The first time I made pie it was for Thanksgiving 1998, I was all of 12 years old and wanted to try to my hand at my Aunt Alice’s apple pie. I got such a kick out of realizing it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought and although it wasn’t as beautiful as my aunt’s pies always are, it was delicious! And I did it!

Fast forward roughly three years. I attended a small private school and in December of my freshman year of high school we had a baked goods contest. Truthfully at this point, I don’t recall if the contest had a purpose or why we were doing it, but I do remember what I entered. I entered a cherry pie with a lattice crust. The judges were thrilled with both how it looked and tasted and I won first prize! Not only that, but one of the judges couldn’t stop telling me how thrilled he was to be allowed to take it home and even suggested I could sell that pie.

I continued to bake and hone many skills in the kitchen, specifically pie. Pie has always been my favorite dessert. We even had pie instead of cake at our wedding in 2012!