The problem with trying to get a head start on packing up your life is that you forget to leave out what you might actually need before the big move. Like plates. And not the Xbox. Fortunately, I have a hoarder stash of plastic utensils that we’ve been using, but I got a little too excited in wrapping up all of our dishes in packaging paper…which means eating out of the pie pan that I decided to leave out for Thanksgiving. In case you were wondering, eating cake out of a pie dish does not make it taste like pie.

Moving day is tomorrow! Tonight marks our final night in our lovely apartment and my last night in the building where I’ve lived since college. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our road to either foreclosure or bankruptcy. Just kidding.

I’m not talking about literal poop, like the stuff that comes out of your butt. I’m talking about the emotional poop, where nothing is satisfactory, your clothes feel itchy and uncomfortable, you feel a headache coming on, you’re not hungry but you want to eat, your legs ache even though you’ve been sitting for the past 6 hours and all you want to do is sulk in the corner or roll around on the floor.

Yeah, that’s pretty much how I felt last night. I thought eating homemade guacamole would make me feel better, but that just made me want to eat more guacamole when I finished the entire bowl. The new episode of Lost made me feel even crankier because I couldn’t pay attention and now I’m really confused about what’s going on. I even baked a cherry pie, which allowed me to use my fancy new cherry pitter but that just made a different kind of cherry mess, and then I neglected to bake the pie on a pan so the whole kitchen was smoky with burnt sugar.

I used a squirrel-shaped cookie cutter on the leftover pie dough to decorate the top, but then I realized that I didn’t weave the lattice crust properly and as someone who likes to do things correctly and neatly, this just made things worse.

I really don’t know what the point of this post is. Oh well. I put lots of butter in the filling so hopefully it will taste good. I’m pretty sure I’m going to eat this whole thing tonight. No, you can’t have any.

Rob, my doctor-brother-in-law, came to town with my sister this weekend and since he took us out to dinner, I baked him a strawberry rhubarb pie by request. This was the first time I baked a fruit pie with zero help. ZERO. Usually I start whining about touching food and cold syrupy fruit where the bits of corn starch get stuck under my nails until B takes over, but he was busy playing some lame video game so I had to do this all by myself.

I think I’m getting better at making the crust all perfect.

Dropping bits of butter over the filling makes quite a difference.

I wish I could have eaten this pie all by myself, in a single sitting. With a good book. That would have been the best meal ever.

I am still on my “diet” which Lisa says I shouldn’t call a “diet” but a “lifestyle change” even though I honestly don’t have a lifestyle about eating fast food without any vegetables and whatever so maybe I should say “just say no to daily desserts lifestyle change” but I’m still managing to go to the gym most days of the week and actually kept myself from eating more than a tiny slice of this pie!

I totally lost track of what I was going to say in that last sentence.

My mother left for Japan earlier this week and requested a pecan pie to take to my dad, who was already there. So I tried the Browned Butter Pecan Pie, which was actually 10 times more delicious than a regular pecan pie. That stick of browned butter really makes a difference. I’ve never made a nut pie before. Even B ate a tiny bite, though he clearly doesn’t love me enough to try a whole slice. Sure, he hates nuts but love conquers all, right?

I pre-baked the crust a little too long, but I liked the book’s idea of roughly chopping up the pecans before mixing it all up, which makes the pie easier to slice and probably better to chew. Then again, I wouldn’t know. I only got to swallow a sliver.

Anyway, any ideas on what kind of pie I should bake next?

This is the berry pie I baked on Monday night for my dad. Unfortunately, I am on an actual diet where I cannot eat any sweets so I was not able to even TASTE this baked good. Since I didn’t get to, that meant B couldn’t either and my mom whisked it away whole the next morning.

Next time, I’ll be sure to use more blueberries, raspberries and blackberries because there weren’t enough from the 3-pack we got at the Farmer’s Market for a complete filling. I was worried the pie would look all deflated by the time it came out of the oven, but I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to puff up instead. I need to work on my crust edges though; I don’t understand how other people can make theirs all pretty and perfect.

