Americana I Ching Apple Pie, 1977

The “Americana I Ching Apple Pie” recipe was presented May ’77, as a cooking demonstration for the Heresies magazine performance and jumble sale benefit. With the exception of a dozen apples which I brought, all the cooking “materials,” utensils, and props were discovered in the jumble. Objects which functionally approximated actual cooking utensils were used: nails, hammers, an arrow, a flower pot, ball bearings, rags. The cook’s apron was a ripped mini skirt; I covered my hair with a stained rayon slip and wore mismatched black gloves.

Americana I Ching Apple Pie
THE LIBERATED COOK BOOK FOR WOMEN AND OTHERS THE LIBERATED COCK BOOK FOR WOMEN AND OTHERS
AMERICANA I CHING APPLE PIE

1. Go into the kitchen with defiant joyful anger. On this scruffy battleground you will lay down the cookbook forever. You will cease competition with untold legions of sublimated female psyches engaged over the centuries in a pursuit of excellence through flour grease onion turnips pots blenders colanders strainer boilers mincers graters choppers fork whiskers beaters DESIST DESIST STOP STOP NOW!

2. Put on an apron and . . . Liberation Through Joyous Aggression. (I Ching)
   The Abandonment of False Illusions. You are in this kitchen because you do not have a penis. Keep this in mind as you crush the garlic with the heel of your shoe. You are in this kitchen because you have or might have a baby.

3. Apple Pie as Direct contact with Materials. A recipe based on my principles of Kinetic Theater (1962-72 and good forever). This pie offers self-realization. You will be The Best Woman In The World. AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE. JUST LIKE MUM’S. Remember: the oven is your womb! Let's do it right!

4. INGREDIENTS: apples 1 sack whole wheat flour (100% stone ground) Barbados sugar egg yolks safflower oil butter honey cinnamon lemon

Open flour sack with yr right hand & scoop up 3 handfuls, drop into a bowl. Pinch off a big lump of butter, drop into bowl. Pour in 2 quick turns of oil. Add small pile brown sugar. Use both hands to scrunch it all up in yr finger tips to nice crumby mass—soft. Sprinkle a few drops of cold water on top, mix again. Now it is sticky & ready to be patted into a baking dish—or two. Might as well make two pies. Slide hunk of butter all over baking dishes.

Wash apples (don’t peel if organically grown). Pat pastry all over the dish. Use small lumps which you press flat until they all mesh & cover dish. Now you can make those cute finger indentations along the top! Sprinkle with cinnamon, bits of sugar, butter bits, lemon juice, drops of honey. If you have some yogurt or sour cream, take yr fingers & smear it over apple tops.... have Faith! Note: if any ingredients fall on the floor just pick them up & put them where they should have gone. My father always said: “People eat about 3 lbs of dirt every year.”

5. Now for the butterfly! Take bits of remaining pastry in yr fingers & flatten out—makes a vague sort of butterfly shape. Lay these over apples; inch them onto edge of pastry on sides of dish. Keep laying the bits out until the top is covered. THAT’S ALL. Stick in oven.

6. I do not “preheat” the oven because I think it gives a cruel shock to apples & flour & dish. Rather a nice gradual baking. Baking is like waiting for pubic hair to grow when yr 12 yrs old. Put it in & go away. Pretend nothing is happening. You will suddenly remember pies in the oven! Just in time to run. look. find they are still raw. Be patient & haughty. After a time you will see butter bubbling, smell absolute evidence.… check pastry at bottom for crispness. Sample some. Amazing! Verdict: very sensuous & easy to do. Not up-tight making. A True Apple Pie. Archetypal. Serve to friends whose adoration you wish to bind forever.