I did not grow up in a household where dessert was a regular thing. More often than not, when we asked about a sweet treat after dinner, we were pointed to the fruit bowl or a jar of applesauce. However, once or twice a year, there would be pie.
The pie happened on no particular schedule. My mom baked in response to her own cravings and could not be hurried or begging into producing pie. We learned early that it was better to leave her alone and accept the serendipitous pie than try to wheedle it into being. And accept it, we did. Her pies were always sturdy, not-too-sweet creations that piled mountains of fruit into a nutty, half whole wheat crust. My favorite thing was being allowed a slice for breakfast the next day.
Thanks to this early conditioning, pie will be forever feel like a way create a special occasion out of a Wednesday evening. It’s one of the things I hope to do with my kids someday (of course, I have to have them first).
You may be asking yourself, why is Marisa waxing poetic about her childhood pie memories? I recently got a review copy of Ashley English’s new book, A Year of Pies, and now I can’t stop thinking about tucking food, both sweet and savory, between layers of crust.
Some of you probably know Ashley from her blog, Small Measure, or from her other four (!) books on all manner homesteady topics like Keeping Bees and Canning and Preserving. This book is similar in organization to her previous ones in that it offers an extensive section towards the front of the book that walks you through the equipment, the different kinds of crusts (and what each is best for), tips on rolling and the various techniques you can employ to achieve gorgeous crusts, before moving on to the recipes.
Once through that grounding section, the rest of the book is arranged by season, proving unequivocally that pie isn’t just a summer and fall dessert. Any winter day would be made better by the Maple Orange Walnut Pie on page 55 on the Carrot Pie on page 77.
The book contains sweet pies, savory pies (like the homey Chicken Pot Pie pictured below), tarts, galettes, crostada and hand pies. There are both bake and no-bake options and even a pie version of Polish-style stuffed cabbage. Ashley also invited a few of her blogging friends to contribute recipes, including a Gluten-Free Streusel Apple Pie from Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking author Kate Payne.
For those of us who are working our way through baskets of berries and armloads of peaches this time of year, I think it’s important to put a little of that fruit aside and make something that allows us to enjoy the bounty now, as well as later. Pie is on my to-do list for later this week.
Rhubarb Custard Pie is the BEST. I remember making one for my Dad and he was thrilled.
I’ve so many pie stories to share on my pie blog. And I can’t wait to check out Ashley’s new cookbook!
-Emily
http://www.nothinginthehouse.com // a pie blog
The first time I made pie for my husband. I think it was the first time someone ever made anything from scratch for him. I think it is what sealed the deal for him.
Easy pie story! The first thing I made my boyfriend was an apple pie, he then proposed to me in an apple orchard, and we gave apple pie in a jar as gifts at our wedding! Mmm pie!
Growing up we were not a big pie family, so I don’t know that I have any great pie memories. It is only as an adult that I have come to appreciate pie. I do remember one pie I made as a kid, though. It was blueberry and maybe the first pie I ever made. I had rolled out the crust and I was reaching in the cupboard for something and knocked the salt shaker out. Of course it got salt all over the crust. Being a dramatic teen, I was sure it was ruined, but I don’t think anyone could tell the difference.
I love pie. My husband loves pie. My kids love pie. My grandkids love pie. I will make a peach pie tomorrow. They’re on sale in our local market. Yippee!!
