Week 18: Teacher Appreciation, Plus!

Well here I am again at another Teacher Appreciation Week. When I began this experiment I thought I'd do pies every single week for a year. Over a year later I'm not even halfway. Lots of things happen to thwart my good intentions: work, lack of grocery money to buy pie supplies, general busy-ness, major surgery, etc.! I don't mind, I'll just keep plodding along.

This week was teacher appreciation week at my boys' schools. I made an apple pie for each of them, and delivered them on Friday.

My third delivery was to the county courthouse. We recently discovered that some restitution money that was supposed to go to us, was mis-delivered by the mail service and then deposited in the receiving party's bank account! A police investigation failed to result in an arrest or the return of our money. Out of desperation I called the county courthouse accounting department and asked for a lady I had worked with before, who had gotten me a copy of the check so that the matter could be investigated. She let me know that there was a form that I could fill out that would result in the county treasurer investigating the matter, and if they got the money back they would then send it to us. She couldn't get hold of the treasurer's office on Friday afternoon, so on Monday she checked with that office and called me to let me know what she found. I felt like Jeannie really went out of her way to help me find a solution, when noone else would. So I made her a pie, and delivered it today, and I hope that it really made her day, week, month, whatever! I felt like she deserved to know that her efforts were appreciated.

For the recipe for this pie, go to April 2010 in my pie blog.

Hopefully more to come next week! I do so enjoy the pie-baking process when I make the time to do it.

My Own Banana Cream Pie

I was asked to serve in our church's nursery starting in January. We had to go out of town on the second Sunday of January, to go see our nephew give his farewell talk in church before leaving on a two-year mission to Brazil. So, I had to ask one of the nursery parents if they could substitute.

I was delighted when the first parent I got hold of readily agreed to take my place. So I baked her a pie and she was delighted that she finally got to be part of the blog.

This week I was craving good old Southern comfort food. I love a good Southern banana pudding, with the layers of vanilla wafers, bananas, pudding, and whipped cream. So I decided to try to replicate this in a pie. Since I couldn't find any truly satisfactory recipes online for doing this, I made my own.

Southern Banana Cream Pie
recipe by Margo Mead

1 1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2-2 bananas, sliced
1 4-serving box instant banana pudding, prepared as directed on box for pie filling (takes less milk than for pudding)
cool whip or prepared whipping cream

Combine crushed wafers with melted butter or margarine. Press on bottom and sides of pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool.

Place sliced bananas all over bottom and sides of crust. Pour in prepared instant pudding. Top with cool whip and additional sliced bananas. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Best if eaten the same day.