National Pie Day

As some of you already know, I like to celebrate all the different national food days. I bought a calendar at the beginning of 2019 that lists them all and has cute little pictures on each day. Unfortunately it wasn't just for food, but I always Google the food days each month and mark them down in my planner if it's a food I really like. I got the calendar on Amazon and I was so sad they didn't have the same one for 2020, but I got a similar one for this year and I still love it! Also, if you've read my 'About Me' page on here (or just know me at all) you know my favorite thing to bake is pie. Obviously I'm celebrating National Pie Day today, but I wanted to use this blog post to highlight some of the pies I've made over the past few years. I ALWAYS make my pies from scratch. I don't believe in store bought pie crust (LOL) and I just feel pie tastes so much better if it's completely homemade. I learned how to bake pie by helping my Dad make them for Thanksgiving every year when I was younger. He would literally make 14+ different pies from scratch just for the occasion. Now I'm the one who brings the pie...but I usually only make one or two for each of the holidays. I have to say...my Dad brought store bought pies to Thanksgiving this past year and I felt a little piece of me die (ha ha). It was just very hard for me because I'm so used to him bringing so many homemade ones. At least I made one from scratch though!

1. Apple Pie

Apple is my absolute favorite type of pie and it's also my favorite to make. I make it all year round and it's the kind I made for National Pie Day today. It's also Jon's favorite. What's crazy is that he never ate pie at all until I started making some a few years ago and now he LOVES it! I think it's both of our favorite dessert...or ice cream...but luckily they go together so well! I always do double crust for apple pie, but for National Pie Day today I decided to do a single crust to switch it up.

2. Strawberry/Blueberry Pie

Fourth of July is my favorite holiday (it's why I got married two days before) and I saw this pie design/flavor online and knew I had to make it! It tasted just as good as it looked and I need to make one like this again. I should probably just make one every year for our anniversary and the holiday...YUM!

3. Peach

This was the first peach pie I made (and ate) and it was for National Peach Pie Day (of course). It turned out great! I like it ALMOST as much as apple. As you can see, I always like to put little designs on my pies and made a little peach on this one. I need to get more crafty with my pie crust designs since they're usually pretty basic.

4. Strawberry

I made this pie for my cousin's wedding. It was my first time making strawberry pie. I'm not a fan of the fake/gel-type strawberry pies, so I decided to make this just how I make any other fruit pie. It was kind of a fail and ended up not thickening up well at all. I now know why it's usually that gel-type filling. One day I'll redeem myself and make another one the right way. At least they looked pretty and apparently still tasted good!

5. Cranberry Apple Pie

I made one of these a couple years ago for Christmas Eve at my Gram's house, but the cranberries were a little too bitter for my taste. This year I redeemed myself and used frozen cranberries and it turned out so much better! Apples and cranberries mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg...it just screamed Christmas to me. I decided to do this tree design and I think it turned out really cute!

I did make a pecan pie for the first time over the holidays, but I didn't take a picture because I made the rookie mistake of not putting the pecans down into the crust first and then pouring the custard mix over top of them. However, it also still apparently tasted really good but just looked a little burnt on top. I'd like to redeem myself with that one as well. A lot of people have been asking me lately if I sell my pies. I hadn't ever given much thought to it until a few people asked recently and now I'm thinking I may need to consider it? I would also like to start branching out and doing other pies that aren't fruit, so maybe 2020 will be the year I do that. I can only go up from here!