apple pie, no apples

nichepoetryandprose

poetry and prose about place

apple pie, no apples

with 8 comments

apple pie, no apples

fooled a lot of people –

aunts with PhDs

friends from school

my father

now I lift the crust

from every slice of apple pie

look for evidence –

pin-holes, punched by a machine

the recipe, simple as substitution

pie crust

sugar

a shot of lemon, flour to thicken

cream of tartar (to fool taste buds)

a generous dusting

of cinnamon

and

a stack of soda crackers

snapped in two (hand-broken facsimile

of apple)

no one ever seemed to notice

the pin-holes, punched by a machine

Published as ‘apple pie, no apples’, Canadian Stories 17 (95), February/March 2014

For a recipe for Mock Apple Pie, see https://nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/growing-and-gathering-learning/

Written by jane tims

March 5, 2014 at 6:47 am

Posted in family history, growing and gathering

Tagged with apple pie, Mock Apple Pie, old fashioned food, poetry

8 Responses

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I’ve never heard of mock apple pie before!

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Barbara Rodgers

March 6, 2014 at 5:44 pm

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- Hi Barbara. My Mom used to make mock cherry pie as well – raisins and cranberries. Jane
  
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  jane tims
  
  March 7, 2014 at 8:09 am
  
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Simple as substitution – three words that say so much. A simple little subject for a thought-evoking poem. I hadn’t heard of soda crackers – so much easier to come by than Ritz Crackers. Sounds like one of those recipes where everything you need is always on hand. Perfect.

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francisguenette

March 5, 2014 at 11:14 pm

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- Hi. I’ve seen Ritz crackers as an ingredient as well. Substitution – we do it all the time without thinking. Jane
  
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  jane tims
  
  March 7, 2014 at 8:08 am
  
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It is true believe it or not. Mom used to make this for us and I really am not sure you could tell by taste. I could never repeat this recipe and none believes me anyway when I tell them about how good it was as kids. But recall that in those days fresh apples out of season were rare. So this provided an apple pie, not based on cost but availability of produce.

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Stan

March 5, 2014 at 11:21 am

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- Hi. This was the recipe Dad entered in the high school cookbook, which is why I still have it. Try making it, but be sure to use something weird for the pie crust!!! Jane
  
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  jane tims
  
  March 5, 2014 at 11:44 am
  
  Reply
Lovely poem, spare, funny and memory laden. Thanks for sharing. i do love to read your poetry.

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Carol Steel

March 5, 2014 at 7:20 am

Reply
- Hi Carol. Thanks! Jane
  
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  jane tims
  
  March 5, 2014 at 11:42 am
  
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