Pie Week!

This week has been Pie Week around our house and I have been baking up a storm.  I have made a total of 5 pies in the past three days.  The tally...3 pumpkin, 1 pecan, and 1 apple.

I made two of the pumpkin pies to give to the kids teachers at school.  Just a little way of saying thank you.  I got the idea of making a Thanksgiving pie for each teacher from my mom  You guessed it.  She's a teacher.  The Parent's Association at school where she used to teach gave each teacher and staff member a pie for Thanksgiving.  It was a way of saying thank-you, but I also saw it as a way of helping out.  Since the majority of teacher's were women and mothers they were likely doing the cooking on Thanksgiving.  By giving them a pie, I always saw it as a way of taking one less thing off their To Do lists when it came to making Thanksgiving dinner.  And so I have "stolen" the idea from them and have been making pies for my children's teachers since John David was 2.  I have only missed one year, the year we lost our babies Lane & Reese.  I was still reeling from the loss and recovering from surgery and just skipped it.  I even managed to revive the "tradition" last year when I was pregnant with Ava and on bedrest for pre-term labor.

So....pie week in a nut shell.

Make crust

 














Repeat..In my case 5 times.  Here are the two "teacher" pies.

Just for fun...get fancy and decorate the crusts with leaf cut-outs.

Make the filling.  Here is the pumpkin filling.  Sorry no shots of the apple or pecan.

Add filling to crust and bake.

This is the "teacher" pumpkin pie before baking.

 

And this is the family pumpkin pie while baking.  

Lastly, the apple after baking.

   

Sorry...no shots of the pecan pie.  It was still in the oven when I sat down to write this post.

  

Some interesting pie facts obtained from the Huffington Post

*  The first pies were filled with meat and called coffins.

*  Mini, sliced and half pies make up 24% of pies purchased

*  Recent growth in the popularity of blueberry and cherry pies can be attributed to the increase in the public's desire for antioxidants

*Pies are slowly starting to challenge cupcakes for the "trendiest" desserts

There is something so American about pie.  Whether it is apple, pumpkin, pecan, or banana cream. 

According to the Huffington Post the 9 most popular pies this Thanksgiving are: 

1.  Apple

2.  Strawberry

3.  Pumpkin

4.  Cherry

5.  Blueberry

6.  Pecan

7.  Lemon Meringue

8.  Chocolate

9.  Chess

According to chacha.com the top 10 pie flavors are:

1.  Apple

2.  Chocolate (French Silk)

3.  Coconut

4.  Pecan

5.  Berry (all types)

6.  Key Lime

7.  Lemon

8.  Pumpkin

9.  Cherry

10. Banana

My personal favorites....apple, pumpkin, and key lime.  Husband's favorite....probably pecan, although I didn't ask him before posting this.   

What's you favorite?

Happy Pie Week everyone!