xp_logs | Sunday Apple Pie Adventures: Jay, Jane, and Callie

Callie, Jane, and Jay set about to making apple pie, per Callie's promise.

With one foot perched on the edge of his chair, Jay sat hunched over the table, scribbling something on a sheet of paper. "I feel so uninspired. Like there ain't a damn thing to write about," he said, referring to his music. "Maybe it's the pie. Food shuttin' down mah brain." Leaning forward, he lifted his body off the chair and tucked a leg under his bottom, settled back into a comfortable position that lifted him up some.

"You mean to say that pie is shutting down your brain?" Callie looked up from where she was busy peeling apples. Two freshly baked pie crusts sat cooling in front of her surprisingly tidy workstation. Various glass bowls filled with ingredients were lined up like soldiers in a row, just waiting to be used. "Or is lack of pie shutting off your creative flow?"

"You could write about the pie," Jane suggested, her fingers darting into the pile of discarded peels and liberating a particularly long, green spiral. "Kinda like practice so you can get your words moving again."

Jay gave Jane a look. "Write about pie? That's lame." Crumpling up the paper suddenly, Jay tossed it in front of him, adding to his collection on the table. "Maybe Callie's right. Lack of pie shuts down the brain. But Ah had pie the other day, cream pie by Dani and Sam brought a pie back from Mama's. Ah guess Ah should be careful. Might start gettin' fat."

"Hm. Well I don't know. Maybe the magical pie properties only work if you watch it get made and inhale its scent while baking?" Slices of apple fell into an empty bowl, while the core was dumped in a trash bowl with the peels. "And writing about pie may sound lame, but I bet you could make it cool. Matt Maher has this song about cheesecake and it's totally cute. It's like those writing exercises my teachers used to give me. Just start writing anything and see where it takes you." Callie looked up as she finished cutting the last apple and smiled. "Just something to get the creative juices flowing?"

"Exactly. It's not like it has to be a masterpiece or anything. I mean, get something down on paper, and worry about if it's any good later. Who knows, maybe you'll come up with an awesome melody." Jane chomped down decisively on the last of her apple peel before saving another from a compost-y fate."Our pie, is a very, very, very fine pie..."

"Ah'm still waitin' for my pie," Jay said, raising his hands in a 'where is it' gesture. He was done with talking about music and something about getting advice from others made him twitch. Instead, he set his pencil down and started folding his paper to do origami.

Callie shook her head at this and coated the apples with sugar and spices. "Jay, good pie, like anything else worthwhile takes time." She tossed the sliced fruit in the bowl, making sure all the surfaces were covered. When that task was accomplished, she transferred the filling into their respective shells. "Either of you feel like cutting out strips of dough so I can make a lattice top?"

Jane hopped off of her stool and made for the fridge. "Not it!" she called back. "I can't touch a crust without destroying it. Anyone want a drink?"

He scoffed. "Damnit." But still, Jay got out of his seat and rolled up his longsleeved shirt, coming up beside Callie. "All right," he asked, washing his hands. "Jean-Paul showed me the closed top, so you wanna show me what Ah'm doing here?"

"You see that ball of dough?" Callie pointed at some dough she had reserved and held out a rolling pin to Jay. "First off, we need to roll that out to one-fourth of an inch thickness. Sound good to you?"

"Yup," he said, taking up the roll and flouring the counter before rolling it out. Briefly he glanced over his shoulder to Jane before continuing, rolling out with what seemed like a practiced hand but wasn't.

Leaving her little baking assistant to his work, Callie crossed the kitchen and began searching through various drawers for a pizza cutter. She was in fact of the school of thought that helping out when cooking gave one a greater appreciation of the finished product. Or at the very least, it lightened up her load. Either way, it was a win-win situation. Finally, the rogue cutter was found and the young girl returned to where Jay was working. "That's perfect Jay. Here," she held out the apparatus, a bright smile on her face. "Feel like cutting some strips? Three fourths an inch in width if you please."

He took it from her and began cutting as instructed. "Yanno, it's fun when you're doing it with someone else but not so much when you're on your own." His confidence concerning cooking went down a few notches by himself but here, he felt okay with the girls.

"And things you cook for yourself by yourself are never taste as good either," Jane chimed in as she plunked herself back on her chair, soda bottle in hand. "Weird how it works out like that."

"Yeah that's right, there," he nodded to Jane, though he wasn't paying too mention attention to what he was doing instead eyeing her pop. "What, you just get one for yourself?" he asked, smiling because he knew she asked them if they wanted anything.

As Jay finished cutting the strips of dough, Callie began delicately lay them on top of the apple filled crust forming the famous lattice top. Each piece was meticulously placed so as each squared formed by their intersection was as close to the same size as possible. The extra lengths were cut, rolled into a small ball, and set aside. Stepping back, she examined it for a minute. "It's perfect," she declared. "Now all we have to do it let it bake until golden brown."

"I'm not a telepath, y'know," Jane rolled her eyes at Jay good-naturedly as she handed him her soda. "You're just lucky I forgot to check to see if we had vanilla ice cream while I was over there. And that I'm a nice person." Getting up for a return trip to the fridge, she reached over to poke at the remaining ball of dough. "Callie, do we have enough left to make a couple of baked apples, too?"

"You wanna bake apples?" Jay asked, looking over his shoulder before he guzzled some pop. "Kinda a waste ain't it??"

"If you can find some Red Hots or some diet soda I will gladly make some baked apples," came the call from the oven. The door closed gently and the timer was set, meaning all they had to do now was wait. "And Jay, don't knock it until you've tried it."

"Ah ain't sayin' a thing," he countered. "Ah like anything with apples in 'em. Kinda missed apple season this year, what with everythin' going on." He set his pop down and flipped on the kitchen sink, washing his hands. It took even less time for him to dry them and he turned around, leaning against the counter while tossing the rag aside.

"That's the nice thing about apples, " Jane replied as she skipped off to the pantry to get Callie the cinnamon candies. "They'll keep until you're ready to use them." Given the year that they had had, Jay in particular, it made you thankful for even the smallest things.

"Or if they spoil we can give them to Cammie," replied Callie cheerfully. She dampened a rag and began to wipe off where she had managed to spill some flour on the counter. "And don't worry Jay, apple season is only a few short months away. We can all go apple picking and have so many apples we will run out of uses for them. How's that sound?"

"Yeah, Ah reckon that'd be real nice. Maybe invite mah brother Jeb along for a weekend," but that was so far away from him and at this point, Jeb hadn't even seen the way he looked. "Maybe we'll just keep it up in the air, yanno, in case someone tries to take over the city again."