Pie Spy - Z-Pie in Placerville

Pie Spy would be remiss if Z-Pie had not had a place in its annals. Do you not know? Have you not seen? Z-Pie, at 3182 Center Street in Placerville (www.z-pie.com) is serving up a full menu of savory light meal-size pies, as well as soups, salads, and desserts, in a comfortable and inviting space with white tablecloths, orchids, and cool background jazz. The most abundant choices for pie in Placerville are right there downtown.

Z-Pie emphasizes fresh and seasonal ingredients, and lists them all on the menu. The pie dough is made with butter, and each one is about 4 inches in diameter, golden brown, double-crusted, and fresh-tasting. No artificial ingredients and a commitment to recycling and reducing waste are a hallmark of this eatery. Z-Pie’s menu reflects the fruit and vegetable bounty of the surrounding orchards and farms in Placer County. Although they have a playful attitude toward their flavor combinations, we were pleased to see that they tweak familiar flavors into something distinctive, but don’t venture out on the flaky edge toward weirdness.

There are about a dozen savory fillings to choose from – plus two for breakfast. You can walk in and take the little pies home with you – frozen – for later. The restaurant also has beer and wine if that seems like the thing to have with your pie.

Best of all, you can get out of there with two happy tummies for under 15 bucks.

On scorching Sunday afternoon, Pie Spy and POPS made our first visit to Z-Pie. We walked down Main Street, ducked in at Sierra Rizin’ Bakery to cadge a few pastries to go (no pie!) and asked the attendant there where Center Street is. She explained with a puzzled look that she’d lived in Placerville all her life and didn’t know where it was. So we asked her instead where Z-Pie is. She said, “Oh - that’s my favorite restaurant! I can show you exactly where it is!” She walked us out the door and pointed at the parking garage next to City Hall. “It’s just across the street from the garage,” she said. Yet again, the mental map of memorable meals is often more enduring, reliable, and available for recall than any other kind.

Within a couple of minutes we were seated and ordering. We selected two vegetarian pies – the tomatillo stew and the Very Vege (do we pronounce that veggie or vedge-eh?). We toyed with ordering the fresh gazpacho with our lunch, but opted for caution because we didn’t want to over-fill. The pies were served hot, with flaky but substantial tops and bottoms, and came in cute little pie-sized bowls. This is a place after Pie Spy’s own heart, we thought as we dug in.






The Very Vege had a little bit of everything – zucchini, spinach, bean, potato, onion, pepper, hmm, many things all melded together in a red-brown gravy that provided just enough moisture and lushness. The first bite brought us a little too close to the taste of canned vegetable soup – highly salted, a pinch too much oregano for our taste. But did we eat the whole thing and smile about it? Of course we did.

The tomatillo stew pie was delicious with its black beans, cumin, hominy, poblano, green chilis, and jalapeno peppers. Most of these ingredients melded into the background and were not identifiable. The combination was magical and satisfying, though. And not just because we were very hungry. It was shocking, really, how quickly these charming pies disappeared.

Pie Spy had every intention of sampling the dessert pies (grilled apple or blackberry?) but used up all our capacity on lunch. So we will have to save desserts for our return visit (all desserts can be served with a heap of vanilla bean ice cream if you just can’t stop yourself).

Pie Spy loves Z-Pie and wants everyone to know about it. Satisfying, made with healthful ingredients, a place to enjoy the fare, attentive servers, and plenty of choices makes it a big win. It is worth a visit on your way to or from Apple Hill (where, depending on the day, you can find even more pies of every size and flavor). Or, if you love it even more than we do, ask them about opening a franchise down here in Sacramento so that we can visit you often. And don’t forget to tell them that Pie Spy sent you!

Pie of the Week - Blueberry

Ask us what our favorite fruit is. Go ahead.

No, it is not dragon fruit.

It's too early for this season's blueberries to make a fresh blueberry pie. But we just can't wait another minute. We need to make some space in the freezer for this year's supply, so we need to use up last summer's frozen bounty and get our taste buds ready for a season of abundant berry happiness. And, well, we need pie.

Way before Sac Pie was Sac Pie, there was a little kid whose family spent some summer weekends with another family in southern New Jersey, one of the berry-growingest places in the country. Blues love the heat and sandy soil of the Jersey coastal plain. We would wake up on a July morning, and go out before it got hot, with our moms and sibs and a picnic lunch - about a dozen of us, in two enormous station wagons - to pick blueberries for a few hours at one of the local you-pick farms. The moms would split up the take, and bake and freeze and sprinkle blueberries every which way. Our families had full-size freezers, as was the rage in the 1970s, so the moms learned how to freeze and package blueberries so they would last us all year.

