Patience, Pies, and Puppies

My good friend Melanie did a blog post a few weeks ago about the merits of patience, and how it relates to cooking. Prime example: pie crust. You can read her take on things here: Harvest of Grace. (I really love her blog, by the way. And her in general.)

Anyway, I'd been wanting to learn to make homemade pie crust for some time now. I'm a pretty decent cook and baker if I do say so myself, but I hadn't ever ventured into this difficult and time-consuming territory before, partly because I'd never been able to find a pie crust recipe without shortening, which I do not believe in. Then I read her blog. And then I got a whole bunch of apples in my CSA. And ... I gave in.

I had a moment of sheer panic a few minutes ago, because when I tried to roll out the dough (which you have to keep putting back in the fridge/freezer like ALL DAY while you make the stuff), I could clearly see little pieces of butter floating around in the dough, and I hadn't used enough flour for the counter, and it was sticking, and sticky, and a general mess. So I called Mel. And she reassured me that yes, indeed, you are supposed to be able to see the butter, and just use more flour and put it BACK in the fridge longer, and it would be okay. Thanks, Mel :)

All this to say... I still don't know how the pie will turn out. But I think that God is trying to teach me some patience.

I'm not a very patient person by nature. When I want something done, I want it done NOW. (Or, in some cases, yesterday.) And done my way. I'm spoiled, I guess. But here lately, during the "lets be adults" movement going on at our house, there have been countless situations where either God has been saying "Be patient, not yet" or Satan has thrown roadblocks into my adult-plan-making and made things happen that try my patience. Sometimes it's hard to discern which. And then we got Luna, who requires a lot of patience in general. (I mean, really, you can't just MAKE a dog pee, even if you take it outside. There's sometimes some standing around and waiting involved.) But it's good, and I can feel myself growing through all of it. I'll be the first to admit ... Luna is a tiny bit of a financial burden on us. But we talked and talked and talked it through before coming to a decision, and decided that she would bring lots of joy to our lives, and help us to become better. So far, even with a crying puppy that I PRAY didn't keep the neighbors up, that's proven to be correct.

So here's hoping that my pie ends up being flaky and delicious, and that I learn to practice the patience that God is trying to give me.

And, because I just can't help myself ... more pictures of Luna :)

And, if you've made it this far ... a video for your troubles! (Sorry about that last part - it's hard to video and play and watch the puppy all at the same time...)