Practice makes perfect

If practice makes perfect, then Jan Simrell's pies are truly perfect.

"Jody's mom's pie crust just flakes apart," Steve Chyrchel, Hobbs' State Park interpreter, says.

Jody's mom -- Janet Simrell -- is the wizard behind the flaky crust and "yummy" pies at Ventris Trail's End Resort on Beaver Lake. And she should be. She's been making pies for 70 years.

Recently, Chyrchel took about 20 people on a sweetheart weekend and sunset cruise across the lake with dinner at Ventris as the culmination of the evening.

"I've had the banana cream pie with a nice gulp of ice cold milk. That's heaven," Chyrchel says, admitting that while the other flavors of pie are good, he sticks with the banana. "I've stuck with that. It tasted so great, I have it every time."

Jan, 78, learned to make pies when she was 8 years old from her mother and her grandmother.

"When I was able to make my bed properly, they says they would teach me," she recalled, with a twinkle in her blue eyes.

"There is a love for it. Jody has it. He bakes the bread," Jan says of her youngest son, Jody Simrell, manager and chef at Ventris.

Standing at the waist-high stainless steel counter, Jan continuously works the flour and shortening with a fork pressing the shortening into the flour.

"The key is these crumbles," she says. "You have to have a good grade of flour."

Although many young women now use a blender to combine their flour and shortening, Jan says she will not use a blender. Deftly pressing the shortening into the flour, she continues working the mixture until it is just as she wants it. Then, she gets ice water and sprinkles a little into the bowl, mixing it in, little by little.

Pressing the dough into a ball, she then divides the dough into three balls but warns not to overwork the dough. She admits to having tried various pie crust recipes, but continually returns to her standby recipe, which she did not give out.

"I just know it works. The main thing is, don't overwork your dough," she says. "The biggest mistake young women make is they try too hard.

"Have your oven set on 375 degrees."

As she reached for her rolling pin, a hand-me-down from her mother, Jody smiles and says "the peacemaker," referring to the wooden rolling pin.

"See those marbled areas? That's very important. That's your layers of shortening and flour."

She carefully feels the weight of the crust as she folds it gently, places it on a glass pie plate, then unfolds it into the pie plate. "That one's not rolled out thin enough; you can tell by the weight."

Repeatedly sprinkling flour on the steel counter, she prepares three pie crusts, tearing off the extra on the edges, then scalloping the edges in a pattern created by her pointed finger between pinched thumb and finger. She pricks the sides and bottom of the crust with a fork to prevent bubbling of the crust when it's baked.

For the restaurant, she's been known to make 15 pies a day. She also makes pies on special order, especially for holidays.

"I like to have seven in the case. I make the cream ones the same day. I like to stay three to six crusts ahead.

"This takes time; we get hit hard at lunch," she says, admitting that the pie case can be wiped out in one lunch session.

While the crusts bake, she prepares the custard which will be the base for the coconut, banana and chocolate pies. She uses cornstarch, not flour, and says the custard "must track." Stirring the custard continuously while it cooks, she waits until it's the right consistency then returns to the counter top to separate the custard into two bowls -- one of which will have coconut added and the other will have cocoa added.

While the pies cool, Jan beats the cream preparing the whipped cream topping which can not go on a warm pie or it will dissolve. She tops each pie with coconut and chocolate to identify which is which.

One of the biggest sellers is the apple crumb pie with a pecan and caramel topping.

Other flavors featured in the resort's dining room include a two-crust blueberry, a strawberry-rhubarb pie and a rhubarb custard. She also makes a raisin cream with a meringue top and a lemon cream.

"We take orders," Jody says. A nine-inch pie is $20.

"One of our customers ordered a raisin cream pie and says he hadn't had that since his Grandma died," Jody says.

Jody says his favorite pie is the blueberry.

"I don't have a favorite," Jan laughed. "I enjoy all of it."

As the bell rings on the timer for the oven, Jody checks on the pie crusts and pulls one out, then resets the timer for another minute or two.

Jan, mother of four boys, has taught her sons, some of her daughters-in-law and granddaughters her pie-making secrets. "I taught them up to a certain point. If they're interested, they took off."

"If you have to eat your own cooking, you learn to cook," Jan says.

"She instilled into my head quality and patience," Jody says. "It makes for a very good business relationship."

Jody now manages the resort but defers to his mother on the pie baking.

"If you have a good product at a reasonable price and a clean establishment, people will come," Jody says, admitting he's more than the manager, he's also the chef.

"I'm grateful for her," he says smiling at and hugging his mother as he teased her about a "pie goddess" apron.

"I'm not considering retirement," Jan says. "You either stay active or you're done."

The cafe is closed for the winter but the resort is open. This winter, the Simrells plan to add two more cabins and a pavilion with a fire pit. There are now eight cabins and two apartments available to rent.

Jan and her husband, Ronald, lived in the Chicago area before buying the land on Beaver Lake and moving to northwest Arkansas. Her husband has a background in construction and built several of the buildings in the resort.