Catchy title, eh? It’s been rolling around in my head as a title for a poem since 2015.
The alliteration, associated visuals, meanings and rhythmic feel just lends itself to something more creative than yet another blog post. I mean, speak this out loud: snips, snaps and soggy bottom pie.
Like I said, the perfect set-up for something more to follow than just another blog post. I think four years of this title sitting in a Word file of ideas for poems is long enough. It needs to see the light of day.
Which brings us to this day.
Notice that what follows is not a poem – more like a framework of thoughts prompted by said title. Which is handy as I’ve come against a brick wall lately trying to sort through the myriad current events and life events crowding my mind all screaming for first place in being presented in ‘yet another blog post’.
I’m sure most bloggers squash up against that brick wall every once and awhile. It’s one of the commonalities we bloggers share.
I therefore choose to start with Soggy Bottom Pie as the first smack down of that formidable barricade.
Soggy Bottom Pie
My current favorite PBS series, The Great British Baking Show aka The Great British Bake Off in the UK, is rich in such ‘show stopping’ images. (Yep, pun intended, for those of you familiar with the show).
Can’t you just hear Mary Berry intone, “It mustn’t have a soggy bottom,” as she pokes and prods a contestant’s pastry crust in the pie baking ‘Technical Challenge’?
I like mine with 2 scoops of the creamiest French Vanilla Bean ice cream available!
Truth be told, I am partial to a good homemade pie with, yes, a slightly soggy bottom. Sensuously luscious when the à la mode melts deep underneath the crust, bathing the jammy juices within.
My favorite pie is cherry. My extra favorite is a cherry pie made with Montmorency cherries picked from our own backyard tree*…seems like centuries ago when our kids and the neighborhood kids all helped pick once the harvest was in full swing.
What’s your favorite soggy bottom pie?
What’s your favorite reason why?
Snaps
“Contrary to popular belief, I am a snapdragon…” 
Thus began a post I wrote in 2014. Based upon a now defunct ‘What Kind of Flower Are You?’ internet quiz, it was a fun foray into matching flower personalities with us humans. Or should that be human personalities with flowers?
I came out a snapdragon 8 takes in a row – even though I’m more partial to giant purple irises, deep red orange poppies, daisies and milkweed blossoms. I learned that my cousin Marybeth and blogger friend Deborah (christened ‘flower-sister’) both came up snaps in the quiz. We three are also October babies. Connection?
Snappy, flappy, flower laughing lips.
Caring, sharing, dreamy dew-drop drips.
Snips
I do relish reading books and finding passages float up from the page past my eyes and into my (he)art. When that happens, I often mark it with a sticky note, reread it later, then if it still resonates, hand copy it into my book of quotes – or snip(pet)s if you will.
I often find lovely prose in young adult novels. Here’s one from Come a Stranger I jotted down 4/15/07.
“Even after everyone had gone home, the house was filled with the good time they’d had, as if it could linger in the air like the voices and music lingered in memory. Mina wrapped the memory up and put it in her heart; there was a quiet gladness, deep like a tree and tall in her.” Cynthia Voigt
A tisket, a snip(pet)
A green and yellow kismet.
~~~
Snips, Snaps and Soggy Bottom Pie
What comes to your mind as this phrase echoes about?
*we’ve since moved from our ‘growing-a-family-and-garden’ home…sigh.
I love this collection in your post, Laura! The British Baking Show is excellent, although I don’t see it often. Their Antiques Roadshow is my favorite. And cherry pie… yum! The quote from the children’s book was moving. I can see why you wrote it down for always.
The GBBS really gets my creative and hunger juices going! HA!
Speaking of which, I wish for you a great Thanksgiving Holiday – filled with lots of love and food!
Laura, I LOVE your post title and the the post too! Such three various elements blend together surprisingly well! Oh, The Great British Bake Off was required viewing until it defected to another channel! On the rare occasion I make a pie I’m paranoid about soggy bottoms and can hear Mary’s words in my ears! As for flowers, can I be a hybrid? The snippet was excellent and YA fiction is often some of the best around at the moment!
Annika, your comments are appreciated…what hybrid would you be?
here in NZ before the authorities saw them as a environmental disaster, the roadside black berry bushes – free for all when the berries were ripe and my SIL was a dab hand at making pies with them…flaky yummy pastry. I don’t recall a soggy bottom but maybe that was because I was a child.
my recent encounter with a great phrase was via someone who was flipping through a sewing junk journal and she found this: A Fat Quarter is not a Body Part.
Then a friend of mine decided I needed some help with my now dodgy health issues: A Lady is like a Teabag. You don’t how Strong it is until it’s in Hot Water: Eleanor Roosevelt …
and yes we are still a bit in dodgy waters with problems but today…maybe my mind has turned a corner relating to “I’m not sure I can trust the medical system, as much as I thought…so must get out another teabag and soak it longer in the hot water, myself…”
The teabag analogy is quite true…hang in there, Catherine.
I did the flower test and found that I’m lavender. I’m off now to soothe people with my presence.
Hmmmm, didn’t see lavender on the list of flowers…hmmm.
You’re a sly one!
😉
I’d have to go with boysenberry pie. My mother used to make several over the summer using the berries from a backyard bramble. Yummers! I love the idea of “snipping” quotes from books. Sometimes they are so beautiful and evocative, but I’m afraid they disappear once I finish the book. Writing them down like that would help me keep them alive so I could return to them over and over.
