Pi Alert - Do Not Panic!

Today's Sacramento Bee claims that this Sunday (March 14) is Pi Day - not to be confused with January 23, which you all know now to be bona fide Pie Day. Here we at Sac Pie are just getting rolling, so to speak, with Pie Day, and the media are already trying to dilute our sacred holiday. Of course, if you feel you need another day with the "pi" syllable in it in order to have an excuse to bake, maybe that's all for the good.

The Bee, having missed the boat in January, tried to recover today with a full-page spread (page D4) touting 'easy' pie recipes with 'shortcut' and 'cheater' ingredients for the weekend Pi festivities. Hmmmmm. Beware of no-bakes with cream cheese and peanut butter! There must be a pie analogue to "either fish or cut bait," I just haven't figured it out yet. I mean, if you're going to make pie, i.e., expend effort to create something fresh and good, don't make pi. Pie is worth your effort.

To be fair, on the Mailbox page (D7), the Bee has published a clip and save recipe for "high top apple pie." No shortcuts or cheating with this recipe. It has a very different pastry that includes eggs, butter, and superfine sugar, and calls for kneading and chilling the pastry before rolling it out. Sounds like it might be fun to try - who will be first to report back to us on results? But does it really have 102 milligrams of cholesterol per serving as published, and 36 percent of its 496 calories from fat? Wow! Might want to take tiny forkfuls and go slowly with this one.

Wouldn't it have been great if someone could have concocted a recipe for Pi Day that has 3.14159265 fat grams or weighs 3.14 pounds (give or take) when it's done?

Or is that just the nerd in me talking?

You can email Teri Watson at twatson@sacbee.com, and visit www. sacbee.com for the full "high top" apple pie recipe, and others if you feel a craving for Covert Cookie Pi. Me, I've got the real thing going in the oven today. Stay tuned.

Post-Pie Party 2010

Do I detect a slight bowing of the table legs under the weight of all those pies?

Estate-grown pecans from Clarksburg were the star of the pecan pie.

SacPie's first annual Pie Party pix are in. By my count, we had about 0.8 pies per guest. Yes, that is - truly - a lot of pie.

Above, Kim's veggie pot pie following the Food Network recipe I cited last week. With fennel - doesn't it look great? And it was absolutely a hit. Also on the savory table were a potato-cheese gallette, broccoli-mushroom quiche, a second, different veggie pot pie (Jim), impossible seafood pie (Linda), a mushroom frittata (Kim), a beautiful Waldorf salad (Linda), and a tasty green salad with homemade croutons (Amy). All devoured. Next time, I will have to hang a sign that reminds eaters to save room for dessert.

Below, Mark's homemade samosas, reheating on the stove. Although my plan was to send everyone home with extras, there were none of these left within about 15 minutes of this photo. The filling was all-vegetables, with characteristic Indian flavorings. And the dipping sauce was a quince chutney contributed by none other than Sacatomato's Lynn Gowdy.

Here you can see how difficult it was to work one's way down the dessert table. There are only six pies shown above, but there were two more out of the frame. We had two pumpkin (Amy, Kim), one double-chocolate (Celia), one Linzer torte, one sweet-potato (Pat), apple-mince, an estate-grown pecan (Linda), and gluten-free apple (Sid). The gluten-free apple was the baker's first-ever pie, and he infused the filling not only with cinnamon but anise and fennel seed. The crust was made with rice flour -very tasty.

Why was it that we bought all that ice cream?

The seasonal abundance of Northern California was represented at the Pie Party in some spectacular small-label wines, home-grown almonds, a pie made with a garden pumpkin, and fresh-squeezed lemonade.

My thanks and appreciation go out to everyone who came, for sharing their recipes and spending time with us. If you did not get a chance to grab the recipes for the pies at our party, please let me know and I'll make them available.

Meanwhile here at SacPie, we have pie leftovers coming out our ears:

Based on the success of our First Annual Pie Party, I will be planning others for the spring and fall. Why not organize your own to showcase the apricots, peaches, cherries, and berries that will be ready in June? May I appropriate Slow Food's word, convivium, to apply to this and all future Pie Party gatherings in our town?

Create, Make, Taste, Eat, Share - It's Pie Day!

(hey, sis, thanks for remembering Pie Day and baking the date right into your pie.)

It's the day we've been waiting for ALL YEAR LONG: National Pie Day! What could bring more smiles around the table in the deep murk of midwinter, than a pie made with the natural bounty of our Sacramento Valley home? Maybe you have even stashed away some of last summer's harvest in the freezer, to make a peach-blueberry or apricot-ginger confection. Or perhaps Pie Day has caught you by surprise, again, and - well - there is so much that needs to be done. Then the thing to do is to get yourself a beautiful pie from one of the local pie purveyors. Any way you slice it, it's THE DAY for pie.

To paraphrase one of my dad's favorite expressions, you should only eat pie if you're alone, or with somebody.

“When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmmm, boy.” So said Jack Handy.

Next-best things to eating pie:

• Ask for suggestions about the next one you'll make.
• Go to the Wayne Thiebaud Works on Paper exhibit at the Sac State Library Gallery, 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday, through March 6, to look at his drawings and prints of pie, other confections, and urban landscapes.
• Ask a baker friend or relative to teach you how to make pie from scratch.
• Teach your child the ABCs using pie fillings or names (I challenge you with H through J and U through Z).
• Make up a pie anthem (there is a very good one out there for cheese; why not pie?) and send it to SacPie; we'll post the best one!
• Start planning for next year's Annual Pie Party - save the date!

Friends, however you plan to enjoy your Pie Day, I hope you will share it with SacPie. Stay tuned for our Pie Party 2010 pics and pies.

Happy New Year! Countdown to National Pie Day!

National Pie Day is only 22 days away. Will you be ready?

SacPie's first annual Pie Night Party will include sweet and savory pies of all shapes and sizes. Anything stuffed and baked in an unleavened dough envelope qualifies as "pie." We will have a pie-making demo for any fearful and curious bakers among the guests. There will be salads and drinks, recipe swapping, a pie exchange, and a pie contest. Not a pie-eating contest, but a pie-tasting contest, with a growing number of categories. Best Pie to Eat All By Yourself In the Middle of the Night, Easiest Recipe, Weirdest Ingredients, et cetera...And I think we will have a winner in every category.

Almost as soon as I announced the Pie Night Party, the invitees expressed excitement about it. Some confided that they had lost touch with the art of making good crust and are motivated to re-learn. Others expressed a nuttiness for pie. Still others said they had recipes they'd been wanting to try.

Winter is a good time for a Pie Night Party - a warm kitchen filling the house with enticing aromas, eating something delicious that is still warm as you spoon it into your mouth, people gathered in a comfortable space on a chilly night...These all seem like ingredients for a successful party, and pie is the host and guest of honor.

I still casting about for more entertainments - ones that include, or at least don't interfere with, eating - so if you have any ideas, I invite you to share them with us. As SacPie's inaugural Pie Night, we want to get it right and make everyone want to come back for more. Perhaps you should get busy planning your own Pie Night (I won't be able to fit everybody at my place). What will make your Pie Night uniquely yours?

See what the American Pie Council is doing to promote Pie Day at piecouncil.org.

National Pie Day

Just to prove that I am not making up a new holiday, take a look at

http://www.chiff.com/a/american-pie-day.htm

Find out how you can make your own celebration and proselytize, promote, and prepare pie!

Also, start thinking about how we can reclaim the American Pie Festival from the likes of Crisco and their fellow travelers. How did it get to be theirs in the first place?