So I’m back. Honestly, I was not inspired to write. Cook, yes, write, no. Cooking was cathartic, writing was heavy and laborious. I wanted out of my head and cooking has always provided me with a way to sort things out. Some people jog/run and think, the physical metronome enabling them to focus, process and move on. That’s what cooking does for me, especially the creative, no recipe kind of cooking.
I have been wracking my brain to come up with something “motherly” for the month of May. My favorite dish, an easy dish for a mother to make, you get the idea. But I kept coming back to this pie my mother used to make from the Gourmet cookbook, circa late 1950’s. It was her signature dessert saved for special occasions and so spot on for that Mad Men era. Gooey meringue and a chocolate type mousse filling. However, my sister and I always looked forward to eating it the morning after. Parents still asleep after a night of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (the whipped cream cover) and Manhattan’s, we would quietly sneak into the kitchen to devour the left over’s, but now the meringue would be even chewier…it was awesome!
My sister carried on the tradition as the maker of this pie. I never made it because she had mastered it, but then the idea came to reinvent the dish and bring it into the 21st century. Old meets new…back to where we began.
My mom has passed but the traditions live on with my sister and me. So many of the things we thought dorky and lame are now present in our holiday celebrations and the little things remind us of big memories. I hope you enjoy this vintage recipe and when you take the first bite, think of your mom…
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