Why We Blog
My friend Jill is a gorgeous, sassy, accomplished, articulate friend (and fellow pie baker) who asked my advice on her new blog. She was feeling insecure and deflated after her husband so generously offered his opinion. “My husband thinks blogging is a waste of time.” In fact, her husband feels so strongly, and so negatively, about this […]
Murals Make a Difference
My brother, Mike, is the coolest. He runs a non-profit business called Operation Clean Slate in Southern California, where he paints murals with school kids to fight graffiti. Or as he calls it, a “campus beautification program.” The premise is that kids — or taggers, as graffiti vandals are called — want recognition, even if […]
Pie: Agent of Change
My friends Stacy and James from Portland, Oregon visited me at the American Gothic House two weeks ago. It was my second weekend of business with the Pitchfork Pie Stand and immediately upon their arrival in Eldon I put them to work on the pie production line. They were naturals, falling in love with pie […]
Pie Heals. Just When You Think it Doesn’t
Pie heals. Pie heals. Pie heals. Pie heals. Pie heals. How many more times do I have to keep saying this? And how many more pies do I have to make before I heal? According to my calculations I’ve made 231 pies in the 14 and a half months since Marcus died. And yet there […]
Baking Pies (& Taking Pics) at Better Homes & Gardens
On Saturday I was in the shower and looked down at my chest where I saw what looked like a small-but-dead black bug. After a second glance I realized, no, it was not an insect. It was a false eyelash that had come unglued from my eyelid. The sight made me laugh, in a disbelieving […]
Apple Pie on the 4th of July
Forget fireworks, sparklers, BBQs or even S’mores. This Fourth of July was all about pie! More accurately, it was about escaping the city to spare Team Terrier the terror of all those celebratory explosions. After attending a small, impromptu barbeque on July 3, and seeing my dogs cower with fear as the neighbor kids set […]
Or, Perhaps, The World Does NOT Need More Pie!
I promised I would not succumb to vanity, so here you see what eating too much pie looks like. My belly was so bloated from a weekend-long pie binge, my friend Alison thought we should take before and after measurements. What you see is two inches added to my normal 31-inch waist. And this is […]
When Life Gives You Mud, Make Mud Pie!
It’s official. June 2010 now lays claim to the wettest June in Portland, Oregon’s history. And the month is only half over. I’m sick of the rain. Sick of the mud. And, in fact, I’m sick — with bronchitis. It’s no wonder! This time last year I was living in Terlingua, Texas where (sun-drenched) daytime […]
My Pie Memoir: Chapter One
I spent last summer in Texas working on my pie memoir. I was half way through it when Marcus died. The time stamp on my Word document shows the last day I worked on the manuscript was August 18, 2009, 6:04 pm. The next morning I got The Phone Call, telling me Marcus was gone. […]
A Birthday Card for Peter Schoenfeld
Dear Peter,Happy 50th Birthday! I hope you are eating some birthday cake pie to celebrate your special day. I’ve been meaning to tell you how impressed I was with your very first pie. Thanks for sending the pictures. Your rhubarb pie looks delicious and your food photography shows great promise too. And while I admire […]