Peeling Grapes in the Name of Pie

"Maybe I'll make a pie tonight...," said the foolish girl.

Yeah, that would be me.

It was approximately 6:30, and while I wasn't yet hungry for dinner I also wasn't doing much of anything worthwhile and thought that I might as well make a pie in the meantime before I ate dinner in about 45 minutes or so.  A good way to pass some time, and then I could eat pie.  It's a win-win situation.

Earlier this morning, I had decided to try my hand at making a grape pie, like my grandpa once made.  I mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but I really liked that pie (all my grandpa's pies, really), and I've wanted to recreate it now that I own a pie pan.  Making a grape pie seemed like an extra serendipitous decision, since the bag of grapes I bought at the store this week were running a bit sour on their own.  Might as well add a bunch of sugar to them in pie-form.  The recipe was straightforward enough, and after a quick jaunt to the store to buy pie crust and oats, I had all the ingredients.  Time to make me a pie.

Step one, and I quote, was to: "Squeeze the end of each grape opposite the stem to separate skins from pulp."  Easy enough.  Reading that sentence, it sounds like the inside of the grape will just pop right out of it's little skin shell, and you'll be done in no time.  

Yeah.  Not so much.

Instead, I spent about 45 minutes peeling grapes.  I don't know if you've ever peeled grapes, but it is not an easy task.  Each one takes just about 30 seconds or so to peel, but when you have 2 lbs of grapes, the time adds up.  Furthermore, grapes don't particularly lend themselves to being peeled - by the time I was finished there was grape juice EVERYWHERE, including, but not limited to, my eyes, my forehead, my hair, my shirt, my shoulder, my arms, the counter, the sides of the bowl, the nearby coffee pot...it was a bit chaotic.

Finally, I had my prize: a bowl of grape skins, and a pot of skinless grapes.

Victory.

While I stood there peeling the grapes, thinking about how redundant and endless the task seemed to be, I was reminded of my Prayer and Spirituality class last semester.  We talked a lot in that class about historical spiritual figures, like Brother Lawrence (a French Carmelite monk) and Thich Nhat Hanh (a Buddhist monk), who had mastered the art of contemplative prayer, or practicing the "miracle of mindfulness."  Both of them cooked a lot, and both of them were really adamant about how mindless activities are perfect opportunities for meditation.  Thich Nhat Hanh went on in his book for about 20 pages about how "when you're cutting the onions, you must be cutting the onions", and not jumping on to the next thing.  I think you could easily exchange "peeling the grapes" for "cutting the onions" in that sentence.  Once I got past the annoying realization that my "quick" pie-making adventure was going to be very time consuming, it was actually a really good time of thinking.  I tend to be very technology-oriented when I'm just hanging around my apartment, and always have my laptop or my TV on to cover the silence and pass the time.  And even though I did have music playing, it was unusual for me to spend a prolonged amount of time just in personal thought, with no distractions.  I probably ought to do more of that.

Back to the pie, the rest of the recipe went by very quickly: boil the grape pulp, mix it together with the skins and pie-filling-esque ingredients (sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt), and dump it in a pie shell (I was actually pretty bad at rolling out the pie crust).  Then I whipped up a topping of oats, brown sugar, flour, and butter, and sprinkled it on the top, and popped it in the oven for 35 minutes.

And let me tell you...that is one TASTY pie.  It's SO good.  Like, seriously.  I was a little bit discouraged when I took it out because the edges were burnt, but the pie itself is fantastic.  And, since this is my first real made-from-scratch pie (crust excluded), I was pretty proud.  As usual, here are some photos...I'm starting to get better at this whole cooking thing!

Pie with filling, pre-baking

Completed Pie, with Topping, pre-baking

The finished pie!  The edges are burnt, but the filling was perfect!

"Slice" of the pie...it may be an ugly piece, but it was SO delicious

This has been a good week of cooking adventures, between the crepes, Mahi Mahi, and now my grape pie!  I've been eating GOOD this week!

And since I've been eating good, I also did some Wii Fit stepping tonight while watching 500 Days of Summer.  Because, you know.  I DID bring a lot of pie into the house...