled into one.
Nate’s Mom
My oldest used to ask me if I was going to add some “scratch” when I was baking because she’d heard me say “I made this from scratch!
The razzleberry is AMAZING by Marie…Highly recommend it. My daughter only knows “nana’s” desserts and cookies. She even created a festive “Thanksgiving” note one year at school all dedicated to her! LOL! Sadly, she is no longer with us and I am SO thankful my daughter has her cooking abilities and knows all her recipes and can make them on her own! (at 12!)
That is TOTALLY my kind of recipe too! I am a 2nd grade teacher and one craft we usually do at our Christmas party is decorate your own sugar cookie. One mom makes different shaped cookies and then they pick their icing color and a few different kinds of candy and then decorate and eat it. The kids love it!
i like that recipe. looks almost like the one i make for sweet potato.
who the heck is dinah shore?!?! hahaha
For a craft do decoupage stars or balls for trees. Cheap. Glue and sealer in one. It is not suppose to look perfect. So perfect for carolines age.
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