For weeks and weeks I’ve been wanting to make a pie. But after losing two family members in a short time, I found it impossible to concentrate on cooking anything even slightly intimidating.

Today, I got out all the pie-making things. I mostly wanted a picture of meringue, but the only proper meringue has a pie underneath. To make a cream pie filling, one has to separate eggs. Egg whites won’t whip into perfect meringue if there is even the slightest bit of yellow in it.

Of course, I was working at my day job during all this, and it was a very busy work morning. So it was that I got yolk in the bowl of whites.

The yolk pictured is one that did not taint the whites. I put it on one of my mom’s tiny sauce dishes, the only one I could find of its kind in her kitchen.

I whipped up a perfect bowl of meringue. The banana cream filling was thickened just right. As it turned out, I had to sit down and work for a few minutes. Maybe it was more than a few. Busy, as I said.

When I spread the meringue, it had changed from its earlier pristine state to one that was a bit clumpy. Perhaps I should have beaten it again.

The result, after browning, was not what I expected. Not fit for a photo. But otherwise, it is an excellent pie.