3.14 PI day...What kind of pie are you making?

Friday, March 14, 2015is 3.1415 and PI day or as the way I like t think of it -  PIE day. What kind of PIE are you making? Try one of mine, here are two of our favorites. Both of these pies are old, family recipes. What kind of pie do you like to make? My husbands' family loves desserts, and his dad refused to leave the table without one! Treat your family and try one of mine!

Chocolate Pecan Pie --rich, chocolaty and full of nuts, so good with vanilla ice cream! View the recipe here :

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Or try some lemon chess pie, another family favorite and a recipe that has been in our family for many, many years:

You can check out the recipe and the history HERE

Lemon Chess Pie

Not my greatest picture, the pie is actually dark golden brown on the top and rich yellow underneath. The thing that really matters is that it is absolutely delicious! Very lemony and tart, with just enough sweetness. A favorite family story is one time when my husbands' grandmother, who everyone called Maw, made a mistake and left out the sugar in the recipe. When the pie was served and everyone was choking down the first bite, Maw smiled and said, "I like it tart, don't you?"

Fearless, just like Julia Child! 

Lemon Chess Pie

As you may have noticed, I like pie and I like to make them. Here is another one of my familys' favorites. It is from a very old recipe, passed down to my mother in law, from her mother in law. To keep that in perspective, and show how old this is, my mom in law will be 90 in December (I think she's proud of that, as she should be!). This pie fits the bill for lemony sweetness and once again, as I've said before, it's easy as pie. Check out the direction for "butter the size of an egg" -- that's exactly the way it was written when given to my mother in law from hers!

Lemon Chess Pie

1 unbaked pie crust

3 eggs

butter "the size of an egg" (about 1/2 stick)

1 tsp. + 1 T. flour

juice of 1 1/2 lemons

grated rind or the "zest" of 1 lemon *

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs and sugar together. Add softened butter, flour, lemon juice and lemon zest. Pour into the prepared pie shell. Bake for 35 minutes.

*Cooks note: Make sure to zest only the yellow part of your lemon. The white part is bitter. A microplane rasp works really well for this. This adds great lemon flavor to your pie, so don't leave it out!