Day of Pies

You know the phrase “easy as pie”? Well, I think I took that to heart when I was a kid and first learning how to bake. Pies have always been my go-to food because they’re super easy to make and infinitely versatile. They can be sweet or savory, open-faced or closed, dolled up with a lattice crust or brushed over with an egg or milk wash to make them shiny and crispy. They can be small enough to pop into your mouth in one bite or large enough to feed a whole horde of hungry kids.

Not to mention they don’t need a lot of planning to make. Have some leftover meats and veg clogging up your fridge? Throw them in a pie. Have some apples that are a bit squishy? Excellent for a pie. If the fifties and sixties were the eras of casseroles, my whole life has been the era of pie.

Since the fillings are variable, the key to a really good pie is the crust. It’s what holds the whole thing together. If you overwork the dough, the crust will become hard and tough. If you don’t add enough liquid, or your kitchen is too hot, the crust will end up like breadcrumbs and be dry and fall apart if you breathe on it wrong. To make the perfect crust, you have to roll it out by feel. The dough has to have the right wetness, the right tensile strength, the right amount of flour. It’s more art than science, and I can tell by the pads of my fingers when the dough is just right.

Of course, that’s because I’ve made hundreds of pies in my life. Maybe even a thousand—it’s hard to tell. I’ve never kept count.

Making pie is a favorite cooking skill of mine and, as a consequence, it’s a favorite thing for my kids to eat. Mainly because of Day of Pies.

When my first daughter was born, I have to admit she was the princess. She was doted on by both sets of grandparents, and so her first birthday was a Big Deal. However, I didn’t want to do the traditional old boring cake and candles, so I came up with something new. One pie for her birthday didn’t seem like enough. But eight pies? To feed all the many friends and family we were inviting to celebrate our amazing child’s first year? Well, that would be amazing. (Not to mention that the number 8 is considered lucky in many Asian cultures, including my own.)

And the event WAS amazing. Instead of telling people it was my daughter’s first birthday, we joked that it was “Day of Pies.” And that name stuck, and it became something for everyone to look forward to in December. So, every year around her birthday, I take out the rolling pin and the flour and make half a dozen+ pies to celebrate another year. I didn’t intend for it to become a family tradition, but it’s one of the best ones that have occurred almost by accident.

While there are always some fan favorites that make an appearance every year—the French Canadian pork pie, tourtière, and chicken pot pie are always staples—there are a number of choices that change or rotate in and out from year to year. From the savory side, there’s quiche Lorraine, spaghetti pie, taco pie, steak and kidney, shepherd’s pie, curried vegetable pie, and probably a few others I’m forgetting. From the sweet side, we’ve had rhubarb, apple, pumpkin, blueberry, banana cream, lemon meringue, fruit tarts, all types of crumbles, and a whole host of others.

And this isn’t a quiet celebration, even though it’s always done about a week before Christmas. No, we invite family and friends, neighborhood kids and neighbors, and sometimes various people from the workplace. It's noisy and messy and chaotic, and that's just the way a holiday tradition should be. From my daughter’s first birthday until today, Day of Pies has become a legend in my family.

It’s not a Christmas celebration, but it’s a pre-Christmas warmup. The holidays—and winter itself—wouldn’t feel complete without it.