It was so successful that Paige held her third annual apple pie party in October. You'll learn about the winners later in this story. Meanwhile, sit back and salivate.
Guests drove in the rain from as far as Baltimore, laying 18 luscious pies at Paige's feet.
There were apple-cranberry, apple-walnut, and apple-brandy pies; pies with homemade crusts enriched with cream cheese, buttermilk powder, and even tapioca; pies with frozen crusts by Pillsbury and Marie Callender; pies with top crusts that were puffy, cross-hatched or crumbly; and fillings made with McIntoshes, Winesaps, Golden Delicious, Gala and Pink Ladies.
There were pints of ice cream for the รก la mode portion of the evening and tins of real whipped cream for anyone feeling bereft of caloric opportunities.
With apologies to Sara Lee, nobody doesn't like apple pie. We associate mom with apple pie. In High Hopes, Frank Sinatra sang of "high in the sky, apple pie, hopes." And there are even three apple-pie-lovers groups on facebook.com
If everyone at Paige's party was telling the truth, I was the only person there who ever lied about making a homemade apple pie.
(It was a lie of omission, if you must know. I bought a frozen Sara Lee, baked it at home, and brought it to a family gathering. When other guests marveled at my apple pie, I simply smiled and said, "Thanks.")
Is that so awful?
Plenty of people at Paige's party admitted to frozen crust.
Megan Collier of Norristown used Pillsbury roll-out dough. It was her first ever attempt at pie-making, and for the filling she used a recipe her mother took from a 1974 McCalls cookbook. Mom supervised the effort, Collier said, so, thanks, Mom!
Another first-time baker, Don Cope of East Falls, also called his mother for advice. She's 91.