I want pie so bad.

Diets are awful. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without a yummy, sugary snack all to myself.

I almost want to cry when I think about it (really hard).

Oh, and I also baked my very first classic lemon meringue pie. Dude, this pie was the most high maintenance thing EVER. Maybe I just thought you made the lemon custard and popped it into the oven, but noooo, it was like “PAY ATTENTION TO ME, ME ME ME ME ME ME. NO, YOU CAN’T WATCH THE LAST EPISODE OF THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ORANGE COUNTY. MAKE ME, STEP BY STEP. WE ARE NOT DONE.”

See, you have to fully pre-bake and then cool the pie crust, and THEN make the lemon custard (whisking constantly for about 8 minutes straight), and THEN immediately pour this into the baked pie crust and after THAT cools, THEN you have whip up the meringue.

Ugh. I’m used to just rolling out the crust, mixing up the fruit, plopping it in, topping it off, putting it into the oven, and then taking a nap.

My broiler is lame and very small, so I couldn’t properly brown the meringue on top. I also didn’t realize that you had the fully bake the crust first, so I had a moment of panic between starting the lemon custard and waiting for the pie to bake.

I think I just need to learn how to read a recipe all the way through first.

I’m getting super good with the pie crust, though. I think this one was my best yet!

Do you think I can bake a different pie each month? Up next…pecan pie!

We spent our Wednesday night prepping for Thanksgiving at my mom’s house. This meant bringing all of our spices, kitchen tools and whatevers over AND also baking our pies. Usually we only bake one pie because waste not, want not or something like that, right?

But B insisted on baking “the best pumpkin pie ever” which turned out to be the recipe on the back of Libby’s Canned Pumpkin, while I wanted to try (again) The Best Pumpkin Pie which had been tested and tried by the chefs at Cook’s Illustrated. Hey, I made it last year and no one complained. In fact, I remember watching a certain someone eating a WHOLE LOTTA PIE last year and not having a problem with it. (Just kidding, that’s a different pumpkin pie.)

So here we came up with the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie Challenge of 2008. I think we’re pretty much at a tie right now since both pies were eaten equally last night and we’re waiting on the tie-breaker (my brother-in-law) to come up and see which one he likes better.

Here’s why mine (on the left) will win:

• It’s been tested to be the best by real chefs (not some can).
• It’s made with real cream, and not canned evaporated milk.
• It’s darker and therefore, more gourmet and authentic looking.
• It has nutmeg in it, which gives it a better, spicier taste.
• My crust (from scratch) is prettier! I actually took the time to mold my edges.
• I didn’t poke mine TWICE when it came out of the oven.
• It’s made by a girl.
• I saw B spit and fart in his before putting it in the oven.
• I honestly think mine tastes better.

Where’s Tom Colicchio when you need him to judge?

This is so weird. It’s not bad, because we are all allowed to have differences and this is what makes humans so great, but really? Pie? WOW. How can you NOT like pie? I love pie. Even cow pies. I mean, cow pies are amazing. Can you imagine being an animal where you basically have diarrhea every time you poop–which all harden into a pie?

And it may seem like I don’t know anything about cows, but I once went to Farm Camp up in Cazadero, CA and I saw all the cows poop all the time, and it looked (and smelled) just like diarrhea pies. Mmmm, pie.

Therefore, I’d like to take a lazy poll and find out how many people like pie. What’s a lazy poll? A lazy poll is where I don’t incorporate some sort of new-fangled javascript whatever poll/survey thing where you can click on a button to say YES I LIKE PIE or NO I HATE PIE and I can get actual statistics on the responses.

No, you just have to respond with yes or no, and maybe a reason why (or why not) and your favorite kind of pie.

My favorite kind of pie right now is CHERRY, all thanks for the June (or May?) cover of Bon Appetit, which featured a sour cherry pie on their cover. Except my pies weren’t really sour. They were just really sweet.