We gorged on the fresh, warm ones straight from the bushes while we were picking because we were naughty and unruly little people. We whined about being hot and thirsty and about the bucket of blue getting too heavy to carry. We chased each other down the endless rows of bushes. Our collective harvest was 20 or 30 pounds each time, so the farmer definitely did not lose money. In the days following our descent upon the berry farm like a swarm of locusts, there were pancakes, coffee cakes, ice cream, shakes, and fruit salads full of blueberries. There were eight or nine happy little kids with blue tongues, teeth, and fingers. And there was that one kid who got scarred for life picking blueberries and never willingly ate them again. Overall, it was really great. Our moms are gone now, but they made a life-long memory for us of the joy of picking delicious fruit while the sun shines.

The blueberry makes for pie nirvana. Today, we've got the semi-good-for-you whole wheat crust with palm oil shortening (with no trans fats and no cholesterol), about 5 cups of blueberries so plump they look like concord grapes (don't forget to remind everyone that you're getting a potent dose of antioxidants), about 3 tablespoons (to taste) of organic cane sugar, a third-cup of tapioca mixed in with the fruit, and some fresh grated lemon zest from the back yard tree. If you have your own stash of last summer's haul in the freezer, you might as well use it up, because more blueberries are on the way soon. If you are not stocked, go to Trader Joe's and buy their frozen blueberries, which are consistently good and not expensive (how do they do it?). As with any other frozen fruit filling, you will need to bake this pie a little longer than the fresh-fruit version.

Try this and see if it doesn't taste like summer. Or, at least, enough like summer to make you hang on for this year's crop. The unassuming, wall-flowerish blueberries are transformed into something jammy, and their perfume blends with that of the lemon zest to create a sillage, almost like roses, that evokes sitting among the berry bushes in the summer sunshine. You can almost hear the birds chirping. No, wait - those are real birds.

With juicier fruits like these, we like to make a mound of berries in the middle, and then press a subtle moat into the top crust before we seal it. The moat will catch any boiling juices that escape through the slits on the surface of the pie. It may take expanding the circumference of the upper crust by another 2 inches, so you have to plan ahead. But this way, we can further postpone cleaning the oven.

How's your crimping technique?

We learned this fluted edge from one of our favorite moms. We like it even better than the way we learned it from our own mom. And it is much, much, much more interesting than the freshman-level fork-crimping method. You just pinch the edge (from the inside of the pie pan) with thumb and forefinger of one hand (the left, in the example below). Then use the forefinger (or forefinger knuckle) and thumb of the other hand to push in and shape the edge from the outside of the pan, with just enough pressure exerted from both sides to seal the edge at the same time. As you practice this more, your flutes will become more uniform, and you will find that you can adjust the size of them so that the last flute you make blends seamlessly with the first one.

We are getting more confident with the use of whole wheat flour (this time, pastry flour) as a sub for half of the white flour in the dough. It added a definite tawny color to the final product, did not warp or ripple, and improves the firmness of the crust. Be advised that the dough may dry out faster than the usual formula - so you may have to roll it out more quickly than you would otherwise. But otherwise, no adjustments should be necessary.

Use caution, and a big spoon, if eating this pie in a hammock or on a white couch. That blueberry stain may come off your teeth and fingers, but it does not, not, not come out of fabrics!

Pie Spy - Sugar Plum Vegan

We had cruised Sugar Plum Vegan's web site (http://www.sugarplumvegan.com/) a few weeks ago to see what was up with their new shop opening at 2315 K Street. The web site told us that they were open, but a drive-by shortly thereafter gave us contradictory data. So on a recent sunny Friday, we decided to check in again.

The shop occupies the space that had been True Love Coffee House, Sanaa, and Jasmine in recent years - it's a white Victorian next door to Hina's in Midtown. The interior has been modified slightly to brighten it up and make the small rooms seem less busy. Baked goods are prominently displayed at the counter, where you can order breakfasts, salads, soups, sandwiches, and other eats. Every item on the menu is vegan. Sugar Plum also offers some gluten-free items.

