What Does Your Favorite Pie Say About You?

I do love pie. And that’s one of the reasons I anticipate Thanksgiving Dinner.

As a boy, I was fed regular doses of berry pies — blackberry, blueberry and raspberry. And oh, my cheeks were stuffed with pumpkin and rhubarb. And the real treats were the cream pies, with a bent for banana and coconut. Mince meat? Forget it.

So naturally, I was glued to Parade magazine’s tribute to pie .

In the article, they revealed the fact that one in five Americans have eaten an entire pie by themselves. Shocked at this? Well, I’ve eaten a pie by myself – at one sitting.

“Pie makes people happy,” the article says. It’s true. Just say the word and I smile.

“Pie symbolizes everything we value: ingenuity, resilience, and a mother’s love.”

Pie takes me back. It takes me back to Grandma, with her perfect lattice top with crunchy bits of sugar sprinkled on the golden dough, hiding gooey apples.

It takes me back to dark winter nights and cold milk with crumbs on the chair after I left the table.

With smeared index cards, we try to relive those days. The ingredients are familiar to any cook, but the portions are customized with an alchemist precision. They are often protected, rarely duplicated. Success is marked by flour on the counter, flour on the kids and flour on the dog.

Parade also asked the question, “What does your favorite pie say about you?” The choices are apple, pecan, chocolate and pumpkin.

Who knows what psychologist they employed to analyze pie eaters, but here’s the summary.