What are you making for Pi Day?

[jsmeeker]

It's less than a week away! What kind of pie should I make to celebrate?

Since it's a weekday, I'll want something I can make in advance. Probably Tuesday night. So, something pretty simple.

(for more information on Pi Day, check out the Wiki entry..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day

)

[srhcb]

I, for one, am going to bake an apple pie in a 9" x 9" pan.

Pie are squared, you know?

SB

[ludja]

This is such a fun idea; I'm adding it to my list of special menu days!

Apple or Pear Pie jump to mind first this time of year. (Pear and Ginger pie is excellent) but I guess you could also look to a citrus chiffon-type pie if you want a lighter, brighter taste. I'm not sure if meringue pies hold up as well the next day.

I think my choice this time of year though, would be coconut custard pie or coconut cream pie!

(I really like making thesepies (and also coconut cakes) with fresh coconut. The prep work can easily be broken down over several days in terms of cleaning and grating the coconut in preparation for the pie.)

(There is a funny link in that article which also mentions Mole Day in honor of Avogadro's Number. I think I'd rather cook "pi" than moles... )

Edited March 8, 2007 by ludja (log)

[Carrot Top]

I try to avoid mathematics as much as possible but isn't Pi an infinite number?

If so, I think you should start baking one pie on the day itself and then never stop, continuing on with at least a pie a day.

Or, to do it really right, maybe you should proceed forward into time with the numeric pattern of Pi as your constant. Make three pies the first day, one pie the second, four the next day and so on and so forth, for the rest of your life.

I rather like that idea.

[jsmeeker]

I, for one, am going to bake an apple pie in a 9" x 9" pan.

Pie are squared, you know?

SB 

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I love it.

[Carrot Top]

If I were pi-prone, I would make a blueberry pie. Round or square. Or maybe even free-form just to accentuate how mathematic other sorts of pies actually are. It would be a pie with a top crust and a bottom crust, and the top crust would be decorated with cut-out pastry numbers. 3's, 1's, and 4's. Well-glazed of course, to make the numbers attractive rather than scary, which can so often be the case with numbers.

When it was time to cut and serve the pi pie, there would be a contest held among whomever was eating it to count the berries they had been served (by sheer luck of the draw and cut of the knife - no math controls there) and the person with the number of berries closest to 31.4 would win a prize. Like a nice protractor kit or something.

Afterwards we would play pick-up-sticks while using the sticks we picked up to hit the edges of the glasses of our perfectly measured-out pousse-cafes, trying to create the best little drum-riff in any three-point-one-four second period of time.

Mwah ha ha ha ha.

Edited March 8, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[miladyinsanity]

Karen, you're absolutely nuts! (coming from me, that's a compliment--see username *g*)

I was going to make tarts. But I think I'm going to go for pie instead.

[Carrot Top]

Karen, you're absolutely nuts! (coming from me, that's a compliment--see username *g*)

I was going to make tarts. But I think I'm going to go for pie instead.

←

It's the best way to be, don't you think May miladyinsanity?

Actually nut tartlets would be nice. Using sliced almonds baked in tartlet tins with a pecan-pie type-base as binder but lighter. I bet thirty one point four sliced almonds would fit into an average tartlet tin.

Nut tartlets would be appropriate to serve to people who think math is nuts anyway.

Edited March 9, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[miladyinsanity]

Karen, you're absolutely nuts! (coming from me, that's a compliment--see username *g*)

I was going to make tarts. But I think I'm going to go for pie instead.

←

It's the best way to be, don't you think May miladyinsanity?

Actually nut tartlets would be nice. Using sliced almonds baked in tartlet tins with a pecan-pie type-base as binder but lighter. I bet thirty one point four sliced almonds would fit into an average tartlet tin.

Nut tartlets would be appropriate fto serve to people who think math is nuts anyway.

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Absolutely.

Nut tartlets...

Okay, pate sablee crust with ground almonds or hazelnuts, almond frangipane, some fruit to cut the richness (pears?), pie crust with florentine layer on top?

Hm... I think this takes us all the from more-ishness to Too Much ness.

[srhcb]

Hm... I think this takes us all the from more-ishness to Too Much ness.

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I, for one, ain't done yet!

Afterall: "Pi is an irrational number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. " - from the unofficial pi day site where you can learn all about pi and enter to win a pi t-shirt!

