I know that products and companies and logos have to change over the years, but I always feel a little sad when a classic character or design is changed. Really, did the change improve sales? You would think that keeping a classic character would endear a company to loyal customers even more.
Now if someone could answer this question. What exactly was the magician? Was he human? The body shape suggests a banana, or some sort of legless apple slice. Or maybe the Penguin from Batman.
Pie is probably one of America's favorite desserts. The question is what is America's favorite kind of pie?
Michael Park over at Epicurious.com gives us some answers. He revealed a pie poll from the makers of Mrs. Smiths, Schwans Consumer Brands North America. The poll asked participants to name their three favorite pies. Which one came in first, you ask? Well, it was apple of course! Turns out it was the overwhelming favorite.
I was personally surprised that Key lime pie was at the bottom of the list. But I guess with so many kinds of pie out there, it's a measure of the popularity of key lime pie that it made the list at all. So how about it? What's your favorite kind of pie?
No. that isn't a typo in the title. Yesterday was March 14th, which, in abbreviated form, is 3.14 (feel free to add the 1592653589793238... if you so desire), better known to us non-mathematicians simply as Pi.
As is usually the tradition here at Slashfood, we are willing to turn just about any circumstance into something to celebrate, so why should Pi Day be any exception? Fortunately for us, the blogosphere was full of others who jumped on this bandwagon as well. In fact, Kitchen Parade collected submissions all week, resulting in dozens of mouth-watering pie recipes all linked up on one page.
So without further ado, following are my top eight favorites, which I will be putting on my "need to make" list. (Corresponding photos can be found in the gallery at the bottom of the page after the jump.)
If I had my way, every month would be pie month. I like all kinds of pies, from apple to pumpkin to Boston Cream. My apple pie has to be ice cold though. To me, hot apple pie is...gah.
After the jump is a recipe for Key Lime Pie, from The Cook's Kitchen, which also has a little factoid on who liked pie so much he practically lived on it while travel ling across the country.
AOL Food has a slideshow at their site, with ideas on how to add bacon to, well... pretty much everything. No, not your typical breafast dishes. That's too obvious. We're talking about putting bacon on hot apple pie, in oatmeal, in an ice cream sundae, and in chocolate chip cookies. Someone is even trying to get the smoky flavor of bacon inside a glass of whiskey.
A lot of these ideas are too out there for me, but I think I'd try bacon in popcorn.
Looking over the list of December food holidays and I see it's filled with many foods that you'd actually associate with December and the holidays, and that's a good thing. I hate it when you have a food holiday in a month where it just seems out of place. Like June being National Turkey Lovers Month.
Or maybe you can be adventurous and try the Pumpkin Pie in another form ... liquid!
Update: a reader points out that we January 23 is National Pie Day, though I've also found a few sources that say it's today. Oh well, you can't have too many days of pie!
Last weekend I found myself in a pastry shop. It wasn't a planned outing, it just happens that a friend of mine lives right behind one of the oldest Italian bakeries in Philly and when we pulled up to her house, the scent was overwhelmingly appealing. So we wandered in and ended up spending more than $20 dollars on baked goods. While we were in the bakery, my friend Scott made the comment that he always buys his holiday desserts. Pointing at the cases all around us, he said, "Because really, why would you bother to bake when there's so much good stuff in the world."
If you think like Scott and want to buy your holiday desserts this year instead of making them, you should check out this amazing-looking vegan apple pie that Sundance Catalog is selling this year (they don't normally sell food, so it must be outrageously good for them to have added it in with their offerings). Just make sure to order it no later than November 15th if you want it for Thanksgiving.
Pie crusts are a tricky thing. I admit that I don't have a whole lot of experience with them and when I have tried to wrestle a cohesive sheet of dough into a pie pan, I've often settled for something far less than perfect. I'm okay with that though, I fill it with something delicious and call it rustic. It works for me.
But having read the Oregonian's food section today, I think I may have just learned the secret to a perfect pie crust every time. Olive oil. Danielle Certoni had always admired her mother-in-law's apple pie, and when the in-laws came for Thanksgiving, she asked her to make it. When she went into see how it was going, Danielle was surprised to discover that the secret was olive oil instead of butter or shortening. Apparently, it's quite common in other food cultures and produces a light and flaky crust without needing the same delicate treatment that we've come to expect that pastry needs. I don't have any pies on my cooking schedule, but the next time I need a crust, I'm turning to this recipe. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!
The picture is of an actual Olive Oil Pie Crust. It was posted on Flickr complete with recipe and entertaining narrative of how it came to be.
