Together, we will eat pie

11 days to go.

When I started this pie journey almost a year ago, I was cocky and sure. I mean really, how hard could pie making be? 


I'd baked cakes and cookies before with tasty results, so I figured whipping up a pie (or four) would be a snap.


Boy, was I wrong. Standing at my counter peeling apples the other day, I had a realization: 


Pie -- truly great pie -- cannot be faked.

You can fake a good cake by buying a mix and tossing in a few extra ingredients. You can fake homemade cookies by buying tubs of raw dough and plunking blobs down on a cookie sheet.

But you can't fake a homemade pie.

Sure, they sell refrigerated pie crusts and cans of filling, but it's really hard to pass them off as homemade. The fillings are too pasty, the fruit too bland. And refrigerated pie crusts are rarely flaky enough to fool anyone.

Really great pies are authentic. And the deliciously flaky results are just too good to keep to yourself. Pie simply must be shared.

And this leads to something that's been bugging me for the past 354 days.


At the 2011 Fourth of July bake-off, after the winners were announced, everyone just packed up their pies and went home. Without a word, they just left. 

It was anticlimactic and cold. I'd expected someone -- anyone -- to invite the small crowd to come up and have some pie. I thought for sure we'd hang around afterward, chatting, congratulating the winners, trying the entries and enjoying each other's company. 


But nobody did. In fact, people hardly spoke to each other. It just felt wrong.

So regardless of if I win or lose, on this Fourth, I will share my pies. I'll bring forks, plates and napkins and, after the judging is complete, I will invite everyone to have some pie.

I just have to.


Don't worry. This self-proclaimed Pie Shark hasn't gone soft. I fully intend to dethrone those Nancies one by one, and I won't bat an eye if I make the lady who's won this thing for the past 15 years cry.


But after the carnage, when the virtual slaughter is over, together, we will eat pie.