I celebrated Pi(e) Day

Never Done: Celebrate Pi(e) Day

After rehearsing to sing in a Yiddish choir in a Purimshpil (Purim play) which I had never done before, and then going to a beautiful memorial for Judy Socolov, z"l, I came home to either crawl into bed and sleep, or to go back out to Ariel and Logan's apartment to celebrate Pi(e) Day, with -- what else? -- tons of pie!

Honestly, as excited as I was about Pi(e) Day, I felt myself heading towards my bed, until I found out that Mich was on the same subway train as Josh and I were, and she was planning to go home, get her pie, and head to Pi(e) Day. We made a 3-way mutual vow to stay for just a little while, and we all went to Pi(e) Day together.

Savory pies, sweet pies, things that weren't pies at all but still somehow worked, like plantains on skewers, all in service of 3.14. (Like good Jews, even though we were by no means all Jews, we celebrated it the evening before: erev Pi(e) day.)

More specifically,
Samosa Shepherd's Pie
Turkey Shepherd's Pie
Tomato Pie
Quiche Lorraine
Vegetarian Quiche
Beef and Guinness Pie
Kale and lamb phyllo pie, and my personal favorite:
Roasted cauliflower and olive pie on a gratin potato crust

And on the sweet table:
Chocolate Caramel Tart
Blood Orange Crostata
Apple Pie
Chocolate Cream Pie
Coconut Cream Pie
Peanut butter chocolate pie
Mixed berry tart

How do you get all those pies in one room? Through community. And who loves to curate food and community? Nina Callaway. (The same one and only who brought you Pieathon last Thanksgiving.) Speaking of community, I met two people I had wanted to meet for a long time. I met Sierra, who is going to do a Team in Training Century Ride this summer (stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post) and also Jennie Livingston, the filmmaker who made the film Paris is Burning. She's working on a new film that sounds very interesting to me, and right up the alley of what I was writing about yesterday: Earth Camp One, about grief, and loss, and her hippie summer camp. I also went to a 1970's summer camp that I've long thought of making a film about -- only in my case it wouldn't be about grief and loss, but about what it meant to me that as a young child I spent the summers in an environment of intentional racial, class, and cultural integration. Keep an eye out for Jennie's Kickstarter campaign -- not yet launched, but coming soon.

So the pies were delicious and the community was wonderful. But how did I feel about showing up empty handed? A little strange and empty. If everybody shows up without pie and assumes there will be plenty for them to eat, then the whole thing breaks down. I don't like to under-contribute, and I hate to miss an opportunity to bake, but I also felt very welcomed and relaxed knowing that it was all OK -- that another time, I will host the party and provide most of the food (and that in fact, I recently did that.) So thank you, pie bakers -- for baking me a gorgeous dinner and surrounding me with lovely dinner companions. And I have just four words for Pi(e) Day 2012:

Lobster Pie. Be there.