Pi-ku for today:
Pi r squared say some
Pies are round with flaky crust
I don’t diet
As you may remember from Euclidean geometry, Pi, Greek letter (
), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. When a circle’s diameter is 1, its circumference is 3.1415926535… Pi is an example of an irrational number meaning that it cannot be expressed in fraction form using integers. In decimal form it never ends or repeats. Since Pi equals roughly 3.14, Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th.
Luckily, this is the perfect excuse to take culinary liberty with the homonymy of “pi’ and “pie” and celebrate Pi Day with pie. Matt’s fifth grade class did just this today, so he and I paid homage to pi by baking apple pies. If you’re really into it, you eat your pie at 3:14 on Pi Day. You might even want to purchase one of these Pi Day Pie Plates. Me, I just like pi(e)!
I love to bake pies on any day, but it was fun to do this because Matt and I both like math–for which I offer no excuses–and we both like to cook. Renee’s suspicions notwithstanding, we didn’t contemplate the circumference of our 9″ diameter pie plates while we were baking. Although it would have been an interesting mental exercise. No, really, it would!
Matt helped with everything: peeling and slicing the apples, measuring and mixing ingredients, rolling out the crust, and of course, making sure the apples were seasoned just right. I was proud of the way he wanted to try to do everything and that he asked me to make pies with him in the first place. His teacher and classmates were impressed and offered many compliments.
Pi(e) Day also gave me an opportunity to talk with Matt about food. I’m currently reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. It’s a fantastic book that should be required reading in every school and household in America. In it, Pollan discusses the disappearance of real food from our tables and opens wide the kimonos of the government and the food industry to examine how we have been pushed to forgo whole foods in favor of convenient “healthy” alternatives that are appallingly unhealthy. Our health as a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats–even fruits–from our daily meals. Of course, there are many factors to consider, but Pollan’s arguments are dead-on in my opinion.
As I explained the importance of eating more whole foods and fewer processed foods, Matt asked what processed foods were. Our pies were the perfect vehicle to illustrate the difference: a short list of ingredients, nothing difficult to pronounce or chemical sounding. Had our pies been mass produced, I explained, they would have required preservatives and contained chemicals and ingredients that don’t sound like food. If someone offered me butylated hydroxyanisole I don’t think I’d be clambering for a taste, but check the labels and you’ll find BHA in everything from cereals and chewing gum to potato chips and vegetable oil. I also wanted him to realize that if a packaged food goes out of its way to tout a health benefit, it’s probably not a benefit at all. I want him to think about what he eats and appreciate the craft of cooking.
It was a great way to spend an evening with my son. The wholesomeness of baking from scratch offers an inherent pleasure in enjoying the fruits of your labor; things taste decidedly better when you’ve made them with your own hands. Besides, it’s fun.
We ended up making three pies, one of which Matt took to class. We also had enough apples left over to make Matt his own special little dessert.
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great pi day entry. it looks like everyone made pies during this snowy week. my baby is too little to make pies with me so I made little pies for her.
I thought you were supposed to eat your pi(e) at 1:59. Ah well, pie is pie.
I always found cooking with my son to be really conducive to good conversation about all sorts of things. Hands and part of the brain occupied = good flow of thought. Even now that he’s a big guy and out of the house, I think he calls me up with cooking questions more than anything. Well, except asking for money, but you know.
Great pie Matt!
Gina, Noah and Grandma made pies for pi(e) day too!! Everyone in Gina’s class was impressed that they actually MADE the pies, rather than buying them. Who buys pies, it’s like buying Christmas cookies, anyway, good job!
love ya’ Aunt Suzanne
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