I’ve mentioned before that Peter really enjoys the Great British Baking Show. When he was here, a year or so ago, I was watching it while I was walking on my treadmill. He got interested, and now we watch together when he’s visiting.

This past week, he’s been a little under the weather, and we’ve spent several mornings watching the Brits bake and also some Mr. Rogers episodes.

After the first morning’s baking encouragement, he thought we should make an apple pie. With chocolate chips. If Peter had his way, all fruit would come with mini chocolate chips already inside themselves, so when you peeled, chopped, opened them, there the chips would be! Maybe scientists are working on that right now!

I’d gotten a few different kinds of apples when I went to the grocery store a few days earlier. It looked to him like a good mix, and I began to peel them and chop them up. Peter had been a little under the weather, and in the middle of my peeling and chopping, he went to lie down. Then he went to sleep. I doused the apple pieces in lemon juice, and started on the crust. We’d gotten out cookbooks and he decided on a two-crust pie with a lattice top (instead of a plain, easy-to-do top crust). I followed the recipe until the addition of shortening, and I searched my cabinets for Crisco. No Crisco. I just don’t cook/bake very much at all these days. So, now what?

Since several cookbooks were out and opened to the Pastry/Pie sections, I looked and found a pie crust recipe that uses oil instead of shortening. I had oil, and it went together well. The instructions said to cut two pieces of waxed paper into 12-inch squares, and to put half the dough between them and roll out the dough. When the circle of dough reached the edges of the paper, then the crust would be the proper depth. Okay. That was easy. I rolled out two circles, and waited a while for Peter to wake up, which he didn’t do. So I finally put the pie together, adding the requested chocolate chips.

Even the aroma of baking apples and chocolate chips wasn’t enough to rouse him. Peter slept on.

Quite some time later, he woke. I said, “Smell that delicious aroma? That’s your pie.”

The sleepy, feverish boy had a bite and said, “Maybe I’ll have some later.”

The next day, after the pie had sat around for many hours, I sliced it up and froze the pieces. A couple of days after that, Peter said, “Why did you cut up the pie?”

“Because,” I said, “you weren’t eating any of it, and if it sat around for a few days, it wouldn’t be any good. So I cut it into slices and put them in the freezer. Now, anyone who’s hungry for pie can get a piece of your tasty apple and chocolate chip pie, and warm it up, and enjoy it.”

“Oh,” he said. And it seemed like a good idea to him. I don’t think he’s eaten any of it, and maybe he never will. Sort of the thrill of the hunt, I guess.

Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts

Acts 2:46 (Christian Standard Bible)

I’m grateful that I never have had to go hungry. I’m grateful for family with whom to break bread with a joyful and sincere heart. I’m grateful that I get to make apple and chocolate chip pie with a grandchild. I have a sincerely joyful heart.