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When I was a child, our family vacations always involved a lot of driving.  We drove from Michigan to destinations like Maine, Florida, or Nevada.  Us kids would sprawl out — as much as possible– in the roomy back seat of the family car and pass the time playing road games and reading.  For some reason I can’t remember, I read Black Beauty –repeatedly–, but my sister, who was 7 years older and therefore more sophisticated, read books like Calico Palace, an historical  romance set in the Gold Rush of California.  Her rapture, punctuated by sighs, made me anxious for the days when I’d be old enough to read books about love instead of books about horses.

I eventually did get to read Calico Palace, and I have read it many times since.  Both the love story and the history of California of the mid-1800s made an impression on me.

When I started baking pies regularly, I suddenly remembered an important plot point in Calico Palace that involves an apple pie technique taught to the heroine, Kendra, by the handsome stranger.  I won’t give away the plot, but the apple pie tip was this:

“May I give you a hint?” asked Ted.  He took up the box of raisins.  “Soak a few raisins overnight in wine and add them to the pie filling.” (p25)

Calico Palace Pie is my version of apple pie with wine soaked golden raisins. It’s a good book and, according to the testers, a 5-star winning pie.

Friday has been my traditional pie delivery day.  I picked Friday because it worked well in my schedule.  I also thought having a pie on hand for the weekend would make the weekend even better for my customers.

I do deliver on other days of the week.  On Wednesday morning, I dropped off a pie that a young woman had got as a birthday gift for a friend.  She wrote that her friend had been “drooling over” my email messages, and so she wanted to surprise her for her birthday.  She was sweet enough to send me a follow up message and let me know the pie was a “huge hit”– the kind of stuff I always love to hear.

Baking pies is good time, but delivering a pie is pure joy.  People are always happy to see you when you are holding a pie!  So much of what we have in our lives is meant for anyone, but a pie baked just for you– that’s the kind of gift that means the most.

I’m really excited about launching the Why Not Pie Blog.

This venue will give me the space to post recipes, comments, stories and conversations and wax on eloquently about pie.

Pie is nothing new.  As a foodstuff, it’s got a long and glorious history — one that even pre-dates the US of A, the place that considers pie as American as itself.  Certainly pies were around in the Middle Ages, when they were known as pyes.  According to both Time Magazine and Wikipedia, pies were prepared in ancient times by both the Greeks and the Romans.

Pie is nothing new for me either.  I’ve been baking pies for more than three decades, but I’ve only gotten serious about pie in the last two plus years since I started Why Not Pie.  In that time, I’ve tried dozens of recipes and made hundreds of pies.

One of the best things about pie is sharing it.  Making a pie for someone else is an act of generosity, care,  and kindness, and it’s something I really enjoy.

This blog is one more way to share the joy of pie!