The key for me is placing a sticky note on the page to return to later. Otherwise, I lose them. And sometimes, they’re good for the time being but not worth writing in the quote book.
What fun to have your own backyard boysenberry bramble…juicy gems.
I’ve never seen that show, but I think L. Marie enjoys it, too. You’ll probably think this is odd, but I’m not really a fan of pie or cobblers. I did enjoy making mud pies when I was a little girl.
Funny, but you’re a Southern gal…nice to have stereotypes blasted from time to time, eh? Maybe you tasted one too many mud pies to appreciate the finer points in those of the fruit variety!
Funny how alliteration plays with your eyes (or at least my eyes). I saw it for some reason as “FOGGY” bottom, as in Foggy Bottom Breakdown. But a soggy bottom pie sounds awfully good. Those judges on that show are too strict!
HaHa – Foggy Bottom Breakdown…a classic bluegrass tune of course!
Sorry, I can’t get worked up about pies, but flowers are another thing! I love the idea of a quiz to work out what flower you are, and that you stubbornly came up with a snapdragon. They delighted me as a child. I wonder what I would be…a flower that attracts bees, I hope!
That Cynthia Voight quote is lovely, worthy of a place in your quote book. I read a few of her books when I was a children’s librarian.
I’m thinking you’re a snap at (he)art, Anne!
YA and children’s books contain some of the best literature and artwork IMHO. Way overlooked as a source of reading options for us adults.
I like the Great British Baking Show and the Great Canadian Baking Show (the latter which just ended)-so much fun and boy did I get some cravings afterward! Hmmm, lets see…Snips of paper, and buttons and bows, Snow people and frosty red at the tip of the nose, Happy smiles and voices raised in song. strawberry Rhubarb with vanilla to go along. Ahem! needs some work… but thanks for the blog.
Jane – you’re a poet! What fun! Thanks for the images the verses evoke…seems like you’re ready for the holidays.
Dare I tell you that the words catapult me back a couple of decades to the time of babies and sodden towelling nappies (diapers) that needed regular changing to avoid soggy bottoms. A then new snapper device replaced the (sometimes dangerous) safety pins as fasteners.
Not nearly as enticing as cherry pie. But you did ask for associations with your words!
Oh you daring woman, you! HA! I can definitely see how those words could be associated in such a manner. Hopefully they also catapulted you to the time of babies in remembering how sweet those baby bottoms/babies were after a bath, powder and cuddle!
Oh yes, there is nothing more precious than a sweet smelling baby!
I happen to have a Montmorency cherry tree. I probably eat equal to half of what I pick to bring into the house. Ha, ha! Juicy and tart and yummy! I like pies…all kinds…and cannot choose a favorite. Maybe I could, if I think of them seasonally. Right now I think a pecan pie could be my favorite. Golden brown and rich, like a fall harvest!
I don’t take internet quizzes, but there is a lot to be said for the snapdragon. They have a great sense of humor with those ‘lips’, they are colorful and hardy. I have had a volunteer visit for a couple of years now…so fun! Where did it come from? Did a sweet birdie leave me the gift? It makes me happy!
That is a lovely quote from the book. I believe one can sense the atmosphere of their surroundings. I know that I can tell if a room is uncomfortable or not for me. I want my guests to feel at home and at peace when they visit. Perhaps they can pick up on someone’s snapdragon and pink flamingo humor when they visit a certain someone’s home. (Wink)
“It makes me happy” We need those types of ‘volunteers’ for sure.
🙂
You’re welcome anytime, Laura…maybe we could share a slice of cherry pie made with your backyard Montmorency cherries!
Hi Laura! Snips, snaps . . . and puppy dog tails . . . that’s what this reminds me of. Totally out of the context actually, but snips and snaps might just be anything related to your usual topic. Just something you want to mention, at least that’s how I view it. Soggy bottom pie – I can very easily hear Mary Berry say that a soggy bottom pie crust is not desirable. I love pie of all sorts except those I cannot eat because of allergies like pecan (tree nuts). That slice of cherry pie ala mode looks fabulous! I enjoy a nice French Silk slice now and then, and will be making one for Thanksgiving. Fun post, Laura! ~smile~ Roseanne
Oh, save a slice for me!
I’m thinking the snips could have a sewing significance, too…you know, as in: “get me my snips will you dear? I need to cut this stray thread from your sweater….”
As always great to have your input, Roseanne.
Dang! Now your pretty pie pic has made me hungry!
Yeah, me too!
I like a soggy bottom pie if it has a fruit filling, like cherry. Then the whole mess seems half pie, half cobbler. However a custard pie, like pumpkin, with a soggy bottom makes me worry that the pie wasn’t baked long enough. Considering how infrequently I eat pie I probably should just be happy with what is set in front of me!
Great point about a custardy pie not being completely baked through. Thanks for chiming in, Ally.
I love a peach cobbler, which often has a soggy bottom. Mary Berry would not approve (though I love her and miss her as the judge on GBBO). I think of snips and snails and puppy dog tails which little boys are made of, according to the rhyme.
But see, here’s the thing…peaches are my favorite…in a peach cobbler like you. That type of ‘crust’ is created in a very different fashion than the typical rolled out pie pastry. Sooooo technically its ‘soggy bottom’ is part of the nature of the cobbler-dough. Oh ymmmmmm.
So there, Mary Berry!
😉
And as for the nursery rhyme, I’d say those brothers of yours got you bamboozeled! HA!!!!!