I looked into the display case for the pie, but saw only cookies, muffins, and scones. The pies and cakes are in a cylindrical display case all their own, up near the front window. This is the kind of pie cabinet that diners and old-time bakeries have, with shelves that rotate. However, all the pies and cakes were stationary on our visit. The case held a tantalizing array of stuff on that day: apple pie, with either crumb or pastry topping; apple-granola crisp with raspberry; peanut butter mousse pie, and beautifully decorated deep chocolate cake. I have to say, the cakes were very pretty compared to the pies. What, exactly, is in a vegan frosting that makes it look and behave like butter cream frosting?

I am beginning to think of apple pie as the litmus-test pie for Pie Spy's eating-out adventures. It was certainly the most attractive pie in the case -- so I ordered a slice. There was only one of each variety of pie and cake in the case, which made me wonder whether you could purchase a whole pie there without ordering ahead.

While vegan frosting and cupcakes may be a bit of a challenge, vegan fruit pie is not much of a stretch. Still, I wanted to see for myself what Sugar Plum's vegan version was like.

Sugar Plum's apple pie slice was generously sized (at $3.95 a slice). Full of thinly sliced, almost crisp pieces of apple, and very gently seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg. The filling was exactly moist enough. The pastry of this slice was very white, although not underbaked. It felt a little bit granular rather than flaky, and a little bit sticky. I think both of these attributes have to do with the type of shortening (fat, for lack of a better word) used. I find that certain shortenings do take quite awhile to brown. A cup of coffee would be the perfect accompaniment to this rendition of apple pie to help with that feel of stickiness.

While this slice held no surprises or revelations, it had a welcome home-made quality and it celebrated the apples, rather than drowning out their freshness by overloading the spice.

We sat in sunshine on the patio and enjoyed our dessert, one big fat delicious forkful at a time. Next time, we will have the Pie Spy Camera handy, we promise. By all means make a visit to Sugar Plum if you are in the mood for dessert but want to feel virtuous about it afterwards. [And if you don't want to virtuous about it, go across the street to Rick's Dessert Diner.]

And - of course! - tell them Pie Spy sent you. We will be waiting for your report.

P.S. On our last trip to the Davis Food Co-Op, we spied a placard that read "DFC is pleased to supply pies to Sugar Plum Vegan, Sacramento's new vegan restaurant." This calls for further investigation!

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?

Pie of the Week - Vegetable Pot Pie

It's WINTER. It's RAINING. It's time for Pie That's A Meal.

Vegetable Pot Pie may be a cure, or at least a palliative, for the Sacramento Winter Blahs.

Unfortunately, I have not yet found a local sit-down eatery that serves vegetarian pot pies. You can buy individual-sized ones at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op (www.sacfoodscoop.com) to bring home and heat up in your own oven, if that's convenient for you. But it's not difficult to prepare your own with what you already have in the house.

Winter vegetables like potatoes, butternut squash, turnips, and carrots are abundant here in the Sacramento Valley in the winter farmer's market stands. They are also extremely durable, which means you can take your time figuring out how and when you're going to eat them. The only down side of root vegetables and squashes is that they are bland as baby food when prepared by themselves. This is one reason a lot of people claim to detest them. Our Pie of the Week aims for an alchemical combination of these nutritious and plentiful staples in a hearty, double-crust savory pie. In addition to staving off the Blahs, it may also make converts of the non-root-vegetable-eating members of your household. Paired with a fresh green salad, this makes a satisfying dinner or brunch item. A side of cranberry sauce might make you come out of your funk and feel festive.

If you search the web for vegetable pot pie recipes, as I have, you will find a bazillion of them. Some include beans, or cheese, or noodles, or spinach, or tofu. You can customize the filling in a number of distinct but satisfying ways. Whatever your choices, 6 cups of filling is a good target amount. The common denominator of these recipes is that you pre-cook small pieces of whatever vegetables you plan to put in the pie, coat the vegetables with a little flour, and then add broth and a milk to create the sauce - or gravy- that is one of the most joyous sensations about eating a pot pie. We're doing this one vegan, but you could substitute real milk and butter where I've used soy milk and Earth Balance.

Note: there will be quite a lot of peeling and chopping - maybe 30 minutes' worth. But it is RAINING, and you are not going outdoors anyway.

You could certainly opt for a less-crusty version of this by spooning the prepared vegetable filling into individual pots (or one big pie dish) and doing only a top crust. But to me that sounds like it might result in messy cleanup work (both the pots and the bottom of the oven). SacPie rocks the double crust. We need those calories for hibernation, and we never, ever want to clean the oven.

