Sometimes the recipe doesn't matter

Yesterday, my sweet granddaughter, Riley, came to spend the afternoon with me and working together we created a painting, had afternoon tea, shopped for a pumpkin and made a peach pie.

I have been on a quest to make the perfect pie and I have tried a number of recipes. So far, the crust recipe I prefer is the Pate Brisee from MarthaStewart.com. It is made with butter, flour, salt, sugar and ice water. I have used it time after time but I never imagined that pie crust could be so much fun!

We mixed everything together and made the bottom crust and that was OK for Riley but I took out several flower-shaped cookie cutters and the fun began in earnest. We made the entire top crust from flower shapes that Riley cut and I brushed with cream and dumped in sugar, placing each on top of the pie filling to form a top crust with holes--kind of like a patterned lattice pie.

It occurred to me that this was the most fun I had ever had making a pie and that was because Riley enjoyed herself so much, rolling and cutting out the dough flowers. I also thought that the recipe didn't matter. It didn't even matter if the dough came from the dairy case and was pre-made. Riley could still enjoy cutting out the flowers and we really had a beautiful pie.

It wasn't the best pie I have ever made but I do think I enjoyed it more than any I have ever made because Riley had so much fun playing in the dough.

As she cut them out she would ask, "Is this good? Do you like this one?" and my answer was always, "That is perfect!"

But the pie wasn't really perfect by most standards. It was pretty, but it was so juicy that it made a real mess underneath the pie on the baking sheet I used to catch the overflowing juices, However, it will remain in my memory as the pie Riley and I made together--which trumps any of the pie recipes I have tried in the past.