If you thought I was kidding about making a cherry pie, then you must be new here.

Our Depression Era status coincided perfectly with my mother-in-law’s birthday. Wait, no, that came out wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be a jab at my mother-in-law’s age. I was trying to say that Penny loves cherry pie, so it was actually a perfect day to make cherry pie. Phew. That was close.

And plus, my mother-in-law is hip. Literally she rocks, check it out:

She brings out the rock in all of us. Generally, I’m pretty quiet and reserved. But Penny, she gets your groove on.

Unless your Hungryman, then your groove is always on.

Hey Rock Star, the screen is the other direction!

So, what was I talking about before Rock Band hijacked my story much like it is hijacked my living room?

You try blogging to “Buddy Holly,” it’s rather distracting. And it has nothing to do with cherry pies or baking or birthdays or anything important really, but it does have one giddy man hitting sticks to its beat. Which is again, distracting.

You know what also is distracting? Forgetting to switch your camera from manual focus to automatic focus.

It kind of casts a whole blurry mist over my Auntie Em impersonation. I suppose it is in keeping with the whole old-timey theme of no cell phone, no land line, bright aprons and fresh cherry pie. Seriously if I don’t have a cell phone I clearly shouldn’t have a camera that automatically focuses.

What I did have was bowl full of cherries. Cherries with pits and stems.

Luckily I store a cherry pitter in my drawer for occasions such as this.

A Cherry pitter that can be fully operated by a four-year-old or who-ever-else you have on hand. Ava preferred to pull the stems off by her teeth. That mouth is always looking for chewing employment.

These sweet cherries are about to get sweeter. Hello Cherries, meet Sugar.

Okay, that would have been a very sweet shot had it been focussed. Blasted AF/MF button.

I know the preview screen on digital cameras is designed to prevent these sort of results, but I was too busy keeping small fingers from snatching up all the cherries to be monitoring pictures. And my Canon Rebel has always been so loyal and true, how was I supposed to know it would desert me the same day as the phones?

As you can see from Ava’s cheeks, I wasn’t able to keep those little fingers out of the dough. Their quick and nimble. In fact, I’m fairly certain their responsible for these less than crisp pictures.

Eventually HungryMan appeared on the scene bringing things a bit more into focus.

I do believe that his arrival coincided perfectly with the unrolling of the dough. It seems to me that some of the ends of those strips were prematurely snipped.

After an unexpected costume change and impromptu switch from sugar to glitter sprinkles, the pie was ready for the fire.

Because nothing says, “Happy Birthday” better than a bashful birthday princess holding a rainbow sprinkled cherry pie.

Except maybe a mouthful of the hot sweet cherries bursting in warm buttery crust.

Happy Birthday Grandma Penny, you’re every bit as sweet as a slice of cherry pie!

…

If you are wanting to play a 1930′s housewife, you will find the Fresh Cherry Pie recipe at Cooking Light. Ava and I followed the recipe to a “T,” except for the addition of colored sugar sprinkles. Or, better yet, come over and try some. There’s still a few slices left in the icebox.