Actually, I made 3 pies, because I feel that since pie-making is so messy and a little labor-intensive (like lasagne), it's worth it to just make a bunch, eat one, and freeze a few additional ones for another day. I freeze them uncooked and then when I want to eat one, I pop it in a 400 degree oven and I get a freshly baked hot pie. Yum. If you're not a practiced pie maker I would recommend starting out by making only 2 at a time because more than that gets a little crazy.




One secret is that the key to the flaky deliciousness is using Crisco. Texturally you will not do better for an old-fashioned pie crust whether you use lard, butter, whatever. My grammy was the best pie-maker in the whole wide world (I'm saying that without hyperbole) so I made as many as I could with her to learn her secrets. My mom is damn good too. I'm getting close but I still think my mom's pies are a little more consistent than mine.

I like to make fruit pies that have more than one kind of fruit in them, whatever looks good at the store- in this case, I made strawberry-peach. Because different kinds of fruit need more or less sugar or flour, my mom and I always just look it up in an old Betty Crocker book to get an idea of the proportion of flour, sugar, etc. to mix with the fruit. So I looked up peach pie and used that as a guideline for the filling. It's not an exact science and because fruit differs in terms of ripeness and sweetness and what have you.

You can also get creative with seasoning the filling (something my mom the traditionalist eschews, but I like doing. Citrus zest is great with all berries, and I love orange zest in apple pie. Stone fruits do well with ginger. Strawberries and apples can handle cracked black pepper, if you want to get crazy.

My mom makes 2-crust pies for the most part, but of late, I have started doing lattice tops because it looks terrific, creates a good crust-fruit ratio, and is actually easier to do once you get the hang of it.

Grammy's Pie Crust
The recipe looks long, but that's just because it's hard to explain with words and would be much better if I just showed you how to do it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter-flavored Crisco
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• pinch salt
• about 6 Tblsp ice cold water

Method:

• Food Processor Method: Put crisco, flour, and salt in the food processor. Pulse carefully just until crisco is in pieces about the size of lentils. OR By Hand Method: Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, cut butter through flour and salt until crisco is in pieces about the size of lentils (there can also be pieces that are larger and flatter, like a cornflake.)
• Add about 4 Tblsps of the water and mix with a spoon or your hands. Just mix very lightly because you want to maintain the crisco in those pieces. The dough should come together and have no dry parts. Continue adding water until the pie dough is basically in one piece and not overly dry. You also don't want it too sticky so it's safer to err on the side of dry rather than getting it too sticky.
• If you're a beginner with the rolling pin, at this point you should divide the dough into 2 pieces where one piece is a little bigger than the other, wrap them in plastic and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This will make the dough much easier to handle.
• During this time, you can prepare the fruit according to  a recipe. For the strawberry peach, I did about 2 baskets of strawberries cut up, 2 large peaches peeled and chunked, 2/3 cups sugar, 1/3 cup flour, a pinch of salt, a big pinch of powdered ginger, and the zest of half an orange. Mix all together and let sit.
• Take the dough out. Flour the countertop and put the larger dough disk on the flour. Rub it in the flour then flip it over.
• When rolling out the dough, you want to make sure it doesn't stick or you will have a whole world of problems. The ideal method is to roll one stroke up and down, then pick up the dough and rotate it a quarter turn while sort of dragging it in the flour. Then roll one stroke up and down and repeat. Continue like this until you have a big disk of dough that is around 1/8-1/4 inch thick and big enough to fill up your pie plate.
• Picking up the dough is tricky but with practice you can get it. You can either fold it over into quarters, pick it up, place it strategically over the pie pan and unfold. Or, you can roll it up onto your rolling pin and then roll it back over the plate.
• Try to get the dough into the corners and settled in the bottom and sides. Cut off the bug pieces of extra dough hanging over the sides, leaving the crust just hanging over the edge by a little bit. If you have ripped or broken the dough don't worry, just patch it.
• Put the filling into the crust, and dot with a couple tablespoons of butter.
• Take the remaining dough disk and the excess dough pieces you've cut off the bottom crust. Roll out the same way as before.
• Using a paring knife, cut strips of dough about 1/2 inch wide. Place over top of pie in diamond lattice pattern. If you want to be fancy, weave the dough strips so they go under, over, under, over (so not as hard as it sounds. You know me, I'm on the lazy side and I even do it with the weaving.)
  
• Smoosh the dough on the edges together with your fingertips and form them into a little ridge all around the edge of the pan.
• Sprinkle sugar on the top of the dough strips and cook at 400 degrees for around an hour, until the pie is bubbling. OR put the pie in the freezer for about an hour uncovered. Then take it out, and wrap it in multiple layers of foil, and put back in the freezer.