“The pie is an English institution which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth into an untold variety of genera and species.”
~Harriet Beecher Stowe~
Yesterday, January 23rd, was National Pie Day. Created by the American Pie Council in 1986 it began in honor of Crisco’s 75th anniversary. I also read somewhere that the chosen date for Pie Day is because making pie is as easy as 1-2-3 but that sounds too cliché for me to believe. I care not about the American Pie Council nor Crisco but I am a big fan of pie.
I don’t make enough pie. It is not all that hard to make but it does take a bit more time than I like to spend in the kitchen and then, well, I have a pie which means that I still need to come up with something for dinner. I suppose we could just eat pie for dinner but what type of example would that be setting for the children?
Since this year Pie Day fell on a school/work day for most people we decided to celebrate it on Sunday. We invited several friends over and told them to bring a pie. A few people had to cancel at the last minute but we ended up with a group of five adults and seven kids (and of equal importance, a collection of five different and tasty pies.) I served Quiche a la Provençale and broccoli three-cheese soup and the kids make their own English muffin pizzas. I busted out my new cookbook, aptly named Pie, and made a double batch of the Basic Flaky Pie Pastry – one crust for the quiche and one for the Sugar Pie (Tarte au Sucre) I decided to make. I had never heard of Sugar Pie but since it had brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla I figured it could not be all bad.
The crust, the unbaked and the baked sugar pie. It just may be my new favorite pie.
It was a smashing success. We ate lupper, or linner if you prefer, around two and then brewed some coffee and stared down the pack of pies upon the table. The line up was as follows: Sugar Pie (made by yours truly), Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie (Husband’s creation), Apple Pie, Red Huckleberry Apple Pie, and a Chocolate French Silk Pie. They were all homemade except for the last one and were all quite good. There was also the obligatory vanilla ice cream and some cookie and cream ice cream as well although I prefer to fill up on pie, thank you very much. Besides ice cream makes pie crust soggy, yuck! The kids played in the the back bedrooms, dumping out all the toys and making a huge mess but leaving us adults to our pie so the clean up was well worth the peace and pie.
I was planning on taking lots of great pictures to share with you but I was too busy and truthfully, was rather enjoying eating pie and chatting with my friends. I did manage to grab a shot or two before the pies were eaten. Oh, and Cody asked to take a picture of me making the quiche so I am putting that up here too. If his picture is any indication, I don’t foresee a career as a successful portrait photographer in his future.
The pies in all their pie goodness glory.
Umm, Cody, eyes up here. No wait! Don't take the picture until you can see me in the screen of the camera. Do you see me in the screen? Ok, good then take the picture. Sigh...
And not to be outdone by all the bringers of pie, the cat who is not our cat, Delilah delivered a Pie Day gift of her. Lucky for all the guests I happened to peek out the front door about an hour before people started showing up so we were able to dispose of it before permanently giving our friend’s children strong childhood associations of dead birds with pie.
I hope you all had a lovely Pie Day and if you happened to forget to celebrate it I suggest you bake or pick up a pie to share with someone you love tonight.
Shoes On The Wrong Feet 
Mmm. Too bad I just finished making a batch of pumpkin bread instead of pie. Pie would have been a much, much better choice. Sounds like a fun party!
Pumpkin bread sounds wonderful but it is one of those things I can never get to bake right. It is always not cooked enough on the inside and too dark on the top. I make mini pumpkin muffins as my work around. It was a great party. We are thinking of creating a summertime Pie Day holiday when the berries are in season. 🙂
I love pie, and eating pie with drinking coffee with friends is my favorite. Sounds like fun!!!!
You really can’t go wrong with pie and coffee. 🙂
I sort of hate pie (it is one of my many flaws), but I am absolutely going to try that sugar pie. It looks so, so good.
I also finally got around to writing a post in response to the generous spread-the-blogging-love award you gave the book. It is today’s post (49*) and gratuitously mentions your blog over and over.
Cheers!
Hate pie, what do you mean, I don’t understand? 🙂 The sugar pie is amazing. I suggest you eat it cooled or cold; it tastes much better that way.
Excellent I shall hop over there and check it out. Your blog is such fun!
I didn’t even know yesterday was National Pie Day! Which makes it all the more bizarre that I made TWO apple pies, which I rarely ever do!
Hooray!!! I am glad you had pie on pie day even if it was a total coincidence. Mmmm, apple pie is so good. Sometimes you just have to randomly make a pie (or two, in your case.)
I’ve had to go gluten free and so far have not been able to find a pie crust that I can use to make my favorite pie, Apple Pecan. I had no idea it was pie day or I would have made a gluten free pumpkin pie. Because so far that is the only pie I have found that I can eat.
Bummer about having to be gfree. There must be a good pie crust out there you can eat. Pumpkin pie is pretty tasty but I never think to make it other than on Practice Thanksgiving.
The sugar pie sounds like a pecan pie minus the pecans – yummy, caramel custard goodness! I’m a pie filling lover, leaving crescents of crust on the plate.
It is kind of like that but the texture is different and more to my liking. If you are a pie filling lover than I think you will love sugar pie. 🙂
What a lovely selection of pies. They look great!
They were great! I love Pie Day.
The sugar pie sounds amazing! I suck at making pie, but I’ll have a go at that one… 🙂
Oh it really is! And, other than the crust that took time and stressed me out, the actual pie filling was super easy.