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When everyone got into baking early covid I couldn’t understand why no one was baking anything, like, good. No pizza or pie or cake or muffins or banana bread or even a damn focaccia. The world collectively just decided the end-all be-all of baking was… sourdough.

When I graduated from university, my dad had just died, my mom had cancer, and there was no employment for a year. I made a lot of pies and got really good at making crusts. Yep, it was always great when I brought in a real pie, homemade.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

What a wonderful way to keep your wife's memory alive.

Yes, me too. Reading the caveat "– and she would give each pie away" made a lot more sense.

It's a social commitment at least as much as a creative/culinary one, and since there aren't a lot of people you'd want to give a pie minus a slice to, that keeps the extra calories under control.

Do I exercise and eat healthy?

"Yes, I am in shape (round is a shape)"

A friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success).

half way there, now you just have to find the frictionless vacuum

Eating enough pie could help with that

The pie calculation for spherical you would be 3*volume / 4*radius^3.

Similarly, just showing up at the gym/hobby/sport is huge. Even if you do next to nothing.

Yeah, doing a small thing daily can add up so fast.

When I started my niche-musueums.com website I bootstrapped it by posting a new museum I had been to every day for a month. It took 15-30 minutes a day and within a few weeks I had a site I was really proud of.

I think the key is to give yourself permission to stop without feeling guilty about it. Any time I start a new streak like this I deliberately tell myself that it's not going to be forever and I can stop any time for any reason.

It's basically a form of meditation. It's a great way to get your life back on track

Why didn't you just ask the women in your family what they did to make them? It shouldn't take 30 attempts to get a basic flatbread recipe to be edible. It's not like all the women in your family devised recipes on their own - they just watched other women make them and learned how to do it that way.

What does that have to do with the article? It is not about 'the most life changing thing for everyone', it was what was life changing for her.

The point of the pies was the connections it forced her to make with people in her life and then ultimately strangers. Finding 365 people to give pies to is probably harder than baking them all.

Taking a walk alone would be missing the main point.

My grandma made Platonically Ideal Pies, and I took up the art years ago. Mine, if I say so myself, are quite good, given that with Grandma's example I know what I'm shooting for.

I haven't made one for a few years, though - having a pie in my house is a recipe for me eating 5000 calories of pie and vanilla ice cream over the next few days.

When my grandma died a few years ago, I asked my aunts if I could have one of her pie pans. Apparently none of her other 17 grandkids thought to ask that - so I got all three (philistines!). Those basic metal pans are among my most cherished possessions.

My "pie" is barbecue ribs. I've made them many, many times, and I've never eaten them all by myself.

Once I fed about 20 friends--one of the best days I've lived.

Do it! Making a pie might seem unapproachable, but it will all work out. I have never failed to make a pie that brought some happiness into the world.

Even broader, honestly. Make something culinary! It's amazing what the simple tactile experience of making something can bring when so much of our existence is doing things by proxy.

I did this recently, and you know what I really loved about it? It's a great entry-level baking activity where the upside is that you have a pie (something you can gift or just eat!) and the downside is that you have a sort of cobbler. You really can't !@#$ up a pie. Omelette is another good one. At worse you have scrambled eggs.

I mean, yes, at worse you burn your neighbourhood down and your dog runs away. But in terms of the more likely failure modes like screwing up the dough, breaking it, messing up how watery it is, etc. you can mostly just keep baking until it's done, mix it up, put into bowls, serve with ice cream, down the hatch.

I already did for October, November (twice), and December. Does that count?

She is obviously a sweet lady that you would like to have as a neighbor. But I would not include garden variety pie in the wholesome category. The indulgence won't kill you, but it isn't healthy. Apples from her backyard tree are wholesome.

If you just place the pie to cool on your window sill, the smell will cause some nearby hobos to float over, or so cartoons have lead me to believe. Then you'll have some friends.

Friends are always attainable via purchase.

Do you have neighbors?

There's still time, my friend. Keep it up.

Between "The Guardian" and it being a warm/fuzzy-type story, I'd read that as "fresh local ingredients when available".

Vs. too many pies have fillings straight out of a can.

I mean, the first pie was in California, per the text right before that. She was visiting family.

I am hearing rumors that B2B sales is rebounding back to more in-person meetings. Cold emails don't work anymore. I've heard similar tales of current teens early-twenties that there is a trend of doing things in real life again. But... more likely if you start measuring it people are more reclusive than ever, and doing things that used to be normal is now considered "niche and trendy". Our sales process at least is very online-meeting oriented...

Waffle House pecan pie can hit the spot. ... cup of black coffee, damn fine.

Some people find meaning in ways other than the prestige of their employer.

Software developer isn't a very prestigious title either. The only thing it has going for it is the pay.