How Stella Got Her Groove Back

July 7, 2026: 🗓 

This is so interesting. I didn’t know you can make custard pie with basically just water. The oven really changes things. It’s number 4 on the list, a water pie. Frequently baked in Depression era and 1800s.

The author talked about someone baking it “so her family could still feel something that resembled celebration.” I love that. There’s something I really relate to in that dependant clause. That she’s baking it because her family still finds ways and reasons to celebrate, and they can look at a pie made of water and see it as like a worthy instrument for that — that’s what can make something from nothing.

Number 23 on the list is mock apple pie. You put sugar water, lemon juice, however many soaked crackers can fit in your hand, and cinnamon in an empty pie crust. And it comes out of the oven an apple pie. The most suitable word for this is “enchanting.”

I’m now remembering a book cover I saw at an elementary-school book fair. It was a girl draped in green velvet. The book was called Ella Enchanted.

I have one other enchanted memory to bring to light. Not really, but my brain keeps bringing it up, so I’ll share it.

Back when my family went to Blockbuster on Friday nights, I remember seeing the cover of the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back and feeling like it was enchanting. I don’t know why. Did anyone else?

In the cover picture, Angela Bassett has one hand in a fist across her chest but not in a serious way. Her other hand is doing something above her head. And her lower body is indistinguishable from the sand because her dress is the exact same color as the sand.