One of my favorite food memories involves pie! My dad has always worked shift work at a power plant since I was very little, and never cooked much (my mom did most even though she hated it), but every once in a while if he had off, he would. Sometimes we would walk home from elementary school and he would have 3 fresh loaves of Irish soda bread cooling, or a full non-Thanksgiving turkey dinner complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, and filling. But the best days were at the end of the school year when black raspberries were just hitting the fruit stands, and beautifully latticed black raspberry pies were lined up on the counter (my mom always took one into work, one to my grandparents, and the other 2 we attacked like starving waifs). Cold glasses of milk was all that was needed! And those black raspberry pies are still the best tasting ones in my food-memory. 🙂
pies are my favorite treat- my husband doesn’t like many sweets, so it’s something I get for myself when out with friends. I always have at least one pie on the holiday table- usually whiskey pecan pie. mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Growing up, we went blueberry picking nearly every summer, but only ever came home with a gallon or two at the very most. Some of the berries were used in jam, but most went into the freezer to be used in muffins, pancakes, and cakes during the winter. Because we never had many blueberries to spare, I was taught that blueberry pie was an extravagance (six whole cups of berries in a single pie? The very thought!) When I moved to my current home, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by endless acres of blueberry bushes, thanks to a wildfire that burned through the area a few years back. While blueberry pie is hardly an everyday occurrence at our house, I do make a blueberry pie about four times years now. You know what? It’s never stopped feeling extravagant.
My favorite pie story is actually more about pie crust. My grandmother used to bake for me all the time and when things got rough for me (I wouldn’t feel well or had a fight with someone) she would make a pie for my grandfather but roll out the extra crust, dust it with cinnamon sugar, and bake it like crackers. It’s still the only way I eat pie crust.
After many years of experimentation I make reasonably decent crusts. I always make pumpkin and mincemeat pies at Thanksgiving, but my favorite pie is what Southerners call Karo Nut or pecan. For a winter treat, you can’t beat a good chicken pot pie.
Pie was always Thanksgiving food. Or so I thought. I don’t know when I realized that pie could be had at any time of the year, but, boy am I glad I figured that one out! My first successful pie was a fresh pineapple pie that still ranks up there as one of my favorites!
My favorite pie story is actually my grandmother’s. After she died, my mother got her journals, and my favorite entries were about Christmas. She grew up during the Depression, and her family was really poor at the time. They managed Christmas dinner because the boys could hunt, and my great-aunt had a farm for the vegetables, etc. What made Christmas really special to her, though, was the pies. My great-grandmother had an actual pie safe. She would start baking pies the week before Christmas and keep them locked up in the pie safe. Ever since then, Christmas was always about pie to her – more than the presents or anything else.
I crave my aunts Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, but resist making it at home because I don’t want to eat the whole thing by myself. Especially now that I know what all is in there!
Growing up, it is always egg pie. Crust so yummy and custardy filling…yummm! Thank you Marisa for inspiring me to start canning — you rock..!
My neighbor makes a wonderful blackberry cobbler and I love to see her when I open my door!
My most memorable pies are the gross ones, but that’s because I’ve been treated to so many delicious ones that they all meld into one lovely memory. I love savory pies, cream pies, berry pies, stone-fruit pies. I’m feeling a bit like Bubba Gump right now. The bad ones, though, they stick out like sore thumbs. Pecan pies so sticky and dry and hard you could barely chew. Canned pumpkin pies. Ew. The book looks gorgeous. I’d be thrilled to bake from it.
My favorite pie to make is shoo-fly pie. The recipe I use is handwritten by my great aunt who passed away when I was a child. It is the best shoo-fly pie I have ever had!
As my mother-in-law, a fantastic cook in her day, began to be diminished by dementia, my father-in-law took over. While Pat was an intuitive cook and great baker, Bill approached it scientifically. Suddenly, he couldn’t miss an episode of “America’s Test Kitchen.” One of his greatest inventions is pie made out of cake. Dessert squared! It includes a pie crust, a layer of rich vanilla pudding, a store-bought Boston cream pie, sunk into the pudding and then a thick layer of sweetened cream and cream cheese whipped together. Yum!
The year after my mother died, I took charge of Thanksgiving dinner and the extended family. The thing I was most nervous about was the pies – I’d never made one before. While my mother used her mother’s recipes for pumpkin and pecan pie, they never turned out well. I feared making pie from years of watching my mother struggle with (store bought) dough and the subsequent subpar result. That first year, I did as much research as I could (bless Martha Stewart online videos), and held my breath as we sliced into my first pie. It was perfect. Pie-making must have skipped a generation. I am now the official pie maker in our extended family, and love making any kind of pie. Last year my favorite creation was a pear ginger pie.
