Gran Anne's Grasshopper Pie

Since moving to Austin, I have received a lovely gift from my dad on birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays. Dad found a pie maker in Austin willing to make me grasshopper pie from Gran Anne's famous recipe. The first time the pie was delivered to the church, I found out that our Chef, Ray, associate rector and friend, Ken, and my dad had been in cahoots to surprise me. I was speechless. Dad has continued the lovely trend. Earlier this week we received an email from the chef at "Pie Fixes Everything," asking if they could feature Gran Anne's recipe in their Pies for Charities program. We were able to chose a charity of our choice, for whom a portion of the proceeds from the Grasshopper pie will be designated for the entire month of August. If you're in, around, or near Austin, or know someone who is, please send them this delicious pie to benefit the Trinity Center. Who doesn't love pie??? Below is the posting on the Pies Fix Everything Facebook page, along with the family story of the pie.

Pies for Charities: August Pie is "Gran Anne's Grasshopper Pie" This is a Magill Family favorite. Swing by our booth this weekend Cedar Park Farms to Market or HOPE Farmers Market and pick one up. They have chosen The Trinity Center as their Charity. Here's a little about Gran Anne!

My grandmother, Gran Anne, was good at many things. However, she absolutely excelled at spoiling her grandchildren. Among the life credos I learned from her is that you may always eat dessert first, provided there’s dairy involved. Gran Anne was also an excellent baker. While there are many dishes for which she is well known, her grasshopper pie is the stuff of legends. It was a real treat when I was first allowed to help make the pie. Often we had to search all over town for the chocolate graham cookies to crumble for the crust. The quest was well worth it to spend time learning how to make this favorite delicacy with Gran Anne. Laboring through the process of the recipe only increased my feeling of being the most important person in the world as the recipient of this pie. But really, she was the best grandmother for always making us feel as though we were the light of her world. As grand kids, we learned to look forward to family members’ birthdays, just so we had an excuse to eat the pie. Now, I’ll make the pie on a whim because it reminds me of the best gift of all - time spent with my grandmother.

Gran Anne with children, nieces & nephews, and grandchildren on her 80th Birthday.

A Strongly Worded Letter

Dear people with money who pay to have certain sports broadcast, networks, and all other guilty parties,

Welcome to the 21st century. In the United States, women are allowed to play and even excel at most things in society - careers, family life, sports, extra curricular activities - just to name a few. So here's my question, why do you continue to broadcast and publicize with such inequality? I've heard the laundry list of reasons - men's sports attract a bigger audience, make more money, allow for more scholarships, etc. Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps if you were to start giving women's sports half the coverage you gave to men's sports, some of those aforementioned "effects" might change?

Clearly, this doesn't take a rocket scientist to dream up a few creative solutions. I, for one, am sick of women's tennis, golf, and college basketball being broadcast at non-prime hours on cable channels only. Really? Still???

Get with the program.

Love,

Irritated Viewer #1

"March"

A few months back I decided to re-read Little Women because I found the copy that my great-grandmother had given to Gran Anne (my grandmother) when she was nine, in 1930. It was comforting to read from the same pages that my grandmother once read from. I often found myself wondering if my great-grandmother had read aloud to Gran Anne, and what her love for the classic story had entailed.

This past week I read March by Geraldine Brooks. The women in Louisa May Alcott's famous novel are based loosely off of her own sisters' lives. We get to know Marmee in bits and pieces, but there's very little light shed on the person of Mr. March. Geraldine Brooks capitalized on this gap in the family tree. Based loosely on the life of Louisa May Alcott's father, Mr. March is an Army Chaplain who got his start as a peddler on the East Coast and was intermittently a school teacher. He was incredibly dedicated to the abolitionist movement, which ended up occupying most of his life's ventures.

I can't help but wonder how often I have overlooked the underdeveloped characters and failed to see the full picture. The letters that Mr. March sends home from war are the closest the reader ever comes to getting to know the women's father. I had always "read" those letters as lovely and endearing - a father pouring his heart and soul out to his daughters and wife. But what if his letters were almost entirely an evasion of his travels and accounts? Mr. March and Marmee experience a heartbreaking rift when the truth is revealed. Mr. March pleads that he was doing his best to protect his women. Marmee feels betrayed and heartbroken. I, personally always relating closest with Meg and wishing I might be one of the girls, feel a mix of privilege in glimpsing the truth and desire to remain in the dark.

We'll never know how close to "true" Brooks' vision for Mr. March's life was, or if Alcott would have approved, but I couldn't help but relish the opportunity to let my imagination run wild. At it's best, this is what fiction allows us to do - entirely escape into another world and momentarily feel as though we can walk in another's shoes. After all, is there any little woman out there who hasn't envisioned herself dancing around the maypole with the sisters at one time or another?