SB (seems to me like some kind of Greek pie would be appropriate?)

[Carrot Top]

Okay, pate sablee crust with ground almonds or hazelnuts, almond frangipane, some fruit to cut the richness (pears?), pie crust with florentine layer on top?

Hm... I think this takes us all the from more-ishness to Too Much ness.

←

Yes, infinitely Too Much ness, I agree. The only almond tart recipe I really like is from Alice Waters. Very simple, not oversweet. But the problem with that recipe is that in order to get 31.4 almond slices per portion, it would have to be made as a long rectangular tart and cut into giant size pieces.

Like, maybe the size of a salad plate.

(A square salad plate of course. Let's not lose our balance here by thinking in the round. )

[Pontormo]

In honor of Brooks, I'm gonna pull out the 8 x 8 and bake me a cake!

[miladyinsanity]

I've a recipe for Lindsey Shere's Almond Tart. Pie crust, and a nut filling made with cream and sliced unblanched. I may make this.

Wonderful. I'll be able to eat my way out of my wardrobe in less than a week flat.

[Carrot Top]

I've a recipe for Lindsey Shere's Almond Tart. Pie crust, and a nut filling made with cream and sliced unblanched. I may make this.

Wonderful. I'll be able to eat my way out of my wardrobe in less than a week flat.

←

That sounds good. And clothes shopping is always fun.

I've been longing for a lemon curd tart myself but would then have to find fresh redcurrants to top it in order to fit the pi-size requirements that have now filled my mind. This is so satisfying. Hmm. I may just take to meditation and hum "piiiiiii, piiiiiiii," instead of "ohmmm. . . "

[Carrot Top]

SB (seems to me like some kind of Greek pie would be appropriate?)

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Are you quite sure that the idea of Pi is Greek? Sometimes these things turn out to be ancient Sumerian or something, instead. It would be wrong to make a Greek pie where an Ancient Sumerian pie would be more historically accurate.

Because I went to your recommended Pi Day site and clicked on "Learn about Pi" and this is what it said:

We're still working on this area. Let us know what you'd like to learn about and we'll try to cover it.

Probably they were too busy turning around in circles 3.14 times each minute to have the time to tell just anyone who happened to click on the site any information.

[Pontormo]

SB (seems to me like some kind of Greek pie would be appropriate?)

←

Are you quite sure that the idea of Pi is Greek? Sometimes these things turn out to be ancient Sumerian or something, instead. It would be wrong to make a Greek pie where an Ancient Sumerian pie would be more historically accurate.

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Apparently, you are right to question the significance of the Greek letter which is traced to a William Jones in 1706, suggesting perhaps the appropriateness of steak & kidney pie--depending on the mathematician's nationality.

However, for those of you who do not recognize the wisdom of a birthday cake, I would turn your attention to Yann Martel, the winner of the Man Booker Prize, and suggest either ingredients or decorations resembling hyena, orangutan, a wounded zebra and/or a Bengal tiger.

[srhcb]

Are you quite sure that the idea of Pi is Greek?

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You never heard of Ο Π?

SB (first, peel 6-8 ripe Omicrons)

[Carrot Top]

However, for those of you who do not recognize the wisdom of a birthday cake, I would turn your attention to Yann Martel, the winner of the Man Booker Prize, and suggest either ingredients or decorations resembling hyena, orangutan, a wounded zebra and/or a Bengal tiger.

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Thank you for mentioning a story, something to read. I am eternally grateful to you for freeing my mind from absorption and contraction by the all-powerful Pi.

I love your idea. A cake made to look like a raft, with marzipan figures of Pi himself laying prone on the surface, surrounded by the animals (if indeed that's what they "be" ). Fantastic. And I would only need three assistants to produce this, as I would be willing to do .14 percent of the work involved.

You never heard of ? ??

SB (first, peel 6-8 ripe Omicrons)

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Thank goodness my mind is uncluttered by excess or advanced schooling. Never heard of that.

Do you mean this guy? It would be difficult for me to peel six or eight ripe ones like him. Maybe Pontormo would help me.

[Kouign Aman]

I, for one, am going to bake an apple pie in a 9" x 9" pan.

Pie are squared, you know?

