“Put candles in a cake, it’s a birthday cake. Put candles in a pie, someone’s drunk in the kitchen.”
– Jim Gaffigan
Pie-Eyed Kitchen is the third generation of a pie hobby that has followed me for 15 years.
Pie-Eyed (the OG) began in 2011 as a simple blog hosted on a free WordPress site. Pie-Eyed was born before I had Instagram and even before I had an iPhone, so I’m sentimental about this innocent pre-influencer blog. My intention was to record recipes while I attempted to make the best pie ever. However, it wasn’t long until I was baking more pie than I could (or should) eat, so I began giving it away to people as a way to thank them. Before I knew it I was accepting invitations into people’s lives to hear their stories in exchange for the pie I gave them. I called my movement Pie it Forward and found that sharing pie was an incredible way to get to know people.
I was on to something. This was no longer just about making pie but rather, about using pie to connect with people. I had a coworker at that time who was equally as enthusiastic about pie, so she joined my quest and we graduated to a real website we called Pie Eyed Love. And Instagram. The future had arrived. I found my way into so many pie adventures during those years. A Pi-Day endeavor with The Cleveland Orchestra, a pie pop-up where I made 40 pies for my 40th birthday, a Twitter-inspired (pre-“x”) crowd-sourced Cleveland Pie Festival where we raised $8,000 for a scholarship fund, and an unexpected friendship with Ms. Eason who made pie for President Obama. The possibilities were endless.
Pie Eyed Kitchen
A lot of life has happened in 15 years. Jobs have changed, kids have grown and website URLs have expired. But the pie has outlasted it all. I’m still in my kitchen, using pie as a way to connect with people and as a practice of being at peace with imperfection. You’ll hear a lot about that here. We’re not trying to be perfect. In fact, pie is inherently imperfect (just like people) and that’s what makes it beautiful. The recipes are simple but delicious. If they look complicated, rest assured that if I did it, so can you. I rarely, if ever, use a top crust because it’s too much work and because a top crust can be a whole other pie to give someone. We are crumble topping kind of people and while most of the pies look very similar, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Like what’s under a pie crust (or crumble top in our case), there is more going on underneath all of us than meets the eye. That is why pie is so important to me. Making pie and sharing it has uncovered connections and relationships that would have never been possible otherwise. I’ve cultivated quite a reputation for being pie crazy over the years, and I can’t think of a better fit.