I devoured these as a kid*. They were one of the regular junk food items my sister and I would buy at the store down the street to eat while watching The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family on Friday nights. I saw them at the store the other day and decided to pick up a box.
The American Pie Council calls pie "the ultimate comfort food," and I bet a lot of people would agree with that. So what should you do to celebrate National Pie Day? Well, the first thing you should do, of course, is eat pie. And then maybe you can enter the 2007 APC Crisco National Pie Championships. Or maybe you could perform random acts of pieness, by sharing a pie that you bake. And there are many other ways to mark the day, including pie sales, contests, teaching, and singing pie songs.
Pie songs?
The pie above is Chocolate Death Pie, and the recipe is here.
I am not one of the people who likes cheese on top of my apple pie, despite that fact that apples and cheese go quite well together. But apple pie topped with cheese is a favorite for many people, including my grandmother, so when I first saw the recipe for Apple & Cheese Cake at English Patis, I immediately thought of her. The cake is only lightly sweetened and is generously filled with raisins, apples and cheese. It is much easier to make than a full apple pie, but it has a very similar flavor profile. For those who like the combination for dessert, it sounds like it would go perfectly well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. For those who don't, the cake might make an interesting addition to the brunch table, as that is one meal where the lines of sweet and savory often are blurred. The primary benefit
Take a good, long look at the picture to the right. The small size of the photo is misleading because that is a giant apple pie.
Weighing in at 13-pounds, the Levee High Caramel Apple Pecan Pie is the signature dessert of The Blue Owl restaurant and bakery in St. Louis. The pie is made by packing a pastry crust with approximately 18 apples, which are then topped with a caramel, pecan sauce. Since you can't easily ship a freshly baked pie, these pies cab be ordered online and shipped, frozen, straight to your kitchen where you can bake them up yourself. Instructions are included, but from the look of the pie, the biggest challenge will be trying to find enough people to help you eat it.
The big pie sells for $34.95 plus shipping, but if you're looking for something smaller, The Blue Owl also makes a Mini Levee High Caramel Apple Pecan Pie that only weighs 4 pounds for $6.95.
Over the last week or so, we got some fantastic holiday dinner ideas from a lot of our food blogging friends. First, we were inspired by turkey and stuffing recipes, and then were moved on to some delicious side dishes. No big feast would be complete without dinner rolls or some kind of bread, and so we got some wonderful ideas for breads to serve, too. As we come down to the wire for Thanksgiving, we're finishing up our little series with a look at some outstanding desserts.
Since we were talking about the best apples to use in making pies last week, it put me in the mood to make one myself. I love making pies because, even though there is some prep work involved, the procedure is very straightforward. Also, I really enjoy making homemade pie crust. It's fun to get your fingers dirty and a flaky, homemade crust is better than one you can buy at the store - especially because you can taste the work that went into making it.
If you've never made a homemade pie before, winter is the perfect time to start and apple is the best kind to start with. Not only are the apples easy to work with, but the fact that the weather is colder makes it easier to handle the dough for the crust. In summer, you need to work faster to keep the butter from melting as you work it in to the flour. After the jump, you'll find a photo-heavy, step-by-step guide to making both the crust and the whole pie. I make my crusts with a combination of shortening (non-hydrogenated, for those who are concerned) and butter. The combination of butter, which adds flavor and some leavening, and shortening, which adds tenderness and flakiness will produce the best crusts. I use a 3-1 ratio, so not much shortening is needed.
Pie is probably one of America's favorite desserts. The question is what is America's favorite kind of pie?
If I had my way, every month would be pie month. I like all kinds of pies, from apple to pumpkin to Boston Cream. My apple pie has to be ice cold though. To me, hot apple pie is...gah.
AOL Food has a slideshow at their site, with ideas on 
Last weekend I found myself in a pastry shop. It wasn't a planned outing, it just happens that a friend of mine lives right behind one of the oldest Italian bakeries in Philly and when we pulled up to her house, the scent was overwhelmingly appealing. So we wandered in and ended up spending more than $20 dollars on baked goods. While we were in the bakery, my friend Scott made the comment that he always buys his holiday desserts. Pointing at the cases all around us, he said, "Because really, why would you bother to bake when there's so much good stuff in the world."
-on-flickr---photo-sharing!.jpg)
I devoured these as a kid*. They were one of the regular junk food items my sister and I would buy at the store down the street to eat while watching The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family on Friday nights. I saw them at the store the other day and decided to pick up a box. 
Over the last week or so, we got some fantastic holiday dinner ideas from a lot of our food blogging friends. First, we were inspired by 
America's Most Hated Foods
Slashfood Ate (8): Ways to create the perfect cheese plate
A good trick for saving summer herbs for future use
