Most every year, I throw myself a birthday party called The Pie Pig Out. Back when I knew lots of musical folk, it was the Goodson Annual Song Fest and Pie Pig Out, my one opportunity to sing Christmas carols and, ecumenically, dreidle carols in honor of Hanukkah. But over the years, I've come to realize that people don't really like to sing when they are stuffed to the gills with Pie.
(I almost always capitalize the word "Pie"...it's that important to my diet.)
When I started my annual Pie Pig Out, I invented a mathmatical calculation to determine what the difference was between serving Pie at a party and what was a true "pig out". I decided that 1/2 Pie per person would constitute pigging out.
This year's menu includes pumpkin, chocolate cream, mincemeat, apple, strawberry, pecan, key lime (Kelly's contribution), and a new invention of mine, grapefruit meringue. We'll see if that's a hit or "No seconds for me" addition. Next year's invention might include a meat Pie or two, or bubblegum cream even.
A Pie Pig Out is the perfect opportunity for experimentation. Because, after all, if the experiment tastes perfectly dreadful, you still have all the other Pies to eat. The mark of a successful Pie Pig Out is that there a few, if any, leftovers.
I've dropped chocolate pieces in the bottom of a pecan pie prior to adding the pecans and baking. I've lined the shell of a pumpkin Pie with apricot jam prior to pouring in the pumpkin innards. (That's one I truly like...got the idea from my daughter Becca, but the pumpkin purists rebelled so I won't be trying THAT again anytime soon. You'd've thought I'd killed a baby lamb or farted in church or something.)
I've blended the chocolate pudding with Cool Whip prior to pouring into the shell instead of leaving the Cool Whip sitting on top. (Bad idea, 'cause the pudding never really sets up as it should and the result is something you have to spoon onto the plate.)
This year, as I pondered the intricacies of the menu, my son Benjamin nixed any Pies he personally doesn't like. I think HE thinks that he'll be able to sample every single Pie, more the fool. Since he doesn't like lemon meringue, I invented the grapefruit idea.
I'm a big fan of ALL citrus and think that lemons unfairly dominate that family of fruit. What's wrong with limeade or tangeloade for that matter? If lemonade is a nice summer cooler, so's grapefruitade. When you think about it, we have lemon chicken, lemon bars, lemon meringue Pie, lemon torte, pastry and pound cake. There are a couple dozen entries for lemon this and lemon that in my cookbook. If the grapefruit meringue Pie is a hit, I think I'm gonna break out of the box and make grapefruit chicken or tangerine bars.
Every year, I get asked why I do the lion's share of baking for a party for myself. Why not make others serve you on your birthday, they ask. Because, I tell them, this is my thank you gift to all those truly blessed people in my life who have to put up with me for another whole year.
