for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

A Special Thanksgiving Post

There will be no Happy Wanderer this Thursday. Instead, please enjoy this short holiday post (which I am sending out early so that you will have time to prepare the recipe for Thanksgiving dessert if you so desire). The Happy Wanderer will resume regular posts on December 1.

Note: If you are having turkey for Thanksgiving, be sure to put all the bones and scraps in a container and stick them in the freezer instead of throwing them away. You’ll need them for the post on December 1. And happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A view from TschentenAlp, above Adelboden, Switzerland.

On my hikes, I feel awe at the sublime beauty all around me, and the opening lines of e.e. cummings’s poem “i thank You God for most this amazing” run through my head:

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

Swinging into the infinite, on the Giant Swing at TschentenAlp. Photo by a nice young couple who offered to take my picture.

Or I am singing phrases from the greatest work of music ever composed, Bach’s Mass in B-Minor, to myself. I have been fortunate to have sung this work three times and to have heard it performed twice. Below is a sparkling, radiant, passionate, and precise performance by Collegium 1704, Prague’s baroque chamber orchestra and chorus, conducted by Václav Luks. I was in the audience for this performance, which was played without intermission. When Luks laid his baton down at the very end, we leaped to our feet with shouts of joy. You may not have time to listen to the whole mass, but I encourage you to listen to “Gratias agimus tibi” (“we give you thanks”)—particularly appropriate for Thanksgiving!—which you will find at the 28:35 mark.

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How about you, readers? What makes you feel awe? And what are you especially thankful for today? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

The Tidbit

From the sublime to the merely delightful. Everyone loves pie for Thanksgiving dessert, right? This pie crust is quick and easy to make and comes out perfectly flaky every time. You can use the crust for desserts or for quiche. If you are making a double-crusted pie (for example apple or cherry), double the recipe.

Note: For this recipe to work, your vodka really does need to come straight from the freezer. You all had a bottle of vodka in the freezer already, right?

Fast, Flaky, and Fabulous Pie Crust

Ingredients

1c flour

1tsp sugar

1/4tsp salt

7T (100gms) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes

3T (45ml) vodka, taken straight from the freezer

Method

1. If you haven’t done so already, put a bottle of vodka in the freezer and leave it there for at least 12 hours.

2. Put all the ingredients except the vodka into the food processor. Then, while the processor is running, slowly drizzle in the vodka. Leave the processor to run until the dough comes together in a big ball (about 30 seconds).

3. Remove the dough, pat it into a flat disk, and chill for half an hour or so. You can make the recipe up to this point in advance; just wrap the dough and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to make the pie. If you are making the whole recipe right now, this is a good time to make your filling and to preheat the oven to 400F (205C).

4. Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit for about 10 minutes. You want it to be cool but not ice-cold so it will roll out easily. Roll out the dough on a floured board until the circle is large enough for your pie pan. If the dough breaks, you can stick it back together with a tiny bit of water at the broken spots. No one will notice.

5. Place the crust in your pie pan, prick it lightly with a fork over the bottom and sides, and briefly chill in the freezer (about 15 minutes).

6. Weigh the crust down with pie weights. If you don’t have these, you can use any oven-safe item. (I am not fancy enough to have bespoke pie weights, so I use three Pyrex ramekins, which work fine.) Put the crust in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, then remove weights and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, until crust is slightly golden.

7. That’s it! Your crust is ready to be filled!

8. Since the vodka is out anyway, you can also fix a special Thanksgiving drink: Put a shot of vodka in a tall glass, add a splash of cranberry juice and the juice of one lime, and fill to the top with seltzer water. Prost!