The Pie Project

I'm willing to experiment once I'm comfortable with the basic formula; that's as true in cooking or exercising or TV show watching as it is in my writing or teaching. Today I'm thinking about what fun group project I can subject my comp students to: possibly the creation of happiness surveys, then the design of ads for happiness, nothing product-based. Hmmm. (It's our critical media literacy unit). Anyway, in the same creative spirit, here's a new twist on a classic. I love key lime and so I thought: why not use the same outline, but with orange juice? After some internet digging I found recipes for "sour orange pie," using - you guessed it - sour oranges, which I couldn't find. So, I mixed about 3/4 fresh o.j. with a 1/4 lime juice, and voila: sweeter than key lime but more acidic. This pie is zippy and bright and has some flair. I recommend it for surprising your dinner party pals. With a generous layer of chopped strawberries on top, it looks m...

I never knew about the gadgets designed to make the pie experience all it can be: pie weights, carriers, plates, crust protectors, servers, cookbooks ... yes, bakers can accessorize. Take this (L) for instance. It's an official pie carrier (and gift from Laurie!) These (R) are vintage pie plates from the '70s, which I adore. It's the frumpy church lady in me. My boss at the general store where I worked in high school is the last person I've ever known who honestly and wholeheartedly would have loved these pie plates. She and her husband scoured damp little towns for antiques every weekend. She also used to yell at me for not sweeping the floor mats enough, or not stocking exactly seven cans of pop per row. I rebelled by giving away the occasional pack of cigarettes to my friends and eating ice cream bars in the beer cooler. Ah, high school. Anyway ... vintage pie plates. Despite my better inclinations, I love them.

I'm celebrating my b-day morning with the window open to the rain and Nanci Griffith playing in the kitchen. The cool damp air and the music remind me of home and I would like to thank my family for growing me up and instilling in me the appreciation for treats. And for just being wonderfully loving, flawed, funny, and ever themselves. I miss them, though I've got great peeps here, too. Tonight it'll be margaritas and tres leches for my adult Texan life. As a kid it was either cake with Cool Whip frosting or whatever I requested, such as pineapple upside cake, which was not as delicious as the name promised, or pumpkin pie, which has never failed me. Hence, here's my tribute to the perfect birthday pie. (Click on the photo for a close-up of creamy goodness). I made this pie to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with friends this weekend. Who knew they had T-giving a whole six weeks earlier? I think I need to celebrate it from now on. After all, I grew up close to Canada. Y...

This is from a Nevada Obama supporter - because he's, well, as American as apple pie. Though his favorite pie is apparently pecan (really? I've always found it too candy-sweet, but okay, Obama, I'll try it for you). HE HAS TO WIN. I don't usually get so emotional about politics, unless you count sobbing after both the 2000 and 2004 elections, but I'm feelin' it now. I'd make a hundred gazillion pies with his name on them and pass them out to neighbors if I thought it would help! Hmmm. Not a bad idea...

This is a summertime classic, warm and gooey, with sour rhubarb to offset the sweet-but-predictable strawberry. It's a family favorite and definitely one of my pie staples. Plain old strawberry pie verges on saccharine, so you need the rhubarb to kick it up. You know how it is. The best couples usually have a sweet/sour factor going for them - good cop/bad cop, social butterfly/nerd, dreamer/breadwinner, Obama/Biden. Rhubarb is grown in huge quantities in the Northwest but it's hard to find in Texas. In fact, I bought a bunch at the grocery store here and the chec ker asked, "what is this? Is it some kind of red celery?" Gasp, no. It is heavenly. For this pie, I like to go fifty-fifty on the rhubarb to berry ratio, and I slice the strawberries only in half, so you get nice fat bites of them. One caveat: cook and sweeten the rhubarb before filling and baking . It's kind of a tough customer, though nothing a little heat and sugar can't fix. Strawberry-Rhu...