This recipe is a riff on the Food Network recipe from Aida Mollenkamp (http://www.foodnetwork.com/). I had some butternut squash, already steamed, in the fridge. I had turnips, a leek, some Yukon Gold potatoes, celery, carrots, garlic, and a big bunch of Italian parsely. I had broth from cooking beet greens and some dried porcini mushrooms to infuse the broth. I did not include fennel or peas or chives, but only because I didn't have them in the house when it was time to make pie.

Ingredients:

1 T unsalted butter or Earth Balance

2 small heads of fennel (or 2 sticks of celery), finely chopped (about 3 c.) - OPTIONAL

1/2 medium yellow onion (or one leek), finely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped (about 2/3 c.)
12 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 5 c.)
1 small Russet potato peeled and diced small (about 2 1/2 c.)
1 small turnip peeled and diced small

1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. vegetable broth (warmed)
1 c. milk (or plain soy milk)
1 c. frozen baby green peas - OPTIONAL
1/4 c. thinly sliced fresh chives (or whatever your herb choices are)
1/4 c. parsley
1 T white vinegar
1 large egg yolk, beaten with 2 tsp of water - OPTIONAL
1 double-crust pie dough

OTHER OPTIONAL HERBS: sage, thyme, bay leaf, chipotle powder, rosemary

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees and arrange a rack in the middle.

Melt the butter/EB over medium heat in a 3- to 4- quart pan. When it foams, add the fennel, onion, carrots, (garlic, leek, celery, turnip) and cook until just soft and onions are translucent. Add mushrooms and potato (also bay leaf and/or rosemary sprig, if using. These should be removed when the filling is finished cooking). Season well with salt and pepper, stirring to coat. Remember that root vegetables tend to use more salt. Cook, stirring rarely, until mushrooms have let off water and are shrunken, about 6 min.

Sprinkle flour over the vegetables, stir to coat, and cook until the raw flavor is gone, about 1-2 min. Add broth and milk gradually, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth. Bring to simmer over medium heat, cooking until slightly thickened, about 5 min. Remove from heat. Add peas (or canned beans or edamame), herbs, and vinegar, stirring to coat. Taste to correct seasoning.

Pour the filling into a 9-in pie crust. Place the top crust over filling and seal. Brush dough with egg wash (optional) and cut slits in the top crust. Bake until crust is golden brown and mixture is bubbling, about 25-30 min. Let stand at least 5 min before serving. I know it will be hard to wait that long, but restrain yourself.

I baked this pie for about 40 minutes in order to get a browner crust. One of the things I've learned about the palm oil shortening crust recipe is that it is slow to brown, but difficult to overcook.

The pie filling cooks to a compact, moist endpoint. Individual chunks of potato, squash, turnip, and carrot are still identifiable but blend creamily with the gravy. The taste was as close as I've come yet to the filling in Freeport Bakery's knishes (http://www.freeportbakery.com/), which are elegant and delicious (and the subject of a future blog). One generous slice of this pie and a side of steamed broccoli was a substantial, comforting dinner. I nearly forgot that it was raining.

Let me know how the Winter Blahs, and the winning of the hearts, minds, and palates of your vegetable objectors is going after you make this.

Pie Spy - Dad's Kitchen

I have two stories to relate about Dad's Kitchen and its pie offerings. Check out http://www.ediblesacramento.com/content/index.php/winter-2009/comfort-food.htm for a capsule review of what Dad's is all about.

Dad's Kitchen, at 2968 Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento, was written up in a local publication last summer for its excellent pies. I was not a Pie Spy then, but already a pie snob, so I had to check this out. It was the peak of fresh summer fruit season. Pies at Dad's were reportedly made in-house by a lady named Anne, and the word was that you had to get there early in the day if you wanted to sample her wares. How could this not be good?

Here's how: In July, I ordered a slice of Anne's pie to go, while I was still having lunch, from my very charmingly inked server. Lunch was very filling, mainly because we inhaled the Spuds of Joy, so I decided to save the pie (SOUR CHERRY!) for later. Apparently it took a few attempts to convey the pie order to the kitchen, during which several minutes went by. First, a generously sized slice of pie a la mode was delivered on a plate to the table. We hailed our charming server and reminded her that we had asked for the pie to go. The plate disappeared immediately into the kitchen, and we waited several more minutes. When the box finally arrived , we decided to check and take a look at it. Recall July? Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? The kitchen staff decided had scraped the original slice from the plate to a cardboard go-box ice cream and all, on one of the hottest days of the year. Upon discovering this lapse in culinary judgment, we returned the box to a server and explained, no ice cream. Whereupon several more interminable minutes went by, until at last, a dry slice of pie materialized. This slice was about half the size of the original piece, and in addition, it had sort of been mashed into the box. By then, a half-hour had elapsed since we ordered the pie, and I was questioning whether I really wanted it at all.

