Stories about pie for Pi Day…

1. My ex-mother-in-law made the most delicious pies during the holidays. One year I asked her the secret to her consistently flaky crust. “Pillsbury.”

2. When I was in high school, I worked at Marie Callender’s. I tried every single pie flavor we offered, except mincemeat. (I don’t think they make that anymore.) One of my favorite things to do was to replace the meringue with whipped cream when someone wanted a lemon or chocolate cream pie. With a single sweep across the top, the whole pillowy cloud of meringue would go plop into the trash can. Then you’d pipe on the whipped cream. If it was chocolate, you’d add some sprinkles and for banana, you’d add sliced almonds. Lemon didn’t get a topping. When I cashiered, my counterpart and I would make samples out of the “broken” cookies. At the end of the night we were allowed to take home a slice of pie for free. I gained at least 15 pounds during the two years I worked there.

My husband likes to have blueberry pie on his birthday rather than cake. We’ve been together almost 18 years and I always thought he just liked blueberry pie. I finally learned more about this last year. Last year! Turns out he was taken with The Blueberry Pie Elf book as a first grader and requested a pie for his birthday. Thus a tradition was born. I always make sure he gets pie on his birthday. I decided that this is the year I am going to learn how to make pie, so instead of ordering the traditional blueberry pie, I made one. But let’s not get crazy, I used Pillsbury pie crust. I couldn’t risk it!

For Pi Day, my husband likes to host a pie making contest for his staff at school. He usually makes something, but doesn’t participate in the competition. In preparation for this year’s Pi Day, we went to the market to buy all the ingredients–many blueberries and sticks of butter were purchased. I decided, since this is the year of the pie, that I would make one as well, but I was going to make mine with blackberries. Last night, I made my pie before H got home. He was at school late, decorating the staff lounge. When he finally got home, it was late; chilling dough would easily take pie-making into the wee hours. He saw my entry on the counter cooling . “Can I just take your pie tomorrow?” It was fine by me, but as you can tell by both the birthday pie and my Pi Day pie, I’ve got a long way to go before I’ve perfected my pie technique. (How does my crust look both overcooked and underdone all at the same time?! Pie makers, please tell me what I’m doing wrong.)

Shhhhh…don’t tell, but I used Pillsbury for this too.