Posts Tagged ‘pi day’

Pi Day 2014!!

Happy Pi Day!! As you might recall, Pi Day is the most important holiday in the Ladd family, and it’s always hard for me to be away from home. But my Mom usually mails me a gift of a new calculator or some fancy graph paper or what have you, and, of course, I always make some kind of pie to keep the tradition alive. And to avoid a year of careless math errors, because that is one superstition I am afraid NOT to follow. I do way too much math (sewing, cooking, stats at work) to risk becoming bad at it for a whole year!

This year’s celebration will be a little more subdued (although of course Steven and I will break out the word problems later tonight) because I can’t really eat pie right now. I decided to make one for Steven to take to work, and since normal pie can be messy to pass out, I lifted my ban and agreed to make mini pies in my muffin pan. Don’t worry!! I had a few bites of one before he left to avoid math ruin.

Hand delivered in bed, because Pi Day is classy like that

Hand delivered in bed, because Pi Day is classy like that

These mini pies went a lot better than last time. My previous experience informed the crust cutting-out step, and there wasn’t an awkward lattice top crust to worry about. Plus, the filling was actually delicious because I used a legit recipe. Still more work than a normal pie, but I might be convinced to do it again sometime.

The perfect portion!

The perfect portion!

The filling is pear ginger, and you brown the butter with ginger and vanilla bean for a smooth, well-balanced flavor. Pear on its own would be too bland, but adding just enough ginger makes it pop. I was really pleased with how these turned out!

Happy Pi Day!!

Happy Pi Day!!

You may recall me writing last year about how important Pi Day is in my family. Sometimes it’s a little sad to be away from home and the rest of my family on such an important holiday, but luckily Steven has embraced Ladd tradition and is completely willing to spend tonight doing word problems, making bad math puns, and eating pie. Particularly that last part.

This year I went with traditional apple, like the founding fathers made for their Pi Day celebrations

Remember, according to Ladd family lore, if you don’t eat pie on Pi Day, your math skills will be cursed for the rest of the year. I hope you’ve also done all you can to avoid this terrible fate.

I know I have

Experts disagree about whether pie-like foods count, such as “pizza pies” or turnovers. Better be safe than forget how to divide fractions!

Pi Day!

As I’ve said before, Pi Day is a HUGE deal in my family. As everyone knows, it’s absolutely IMPERATIVE to eat pie on Pi Day if you expect to be able to do even the simplest math problems with ease. I personally suspect a lack of observance of this ancient tradition is the reason why so many people profess to “hate” math. And believe me, as someone who grew up going everywhere with a mom who wears an “I Love Math” pin every day, I have heard so many people claim to hate math. Or at least, a lot of the staff at the Seminole Publix. Oh what a slice of pie can fix!

I decided to make two pies, beef curry pot pie for dinner and chess pie for dessert. The beef curry pot pie recipe I saw about a week ago on foodgawker. I decided on chess pie after looking through one of my pie cook books (a past pi day present from my dad). I realized that though this is a Southern classic, I have never made it before! Natch I paired the filling from the book with my mom’s hereditary pie crust recipe!

So, after going over these three recipes, I made a massive grocery list, and then went through the kitchen crossing off things we already had:

Secret fact: I am pretty OCD about long grocery lists.


This step in the process was actually really good because I knew we had cornmeal and baking powder, but checking the cupboards revealed that both were pretty out of date! I’m not sure what happens with expired cornmeal, but I wouldn’t want to risk a tragic Pi Day case of food poisoning.

Curry Beef Pot Pie
This is called a pot pie, but it’s the looser version, a thick stew with a biscuit on top.

I probs should have taken more pictures of the process of making it, but I was hungry!

Chess Pie
Making the chess pie was pretty awesome because it only requires one crust as opposed to most pies I make which have both a top and a bottom. The only weird part about this is that my original pie crust recipe is for two pies, so I had to cut everything in fourths (luckily I ate my pie on Pi Day last year so this math was easy peasy). Unfortunately, this left me with things like “1/8 cup of water” and “1/4 of a beaten egg”. I definitely accidentally over-egged the crust by accident at one point, but adding extra flour seemed to make everything turn out okay by rolling time:

Rolling pin magic!


I also got to use my North Carolina pottery pie plate my mom gave me in preparation for last year’s Pi Day!

Pie definitely tastes better on pottery, extra tastiness if it is pretty!


The top of the filling ended up more brown than golden, but the inside was still tasty!

It is way tastier than it looks in this picture!


Steven made some whipped cream Steven style when he got home to go on top!

I think I would declare both these pies a resounding success!

Valentine’s Day v. Pi Day

So I meant to post this earlier this week, but I have been alternately busy and sick for a lot of it. Mostly I wanted to just share this picture of the awesome present I got from my dad on Valentine’s day:

Yay! A pi ice tray! Any drink tastes better when chilled with the best irrational number!

I am not really a fan of Valentine’s Day, I think because I’m always annoyed when people tell me how I should feel (that means you too, High School Pep Rallies). I remember one year telling someone about how I dislike Valentine’s Day when they asked about my plans and having them reply, “But now you have a boyfriend!” as if all my objections in previous years were a mask for my own bitterness at having FAILED AS A WOMAN through my inability to attract a mate. Sorry, team, but I am still opposed to needing commercialism as an excuse to be nice to someone whether I am alone or married to the CEO of Hallmark. At least birthdays and anniversaries have some kind of meaning outside of societal pressure! On the other hand, I am a big fan of baking things with pink frosting, so this has always been a moral/hungry dilemma.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure my dad sent me a pi ice tray, not so much for Valentine’s Day, but to pre-game Pi Day, which occurs exactly one month later on March 14. It is by far the most important day of the year in my family. At home, Valentine’s Day would often be forgotten entirely in the excitement and anticipation of Pi Day. It is even more important than Christmas and Talk Like A Pirate Day combined. If you don’t eat pie on Pi day, so the Ladd legend goes, you are CURSED to make careless math errors for the rest of the year. Doing taxes, calculating tips, paying bills, halving recipes, measuring anything… it would be TERRIBLE! Especially for my mom, who is a math teacher, and would probably have to quit her job! So we religiously observe Pi Day every year, exchanging small gifts of new protractors and calculators and solving festive word problems long into the night. I can’t wait! 23 more days!

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