Pi Day Party

In the past couple of years it seems to have become popular to celebrate March 14th as Pi Day.  Last year I even had to contribute some pies to a couple of math classes for my kids so I decided it was as good an excuse as any to make some pies for home as well.  The kids were thrilled with this concept.  This year I sort of forgot about it… that is, until I was invited to a “Pi Day Party” at a friend’s house.  “Just bring some pie”.  Before I gave any thought to the pie itself my kids got excited about chocolate chip pie.  So the decision was made and it’s an easy pie to throw together.  Everyone always love this one, too.

I ended up bringing three pies.  My kids can eat a whole chocolate chip pie by themselves (Lindsay ate four pieces by herself… I don’t know where she puts it) so I figured the second one was to share.  You can’t show up with one of the largest families and only a single pie!  The Savory Mashed Potato pie was a last minute response to the idea that this was dinner so I’d better supply something that was dinner-like.  This was the only dinner-like pie present and was gobbled up entirely.  Really, I couldn’t come home at 5 p.m., then fix dinner and still have time for a party.  Plus Haley and Rick weren’t out of school until 6 p.m. and so were meeting us there.  Any other dinner really wasn’t an option.  I did give my kids permission to eat whatever they wanted though… it doesn’t hurt any more than ice cream night… it’s only once a year.

Savory Mashed Potato Pie is very similar to a mashed potato pizza that UNO’s served back when I was pregnant the first time around sixteen years ago.  (I don’t know if they still serve it).  I loved that pizza and I ran into this healthier version in a cookbook filled with bake-off winners that my Mom gave to me not long after.  It gets much of its flavor from garlic and scallion.  There IS cheese, sour cream and bacon present but not to the same degree as the restaurant version.  This one also calls for sliced tomatoes.  I’d used up all my fresh tomatoes and my next shopping trip isn’t for a few more days so I rehydrated some of my sundried tomato slices from last year for the top of the pie.  They rehydrated perfectly and looked beautiful on top without the expense and trouble of making a special trip to the grocery store.  This pie received many compliments and a few recipe requests.  The chocolate chip pie is quite simply my children’s favorite pie… I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like it either.  Both pies were put into my own pinched and pricked pie crust.  It is a flakey crust and almost always turns out to be delicious.

Nathan chose some sort of chocolate cream pie taking the piece he had immediately stuck his finger into when he walked into the dining room, face lighting up at the sight of this dinner… and he got a piece of chocolate chip pie.  Mostly he just wanted to ride bikes, run around with friends and go down the slide.  He had a blast enjoying a late sunset on a 77 degree evening in a large tree filled fenced yard.  I always get a little bit of house envy over here.  It is a beautiful neighborhood filled with neat old (big) houses on the west side of Cincinnati.  We actually looked at a house down the street from this one and it would have been incredible to live in such a neat house with so much room for the kids.  My friend had a very successful party with probably 50 people in attendance, if not more.  Kaitlyn and my others ate as much pie as their tummies could hold and I’ll be feeding them plenty of broccoli tomorrow.  But today everyone was just happy to celebrate “Pi”.