And to top that all off, it was a $7.00 piece of pie.

I will say that the sour cherry pie was very fresh, not overly sweet, and not gelatinous with thickener. And sour cherry pie is not all that common in restaurants, so just having it as a choice really scored some points with me. The crust was buttery, brown, and - where intact - very flaky and sturdy enough to stand up to the cooked fruit. But worth all the trouble?

Sheesh! This experience is one reason that SacPie was born. We can all improve upon pie experiences like that one, and you can have an entire, fresh pie, all to YOURSELF, for $7.00!

Pie Spy's more recent experience at Dad's Kitchen was an improvement. [Note: In addition to the fruit pie on offer, there are also two varieties of pot pie on the lunch menu. You could conceivably eat pie for your entree and pie for dessert. Not many places can offer you that!]

This past week, the fruit pie was apple. We ordered a piece as we were finishing lunch but decided to dine in with it. We experienced the same difficulty with getting the order placed. When you are waiting for a slice of pie, minutes seem much longer than, say, when you are waiting for a bus in the rain. One reason the order was taking so long, we later learned, is that they warm it up in a standard oven before serving it - nice on a cold Saturday.

The pie arrived with the very smooth and lovely vanilla bean ice cream in a separate bowl. I had forgotten to ask them to hold the ice cream, but now I'm glad I got it. Three compact little scoops of the stuff - a dessert serving all by itself. Apple pie is one of my favorites. This one had very thinly sliced apples, a full double crust, no other embellishments. As you can see, it was good looking as well - straightforward, like-home pie. There was some sugary, spicy brown stuff mixed into the apple filling, and the texture and flavor were pleasant. Just enough cinnamon to enhance the apple without overpowering it. I don't usually eat ice cream with my pie, and least of all vanilla, but the freshness of both made for a wonderful combination. It was still $7, but it seemed like money well spent this time.

The pies are now made in-house by one of Dad's servers, Maria. Anne has apparently moved on. Maria uses all butter for her crust. Be advised that there is only one flavor of fruit pie available each day, and if you want it, I would advise that you get there before 2 or 3 in the afternoon (Maria has other things to do besides bake pies all day) and order it before you start the second half of your sandwich (or pot pie), unless you don't mind lingering. Fruit pies are not offered on the printed menu; you'll need to ask your server, and be sure to tell them that the Pie Spy sent you.

Celebrate National Pie Day!

The American Pie Council has announced that January 23, 2010 is National Pie Day.

If you love to make, eat, photograph, throw, blog, draw, invent, document, critique, improve, or discuss pie, you can celebrate with me on January 23rd.

I will be throwing, um, a Pie Night Party on January 23rd (1/23, or as close as I can get). You can, too. Easy as pie!

I am using the announcement of National Pie Day to kick off my blog, Sac Pie, because Sacramento is a great place to create a rich, deep (-dish) culture of all things Pie. We have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables to put in pie. We have a home-grown visual artist, Wayne Thiebaud, who obviously is a champion for pie. We enjoy a town full of creative bakers and chefs who can offer their pie-making talents.

What we don't have here in Sacramento is Pie Critical Mass. Maybe you have noticed this. Where can you go, of an evening, if you just want a nice piece of pie? And not just for dessert, for that matter, but for breakfast? The Real Pie Company was a valiant attempt to make Sacramento a pie lover's haven, but it was short-lived. Where can you get a fine, fresh pie to buy if you are too lazy or busy to make one yourself? Who will teach you how to make pie if you really want to learn? Who's making pies with healthy ingredients instead of partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening? Clearly, someone needs to take the cause of pie in this town seriously (but not too).

Here's what I'm proposing to do on this blog.

• remind you why pie is an ingredient for a happy life


• investigate and promote local Sacramento pie


• promote and gauge interest in a local Sacramento Pie Festival


• let you know what I'm baking each month


• encourage you to share all things pie.

As you can see, there is a lot of room for the development of a community pie culture. Do your part to stand up for pie!