I love pies, of any variety, but haven’t made very many. Yesterday I tried making a strawberry-rhubarb pie for a work potluck using rhubarb from the farmer’s market and strawberries I had picked earlier this summer (the ones left over from three jam making sessions!). It was delicious! I am already looking forward to trying my hand at making apple and pumpkin pies in the fall.
Oddly enough I never cared for pie until the last year or two… okay make that fruit pies. I loved savory pies such a chicken potpie or beef potpies especially when my mom made them in a cast iron skillet! Currently I am making potpies to freeze for the winter… chicken, turkey, beef, and veggie pot pies. Mmmm!!!
My favorite pie is apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on top. Pies remind me of Thanksgiving and Christmas, and there is nothing like a homemade pie.
I learned to make pie with my Oma as a kid. She was insistent on family recipes and homemade crust. The Thanksgiving that she passed away, she told me her darkest secret. Our family pumpkin pie recipe was from the back of the Libby’s can! I consider Libby to be a long list aunt now… And I have memorized the recipe so no will see me check the back of the can.
My absolute favorite flavor of pie would have to be apricot. People tend to get weirded out when I bring one in to work or some such place, since there are plenty of people who have never seen a not-dried apricot (or they think that I made the pie out of dried fruit). But they always have to admit after they eat it that it’s delicious. Slightly tarter than a peach pie, and with a brighter orange color. It really is tasty.
I love all pies – making and eating them. Key lime is my favorite though.
The first pie I ever made was at a pie making party a dear friend had during grad school… That whole evening was amazing. The pie was fabulous, and the friendship was dear… That’s what pie means to me now…
When it comes to dessert, pie ranks right up there at the top for me. I can skip cake all day long, but if someone puts a pie on the table then calories be darned! And make a a BIG slice too! My preferences teeter with the season. Give me something cool and refreshing in the summer like Key Lime (a fave!) or Lemon Icebox. But come winter I prefer a crumb top apple pie or rich chocolate fudge pie! Mmmmm….
mmmmmm pie…. I love all pies but when winter comes around I make dozens of pot pies and put them in the freezer for easy dinners. I wish I had one now.
My husband is an apple pie fanatic (Vermonter), so all our years together I’ve *tried* to make good apple pie. I don’t make good apple pie. Ugly pies. Watery pies. Flavour-ick pies. This year we moved back to VT to a home with loads and loads of blueberry bushes. Score! So after making more jam than we can possibly eat, I figured wth I’ll try and make a blueberry pie. While I was at it I gave a throw at a lattice top. Gambling with dynamite, I was. Stunned me, my hubby, and thrilled my sons that the pie was glorious! My boys couldn’t stop shoveling it in, even when they were telling me “yes” that it was good. It lasted less than 24hrs.
So maybe I can’t make apple pie… but I *can* make pie.
Though I generally resort to store bought pie crusts, we always enjoy the deep dish apple pies I make every fall after apple picking. My all time favorite apple for pie baking is Northern Spy.
About two years ago I went on a search for the perfect apple pie recipe. I ended up combining the recipes from my mother and mother-in-law and now I have a wonderful recipe that tastes amazing and is a beautifully symbolic new tradition in my growing family!
one of my favorite pies was a sour cream and raisin one that i only had a few times growing up. the recipe was originally my great grandma’s and my mom adapted it and would make it on very rare occasions, i’ve since adapted a recipe to be very similar to that pie from way back when, so good!
I love pie, we never ate it much in my childhood. I think the only pie I have a recollection of was apple pie in the fall. But boy did I love it!
I remember once when I was sick as a little girl the only thing I would eat was pumpkin pie. Thank goodness it was right after Thanksgiving!
