The Blonde in the house would have me write each time on a nostalgia or remembrance thought. I do not necessarily agree with that, but this time I think that I will just do that.
The reason being was an incident from the other evening that brought back some memories. It was related to my first city manager’s position in Elizabethtown, Pa. Elizabethtown is located in Lancaster County where there are many of the Amish and Mennonite persuasion. As with all cultures they have different foods. The remembrance of that occurred, when we were at a social and one of the ladies brought some Shoo-Fly Pie. (As to the origin of its name – there are a lot of flies in Pennsylvania).
I realize that some of you may not know what Shoo-Fly Pie is or perhaps hardly have ever heard of it. Those of you with good memories and have lived long enough may recall the song that went something like this, “Shoo-fly pie and Apple Pan Dowdy, makes your eyes bug out and your tummy say howdy!”. I think that Dinah Shore used to sing that, but my recall button is not 100% guaranteed – but pretty close usually. Shoo-Fly Pie is a molasses pie or cake that is made in a pie shell. (It does have some other things besides molasses like egg, flour and brown sugar, but you get the idea.) Originally, the Pennsylvania Dutch ate it for breakfast with strong coffee.
Now what made the Shoo-Fly Pie at the social particularly memorable was that the lady in question had them delivered from Millers in Lancaster County. (She didn’t have any Apple Pan Dowdy though). When we were in said county we used to love Mrs. Miller’s pies. I was making a whopping $8000 a year as the town’s high priced city manager, but even so we did not have a lot of spare change. When we did we would get one of her pies. Usually, we bought her berry pie which was stuffed with berries and was most excellent. When you bought the pie you also were able to keep the metal pan that was used. The Blonde still has two of them – which she uses to make pies – some fifty-five or so years later.
I must mention that The Blonde in the house’s pies are just as great or better than Mrs. Millers. She makes her own crust from scratch which is good for a number of reasons. The main one being that with any extra pie dough she cuts it into strips, butters the strips, puts sugar and cinnamon on them, and then rolls them up. The result is then baked and what we call snails are produced which I get to eat – with this ability increasing after the kids left home. Some of my friends claim that I am spoiled, but you know – jealousy and all that stuff!
If you want to go into it, there is another pie from the Pennsylvania Dutch area called Schnitz Pie. It is not as well-known as Shoo-Fly Pie – probably because no one ever wrote a song about it at least as far as I know. In addition, you do not need the Apply Pan Dowdy since Schnitz-Pie already has apples in it. True they are dried apples and are merged with an orange and some other ingredients, but still comes out tasty. I have written this not to make everyone hungry, but as a civic duty to make the general public aware of some of the good things that are out there.
I must also admit that the suggestion for this article came out of a meeting of Husbands United (a secret society). Seems like some of the members hope that a certain someone might receive a good hint from its contents. Who knows!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
