One word: Pies.

A Fresh Strawberry Pie for friends. I didn’t retouch this photo. Those berries really ARE that crazy red!

Also, please behold my first shot at a Banana Cream Pie. With an Oreo Cookie Crust and homemade whipped cream on top. And since we’re on that roller coaster, how about some homemade caramel, too, from sugar+butter+heavy cream? (Yes, I realize my obsession with making things from scratch is borderline nuts sometimes, but what can you do? The yummy noises people make fuels my insanity, so it’s not entirely MY fault!)

And in the middle of all the cooking, eating, talking and friends-and-family-ing over the holiday weekend, I had this one quiet moment:

Over dessert, E.’s grandma remarked that maybe I should have the Sugar Cream Pie recipe that her family used to make. It was somewhere in his mom’s recipe box, and E. had to help me find it. As I was leafing through those handwritten index cards, recipe clippings and notes, it wasn’t lost to me that this was a Big Thing. At least it was to me. I don’t go through someone’s recipe collection without a good measure of reverent thankfulness (because I’m very attached to mine!). I was actually a bit nervous looking through that box–all that history in those meals! When a family recipe is given to me, it isn’t just a list of ingredients and directions scribbled on a piece of paper. It’s a story waiting to be cooked, and I’ve been trusted to do the telling. And in the coming days, I hope to tell that story well, in sugar and eggs and flour.

Hope your weekend was just as delicious!