March 14: Pi(e) Day, Bake a Pie Day, National Potato Chip Day, Registered Dietitian Day

Wow, talk about a day with identity issues.  Today is Pi(e) Day and Potato Chip Day while this week, the 2nd week in March, is Chocolate Chip Cookie Week.  Contrast that to the fact that today is also Registered Dietitian Day and March is National Nutrition Month.  Meh...let's enjoy the day anyways!


Pi(e) Day/Bake a Pie Day

I think this may be the only geeky food-related holiday on the calendar.  I've known this day for a few years as Pi(e) Day, but I've also seen it called Bake a Pie Day.  This is entirely different than National Pie Day, which is January 23.  (Although, I suppose any reason to eat pie is welcomed.)  Today got the honor of being Pi(e) Day because the mathematical number pi is often shortened to 3.14 and if you take today's date in numerical form - 3/14.  Wikipedia has a surprisingly decent amount of information about Pi Day.  (At least, I found it surprising because I didn't think there'd be that much information about Pi Day.) I found it most interesting to note that it's also Albert Einsteins birthday.  The geeky qualities of this day just keep piling up!

The pie, pre-baking, with filling all the way to the top

So in honor of today being Pi(e) Day (and possibly Bake a Pie Day) I picked up Pie: 300 Tried and True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie.  I flipped through and found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie.  Since this week is Chocolate Chip Cookie Week, I decided I had found my pie. 

It's a very easy recipe and its basically one giant cookie.  Again, short on time, I opted to use a store-bought crust.  The book made note to purchase a deep dish crust if using store-bought, so I made sure I did that.  And boy was I glad that I followed the directions!  The filling that resulted from the recipe was enough to reach to the very top of the crust and while baking, it rose up above the crust.  Thankfully, it didn't bubble over - it just went up.

The pie, right out of the oven.  Unlike real chocolate chip cookies,
this is best enjoyed after it's cooled. 

The book also suggested to enjoy this pie not right out of the oven, not after it's been chilled for a long time, but after it's cooled a bit, so that the flavors are more enjoyable.  I think it would probably pair really well with vanilla ice cream, or maybe even banana ice cream.  Is that even available?

I like the book for it's huge collection of recipes.  The only thing I don't like about the book is the lack of pictures.  I really like having pictures in cookbooks.  As for the pie?  Well, it's pretty tasty- I'll probably make it again.



National Potato Chip Day

I think most people are familiar with potato chips.  They almost seem to be a requirement for parties.  Traditional potato chips are thinly sliced potatoes, fried in oil, and seasoned with a little salt.  Chips come in many flavors and are great for dipping.  Fooducate did a great job of rounding up ten things you might not know about potato chips.  I certainly didn't know about the history of potato chiips.  I really like the potato chip invention story.

March 2: Banana Cream Pie Day

I'll admit that when I make banana cream pie, I usually take the easy route.  I buy a graham cracker crust, put a layer of fresh banana slices on the crust, top the banana slices with a thick banana pudding, smooth it out as much as possible, chill, then decorate right before serving using whipped cream and more banana slices on top.  Again, this is a food observance I feel is misplaced as I feel banana cream pies are a great dessert for a warm summer evening.

If you're feeling more game than I, you can always try this Old-Fashioned Banana Cream pie recipe from Food.com.  Feel like kicking it up a notch?  Try this recipe for Banana Cream Pie with Chocolate Gamache and Salted Caramel Sauce from Lick My Spoon.  And I don't know why I never tried this before with banana cream pie, but some recipes use crushed vanilla wafers to make the crust.  It sounds like a good flavor match to me, except instead of using the wafers for the crust, I might try layering them on top of the bananas then put the filling on top of that.  Or maybe crumble up some cookies and sprinkle the crumbs on top of the cream for an easy decoration.  New York Times even has a recipe and tips to try for making banana cream pie.

  Pie not your thing but you still love the banana and cream flavor?  Over at Annie's Eats, banana cream pie inspired some tasty looking cupcakes. 

January 23: Rhubarb Pie Day & National Pie Day

Some calendars identify today as National Pie Day, while others identify today as National Rhubarb Pie Day.  Actually, today IS National Pie Day, but since I'm a bit of a nerd and I believe National Pie (Pi) Day is March 14th, I'm gonna go with today being National Rhubarb Pie Day.  (And hey!  Making a rhubarb pie today actually kind of honors National Pie Day, too!)

Now, I've had rhubarb in pies before (the Purple Pie Place in Custer, SD, has the best strawberry rhubarb pie I've ever had) but never have I had just a plain rhubarb pie.  I was determined to celebrate today by making a rhubarb pie from scratch.  Probably not my best idea, since I can't remember the last time I made a pie entirely from scratch.  I looked around on the web and in my cookbooks for a rhubarb pie recipe that I wouldn't need to buy any additional ingredients beyond what I already had.  In the process, I found the pie section of the Rhubarb Compendium.  It's a truly impressive collection of recipes all based around rhubarb. 

I found plenty of recipes that I could work with, but in my hubris (or excitement?  or "desire to experiment?") I chose to throw all the recipes out the window (figuratively, of course) and just threw together my own.  Remember how I said earlier, "probably not my best idea?"  Yeah....

I started with this pie crust recipe from AllRecipes.  After reading the comments, I did stray a little - I put the shortening in the freezer before use to make it cold, used only 1/2 a cup of very cold water, and added 2 tablespoons of sugar.  It was very simple and easy to make - it'll be a recipe I keep around.

Then, it was time for the filling and... well, this is where things got creative.  (Meaning: I said, "Recipe?  I don't need stinkin' recipe!")

I chopped up four heaping cups of rhubarb and then tossed it with two cups of sugar and six tablespoons of flour.  Dumped the mixture onto the crust, baked with crust edges covered in tinfoil for 30 minutes at 425, then 25 minutes at 350, removed the tinfoil and cooked for another 15 minutes at 350.

Based on the resulting pie, I made two mistakes, the first being too much sugar.  (I suppose the argument could be made that my first mistake was choosing to not follow a recipe.)  The pie crust came out wonderfully, but the filling was too sweet.  Second mistake?  Not putting the flour and sugar on the crust in the pie pan, then putting the rhubarb on top of that.  The result was some flour and sugar stayed on top and didn't mix with the rhubarb and the filling came out very runny.  Criticism recieved was that it was "pie soup," too sweet, and the crust was the only edible part.

I may try this again, reducing the sugar and putting the flour and sugar on the bottom.  In the meantime, to keep the pie from being a waste, I'll probably scoop out the filling, boil it down a little more, maybe add lemon juice for some tartness, and use it as a topping for pancakes or waffles.

So, chalk up one on the kitchen screw up scoreboard, but I'm still going to keep playing around in the kitchen.