The Astoria fire at the Cannery Cafe and No. 10 Sixth Street mandates a new chapter for many friends. We wish them luck in this new year.

Ive just discovered that Mozarts Requiem (about 50 minutes) is the perfect soundscape for making pumpkin pies: the last chords of the Lux aeterna faded just as my pies went into the oven. (I was only slowed down by that rousing Kyrie which prompted mercy, I dont know why a moonwalk in my stocking feet, with apron and spatula, on the kitchen linoleum.)

Few people make their own pie crust anymore, but I would like to do the world a small favor here and recommend my mothers recipe which (I know you know I am totally objective) is the best on the globe.

Two cups flour dont mash it in the cup but you dont really need to sift it either, just fluff it up a bit. Add a teaspoon of salt. Then 3/4 of a cup of shortening old fashioned Crisco. (Yes, Crisco do not use butter, or oil, or anything fancier.) Cut about 2/3 of this amount into your flour until it is fairly small: the Gables like to say the size of peas but lima beans or garbanzos will also do.

Then add the last 1/3 (of the 3/4 cup), which doesnt need to be cut in as thoroughly. I use regular table knives I like the meditation of slicing, slicing but my mother uses that whichamacallit, pastry blender, with crescent-moon blades on a handle. Last, but not least, four tablespoons of ice cold water.

Mom actually gets out ice cubes for this very important step but I find that, especially in the winter, our water out of the tap, if you let it run until it is very cold, is cold enough. Just stir it a few times with a fork to moisten all the flour (dont overwork) and form it into a ball. 

This recipe makes a double crust pie or two single crust pies (see above); so cut the ball not quite in half, as the amount of dough needed for the bottom crust and the fluted edge is slightly more than what is needed for the top crust youre rolling the bottom crust first, of course. 

The feeling of what happens

Rolling out the dough is mostly intuitive, based on practice and is pretty difficult to describe. What I love about this part is just getting the feel of the dough. I shape it and press it into a flat round like a hamburger patty to start. Then, with nice even pressure on the rolling pin, I roll the dough out, sort of spinning it as I shape it, keeping the edges smooth and the dough a consistent thickness. 

I turn the dough over a couple times before it gets too large, adding a dusting of flour underneath it, so that it doesnt stick onto the rolling surface (either a cool, smooth countertop or pastry cloth) or the rolling pin. Have your pie pan on hand so that you can hold it over the dough shape to gauge the size you need. (Always use glass it bakes better.) For a turned edge you need it about 1/2-to-3/4-inches larger than the pan; and for a deep dish pie, slightly more.

For a double crust, after you put the bottom dough-round into the pan (fold it in half, place it where you want it, then unfold it), trim the dough about 1/4-inch past the edge of the pie pan. Once the pie is filled and the top crust is on, you fold the edge of the top crust over, between the bottom crust and the pan all the way around.

The second time around the edge you press those two layers of dough together in a little pucker pinch about every inch. The third time around press down on that pucker with your index finger pointed into the center of the pie and, on either side if your index finger, your index and third finger of the other hand pointed out from the center of the pie. There are other ways to flute an edge, but I think this makes the most handsome trim.

We always cut a few distinctive steam holes into the top of the pie three elongated S-curves and a couple pokey dimples on the top and bottom of each S. Then the trick is to pull your pie out just slightly before it boils over in the oven. Youll start to see the steam rising through those vents just minutes before it boils.

(For those interested: the Feeling of What Happens is a book I highly recommend by neurologist Antonio Damasio about where and how in our brains our feeling of conscious me-ness resides. Im sure there is a section of the brain for rolling out dough.)

Lux aeterna or a new puppy?

Eternal light would be the only real solution for these grim, dull days which make me want to sit in front of the television and bite my nails. Not everyone reacts this way. A friend from Tucson, Ariz., arrived last week and was raving about the rain; I mean good raving, Isnt it fabulous. So lush, so green, and all that wonderful fog! I guess the grass is always greener especially on the Peninsula.

But, at least, having passed solstice, we can rest in the knowledge that the days now get longer as we creep slowly, ever so slowly, toward spring.

In the meantime, we do need something to boost our spirits and get us over the hump. 

Some friends of ours went with the puppy solution. A litter of eight boxer-shepherd mix pups were rescued from Yakima and ended up in Auburns Puget Sound Rescue shelter. Our friends saw the pups online at petfinder.com and when they went in to look them over there was only one little guy left. At eight and a half weeks, he was already two pounds underweight and suffering from Giardia.

Now Riley Potter Marznich (living up to that weighty name has already gained him an extra half-pound) came along for the ride over the Christmas holidays and got loved up by a variety of friends and family.

We decided on a version of Harry Potter because he looks so inquisitive if you put glasses on him, you can see the resemblance, said our friends.

Put a little wriggly puppy named Riley in your lap and you can almost see spring forming in those bare branches through the window.

No. 10 Sixth Street

The shocking fire last week in Astoria a little too much lux left one of our close friends (and Im sure some of yours) out in the cold. She got the news before the fire had jumped from the Cannery Café to the roof of the building at No. 10 Sixth Street which housed her office. 

Because it hadnt really caught fire yet, many were hoping they could go into the building and rescue needed files or sentimental objects. But nope. Too dangerous. The firefighters were training hoses on the building in order to stop the fire from crossing over to Bornstein Seafoods.

So nothing to do but get dressed and go down to the pier to watch the building burn. 

Ive never seen a fire so big in my life, she said. I stayed and watched until 2:30 a.m.

Ironically, just days before the holiday she had made a list with Purge office right at the top. Be careful what you wish for seemed one obvious lesson for the new year.

As for new years resolutions, one friend writes, We do aspirations instead of resolutions.

Aspiration is a wonderful word, which seems to encompass the whole of things. First, it is both an audible release of breath and the act of quickly drawing breath in. Lets be sure each of us, and those we love, keep those aspirations cycling.

Second, it means both the will to succeed and a cherished desire. Combine those for the new year and anything is possible.

Third, it means hope the light burning inside every Requiem.