Flashback Fridays: Great American Pie Month

Apple Pie Jam, you say? Okay, we'll let you squeak this one in…

Holy moly – did you know that February is Great American Pie Month? Or that Pie has been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians? Or that the Romans published the first pie recipe for a rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie? Well neither did I until I stumbled upon The American Pie Council's website.

Peach Cobbler is a type of "top-crust" pie.

This web site is chock full of information about pies, and their origins, and I must admit, I immediately got sucked into their Pie Fun Facts sheet! Some of my favorites include:

Nearly 1 out of 5 (19%) Americans prefer apple pie, followed by pumpkin (13%), pecan (12%), banana cream (10%) and cherry (9%).
75 million – the number of Americans who prefer to drink milk with their pie.
More than one-third of Americans have eaten pie in bed.
Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was named the “American Pie.”
The wet bottom molasses pie, Shoo-fly pie, was used to attract flies from the kitchen. (GROSS!)

This is what happens when your kids help you make a "two-crust" pie – lots of patches!

Just in case you were wondering what actually constitutes a pie, I snagged a pretty thorough explanation from Wikipedia:

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients.

Pies are defined by their crusts. Flaky pastry is a typical kind of pastry used for pie crusts, but many things can be used, including baking powder biscuits, mashed potatoes, and crumbs.

A filled pie (also single-crust or bottom-crust), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry, but left open.
A top-crust pie, which may also be called a cobbler, has the filling in the bottom of the dish and the filling covered with a pastry or other covering before baking.
A two-crust pie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell.