Cherry Pie

Submitted by Gramps:


When I was about 12 years old, we had a neighbor who had a cherry tree in their backyard. They never picked the cherries and, for some reason, neither did the birds. Instead, the cherries just fell to the ground and rotted. One day my mother, Martha asked if it would be okay if I picked the cherries when they were ripe. In excahnge she promised the neighbors a freshly baked cherry pie.
It must have seemed like a good deal to the neighbors because they immediately accepted. Luckily for me the cherry tree was next to the garage. Even luckier, the garage had a flat roof.
All I had to do was climb up to the flat roof, stand there and pick quarts and quarts of big, luscious, ripe pie cherries.
If you have never tasted one of Martha's cherry pies, you have not really lived. Martha, after all, knew the value and taste of fat. Pie crusts made with solid crisco or, sometimes, lard were the basis of those pies.
Actually, Martha used fat to a great taste advantage in lots of her dishes. Eggs were always fried in sizzling bacon fat. Pancakes were made with bacon fat or a little bacon fat was drizzled over them when the were served...or both.
But I digress, those pies were the highlight of my summer when I was 12 years old, if you put aside my passion for the little blond girl from 7th grade.
Now that we all know better, we would never use lard in a pie crust, would we? I figure that it is ok because the good Lord invented Lipitor just so I can enjoy those great pies and maybe, a bit of bacon fat on my pancakes.

While, not Martha's recipe, this is a pretty good cherry pie recipe from Gourmet:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/14181