i baked a pie last night.

it was terribly frustrating. crusts just aren't my thing. suffice it to say: i'm not a pie girl. i'm a cobbler girl. (you're talking to someone who'd rather make drop cookies than roll out cookie dough!)

and the saddest part? i didn't even make the crust. it was storebought. (kristi, i can hear you tsking your tongue at me! i know you're ashamed.)

but darnit, making a crust always looks easier than it really is. i mean - so few ingredients - how hard can it be right? blah. i never succeed.

so i do storebought. and it turns out, i can't even do a storebought pie crust properly. matt brought home a package of two pie crusts already in pans, and frozen. not quite what i had in mind, but the directions outlined making a double-crust pie from the two crusts, so i played along. i defrosted one, so i could remove it from the pan, and gently lay it over the top of my pie - just like the instructions said.

but apparently defrosting it in a warm oven was not what they meant (and i'm not the most patient person in the world.) because that sole act, it seems, screwed up my top layer of pie crust.

i desperately tried to coax it from the sides of the aluminum pie pan without any success whatsoever. the crust stuck to my fingers, to the pan, and to itself. there was no way out. in frustration, i used my finger tips to scrape the dough out. i stared at the wad of dough for a few minutes, trying desperately to devise a way in which a pie crust resulted without use rolling pin or flour. sensing the inevitable, i floured the counter, tossed the mound onto the dusty surface and began rolling. and for all of the same reasons that keep me from making my *own* pie crust, i quickly grew frustrated with this one.

over and over, i wadded up the failed half-rolled dough and tried again, until it was so coated in flour that it refused to adhere to itself. rolling was no longer an option.

in sheer desperation, i did what i probably should've done at the beginning. i picked off chunks of the dough, flattened them (um, with my palms) and piece-mealed together a layer of crust atop my filled pie and retired to the couch, covered in flour and needing a stiff drink. when the pie finally came out of the oven, it reminded me of those maps of the world before plate-techtonics kicked in...

but at least it tasted good. :)