How I love pie! My favorite comfort food, bar none, is chicken pot pie. It’s too hard to choose a sweet pie — lemon icebox, chocolate or pecan would definitely lead the pack, though. I would like to learn to make pies myself, and this book would be a wonderful help toward that.
When I was an undergrad, my boyfriend and I took over the dorm kitchen to make a pumpkin pie. When another student walked in and saw the pumpkin sitting on the counter, she asked what we were making. I told her a pumpkin pie and she looked at me and said without a trace of irony “You can’t make a pumpkin pie out of a pumpkin,” paused, and walked out of the room. What do these people think comes in those cans at the store???
While this may not be as nostalgic as some other commenters, the first pie story that comes to mind is about the Pantry at Delancey here in Seattle. I assisted during Brandi’s “Pie Ninja” class and felt like I learned WORLDS — I’ve been making pie crust wrong my whole life! Or at least, inefficiently. It was so incredible to see the methods that Brandi used, and they were very different than I had seen anywhere else. I am so excited to make a blueberry-lemon verbena pie this weekend for a potluck BBQ and put all her great tips to use!
This book looks wonderful as well. I have always been a pie lover over cake, and would put this book to such good use.
My mother made the BEST apple pie! But she passed away before she could teach me her tricks of making it mile high and delicious.
This looks like a great book!
Ohhh pumpkin pie. My Mom’s recipe (which was her mothers’ and likely my great grandmothers’ as well). Not a hit with my family and it makes a big pie. Luckily I’m a teacher and always have staff and students to share leftover pie with. Topped with whipped cream, of course!
My grandmother’s cherry pies – made from the fruit of the English Cherry tree in her backyard in Wichita, Kan. – always had a single pit. She told us that finding it brought good luck.
Ever since I was old enough to make pies (about 12) I was in charge of the Thanksgiving Day pies. My favorite Thanksgiving memories are of sitting at the kitchen counter, watching the Macy’s parade on TV while I peeled apples. My parents were always embroiled in a turkey discussion on the other side of the counter, and my older brother usually shuffled in in his boxers, still bleary eyed from sleep.
These days I have to fight my husband for pie-making rights.
Ah, family.
When my children were in grade school the school had a fall fund raiser and we would sell baked goods. I would get bushels of apples and make apple pies to sell. I would make all the crusts one day, the next day I would cut the apples, fill them and then bake them. Then the next day I would load them up in my van and take them to the school. The pies always all sold out and this made me feel so good. Good memories.
While searching for a tart recipe resembling my mother’s fabled red currant tart, I lucked on this one… which is so good and so easy! http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2005/10/21/red-currant-tart/
My mom used to make strawberry-rhubarb cream cheese pie with rhubarb she grew behind our garage. So very, very delicious!
Its funny that you posted this. Blackberries are everywhere right now and I was lamenting the fact that we still have a few jars of blackberry jam from last year. I completely forgot about pie!
I have always had trouble with the crust, but bought and read “Making Piece” by Beth Howard, her pie crust recipe works for me! I did, however make 2 lemon meringue pies about 15 yrs ago and gave them to my husband’s friend Jim as he has Crohn’s and can only eat none fiberous foods. He loved the pies!
No one in my family ever made pies so I grew up always wanting to learn how to but was always scared about learning how to make a crust. I finally decided to sign up for a class and I have been hooked on making pies ever since! It really is one of my most favorite things to do.
My cousin was making a pumpkin pie and saw that it called for 1/4 tsp cloves. When she found the (whole) cloves in the cupboard she was slightly confused, but figured that one clove seemed to fit in the 1/4 teaspoon, so she threw it into the mix. Imagine the surprised eater biting into a whole clove inside the smooth filling of a pumpkin pie! So now, we always include a whole clove, though right on the surface to protect unaware eaters!
Nothing like Grandma’s pecan pie!