SB 

←

Since that idea's already surfaced, I'll just have to outline and bake two, because 2pir (two pie are).

[dividend]

If I were pi-prone, I would make a blueberry pie. Round or square. Or maybe even free-form just to accentuate how mathematic other sorts of pies actually are. It would be a pie with a top crust and a bottom crust, and the top crust would be decorated with cut-out pastry numbers. 3's, 1's, and 4's. Well-glazed of course, to make the numbers attractive rather than scary, which can so often be the case with numbers. 

When  it was time to cut and serve the pi pie, there would be a contest held among whomever was eating it to count the berries they had been served (by sheer luck of the draw and cut of the knife - no math controls there) and the person with the number of berries closest to 31.4 would win a prize. Like a nice protractor kit or something. 

Afterwards we would play pick-up-sticks while using the sticks we picked up to hit the edges of the glasses of our perfectly measured-out pousse-cafes, trying to create the best little drum-riff in any three-point-one-four second period of time.

Mwah ha ha ha ha.   

←

The idea of this made my day. I'm still at work at 5pm on a Friday, and I was grumpy about it, but this makes everything better somehow.

Actually, seeing as how I have a PI tattoo, this whole thread is like a party.

[kitwilliams]

A Pi Limerick:

A favorite project of mine,

A new value of Pi to assign.

I would set it at three

For it's simpler, you see,

Than three-point-one-four-one-five-nine.

my time is almost up (i'm at Heathrow)

someone write a new pi/pie limerick....

[miladyinsanity]

I've a recipe for Lindsey Shere's Almond Tart. Pie crust, and a nut filling made with cream and sliced unblanched. I may make this.

Wonderful. I'll be able to eat my way out of my wardrobe in less than a week flat.

←

That sounds good. And clothes shopping is always fun.

I've been longing for a lemon curd tart myself but would then have to find fresh redcurrants to top it in order to fit the pi-size requirements that have now filled my mind. This is so satisfying. Hmm. I may just take to meditation and hum "piiiiiii, piiiiiiii," instead of "ohmmm. . . "

←

I may settle for this. This is what I've been wanting to make. Lemon Curd! Yummy! And I have no nutty things in my pantry.

This thread is great!

What is the value of mini - pi, anybody know? I don't have a regular sized pie/tart pan.

[Carrot Top]

Actually, seeing as how I have a PI tattoo, this whole thread is like a party.

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A pi tattoo? That's very cool!

someone write a new pi/pie limerick....

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That would be a tough limerick to top, it is so musical! But I'll add a Pi Story . . .

What is the value of mini - pi, anybody know? I don't have a regular sized pie/tart pan.

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Heh. I've heard good things come in little packages. Mini-pi may be of great value.

..................................................................

Here's a story to pass the time -

Pi Rules

Pia reached the door of her apartment panting with exhaustion. The twenty pounds of pickles she'd carried up four flights of stairs had left her feeling rather pissed off, but still she was very much looking forward to preparing for the meeting of the Pious Pi Club that was having their annual gathering in her home tonight. There was still so much to be done. She brushed past the ping-pong table rented for the occasion that filled most of her living room and wondered again at how thirty one people and one large St.Bernard dog (borrowed for the evening from a neighbor, to make up the neccesary "point four" that the scene required) ever managed to fit in there, but they had been doing this for the past four years now, and intended to go on doing it for the next twenty-seven years, with the last party being held .415 of a year later. Now that party would be some bash, she thought, and wondered if Pippin, that cute guy from Picadilly Circus, would still make her feel pins-and-needles when she looked at him for more than 3.14 seconds. Not for the first time, Pia (whose specialty was the co-joined studies of glands and numbers) mused again at Pi and the function of the pituitary gland. That subject could keep her happily entertained for hours!

The pickles were now safely ensconced on the triangular pie-table near the end of one of the three grouped sofas. How perfect it looked, the huge jug making a solid presence hinting at "just that bit more than three", architecturally, which actually made Pia's heart skip a beat with the sheer visual pleasure of it, so delightfully underlined for the casual eye with such mathematical precision.

