PIE OF THE PIONEERS

My idea of cooking is punching holes in a tray. But I needed delicious, low-calorie, inexpensive recipes for my new book, LOOK LIKE A PRINCESS ON A PAUPER’S BUDGET And You Don’t Have To Kiss A Frog To Do It (Amazon & Kindle) so I asked my friend and illustrator April Sampson to co-author. This happens to be one of April’s many talents! She is amazing!

However, I do love to bake, but I’m hardly Betty Crocker. In my youth, (I was 25) I made brownies from eggs that had been in the back of the refrigerator for 2 years. – They tasted fine, nobody died!

Plus I love color and ornamentation. My Christmas cookies usually look as if decorated by Ru Paul. All of my holiday goodies were the Lady Gaga of pastries.

Now that I’ve reached the age of heart attacks and strokes, I’m trying to cut down on this sort of thing. This is difficult because I look forward to dessert! I feel deprived if I don’t have it! I take my dessert seriously.

I’ve been reduced to eating cereal biscuits in place of cookies with my after dinner tea. But at least there are MISS MERINGUE’S Cookies. They’re fat free, plus a serving of 4 is only 110 calories. And they don’t taste half bad! Biscotti are also low in calories compared to other cookies.

There is one particular dessert I’ve never forgotten. It first caught my eye due to its interesting history which goes all the way back to the Old West. I am an ardent lover of Westerns. I’ve even written one, THE VALLEY OF SHADOWS AND SHAME (Amazon & Kindle). How can you help but admire the people who settled the American frontier!

Along with the hazardous terrain, pioneers endured hardships and perils, such as extreme heat and cold; thirst, disease, starvation, hostile Indians, tornadeos, wolves, floods, Bigfoot, wildfires, cannibalism, etc.

And in my opinion, the worst of all, (gasp!) a scarcity of dessert! -- Probably a good thing; dental infection was a leading cause of death in the Old West. However, there was an occasional treat called Vinegar Pie! It was made entirely of non-perishable ingredients. Plus it was tasty and low in calories.

I knew I MUST try this dessert! The ingredients were all in our pantry, except for the crust, which I bought frozen. As I mixed, stirred, and baked, I sang the old pioneer tune, SWEET BETSY FROM PIKE "who crossed the wide prairie with her lover Ike, two yoke of oxen, a big yeller dog, a tall Shanghai rooster, and one spotted hog.....” I think that how it goes. -- If you’ve never heard this song, then you weren’t around during the golden age of westerns.

Never had I been a fan of pie (cake rules!) but I loved this one! Unfortunately, I was the only one who did. My brother, whom I’ve always thought to be omnivorous, took 1 bite before putting his plate down for the family Chihuahua. The dog sniffed it and walked away. Later, he came back and ate the crust, which I didn’t make.

Surely, someone else had to love this pie as much as I did!

Later, I found lots of versions of Vinegar Pie online. These had a lot more ingredients than the Pioneer recipe. The calorie count was now high.

I asked April to tinker with the recipe. I wondered if she could make it more appealing taste-wise while keeping the calorie count low. To do this, she needed to add perishable ingredients. The one in our book is 310 calories per serving 1/8 slice, which is higher than the pioneer version. But April’s tastes good enough to serve as a special occasion dessert!

NO, I am NOT printing the recipe here! Geez, if you want it, BUY OUR BOOK!!!