Reaching into the antique pie-safe she'd sponge-painted, Pia pushed the swing of her shiny caramel-colored asymmetrical-cut hair behind her ears. Time to really get busy. The Pinochle game had to be set up (she herself preferred Parcheesi but the group had voted that Parcheesi was just a game where a lot of excess letters had gotten in-between the beauty of a "P" and "I" and that the notion was disturbing, so the idea had been voted down), the pickup sticks specially ordered from a group of Tibetan monks whose previous careers had been as mathematicians needed to be arranged at each place of the tables set in the dining room, and of course the food needed to be finished and set out. With a sigh, Pia pushed an Edith Piaf CD into the player. "La Vie en Rose". The energy of the little songbird's passion filled Pia with determination and resolve. With a deep breath, she approached the kitchen.

Most of the food had been brought earlier for re-heating. One good thing about Pi-lovers is that they were darn organized! None of this last-minute dashing-around nonsense. Things were Done Right. She started to remove things from the refrigerator.

The chicken piccata was placed on the counter as she heated the oven for re-heating. Whoever had brought it had added pignoli nuts, she noted! Lovely! A soupe au pistou was put on a slow burner to warm. Ah! Pierogis! She hoped there were enough. Thirty-one pierogis never seemed to last too long with this group. The chilled whole pike stuffed with pistachios, with its Pilsner glaze, shimmered enchantingly. Pia momentarily wondered if that guy with the pica disorder, who never ate at these parties, would be tempted by it, for it was truly glorious. The pita breads were arranged on a large golden platter, so much meaning in the circumference and diameter of each circle, each line, every single one of them. An enormous tray of picadillo accompanied by pilaf was next to be added to the countertop to await the oven's warmth. Cindy, who had been a chef before her second career as a famous piano-tuner, had made a Pithiviers of pigeon, with little numbers carved into the round surface of the pastry. 3, 1, 4, 5, 9. Pia felt her heart lurch from the sheer beauty of it, and a tear of joy escaped to trickle down her cheek. She added her own contribution, a pineapple upside-down cake, perfectly square, and hoped that everyone would realize that it also demonstrated Newtonian Principle. A quick little smirk lit her face, thinking of how she would inform them all of this fact at dessert-time.

Soon enough, all was ready. Pia prepared to greet her guests. She was wearing her usual costume of a Pirate, and wondered how they would dress this year. The door was opened with loud happy greetings over and over again, after the guest would tattoo three loud knocks and one small one. "Piacere!" they shouted as they entered.

Soon Pia was surrounded by her peers. A piranha, tottering slightly sideways with the heaviness of his costume, had slid through the door. Picasso was over by the bar, pouring absinthe into three small glasses. A pixie watched him, laughing gleefully. The Pillsbury Doughboy was wedged into a chair, grunting something about the three extra pounds he'd gained after giving up cigarettes. Most of the guests were out on the piazza, poking at the pinata, which this year had been made to look like a pimp.

"Pianissimo!" Pia called. "Time to eat!"

"Piffle," the pixie responded. "Pi-time is always play time."

The party was glorious. The numbers and circles and squares flowed through the conversation and the food, making a pleasant time for all. The foods were all enjoyed, and everyone had left but Pippin. Pia smiled at him, a little gleam of hope rising in her throat (and, admittedly, various other places). Would he think to kiss her three times very hard, then once more lightly, then four times in tiny little pecks, then one more time hard then five tiny pecks finished by nine little licks perhaps? She turned towards him.

"What was your favorite food tonight, Pippin?" she smilingly asked, turning her face framed by its asymmetrical haircut up towards his very round face, nicely framed with a perfectly trimmed square haircut. She'd always liked redheaded men, against the advice of her redheaded girlfriends, who had warned her against them for some vague unknown reason. "Too mischievious," was all they usually would say when asked why.

Pippin paused, turning his head just the slightest bit sideways as he looked down at Pia. "Well . . you know . . . I think it was that pizza someone brought."

Pia turned away, her hopes dashed. Pizza. The man preferred pizza. She could not ever love this man, she knew. Pizza. What a mess, in all ways.

But as she showed him out the door, she clicked her tongue against her teeth three times. Tsk tsk tsk. After all, there were many Pi parties left to go to in the coming years. And that, of course, was what really mattered.

Edited March 11, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[srhcb]

someone write a new pi/pie limerick....

←

How about a haiku?

mystery of math

no one can calculate pi

though we all eat pie

SB

[Catherine Iino]

Pineapple tart in a pignoli crust?