3.14 aka PIE DAY!: Three Savory Pies

My nephew's text reminded me of one of my favorite non-holiday holidays. PI[E] DAY! 

Aunt Dorothy do you have any good savory pie recipes? ....They are having a 3/14 pie day competition at work next week.

These are the kind of moments I live for. As I write this, my daughter is on the couch next to me doing work for Calculus II. Occasionally, she'll speak to me in math and I'll nod my head as if I could even dream of pretending I knew what she was talking about. But Pi[e] Day is my kind of math!

I have always liked sweet pies. To be fair I wasn't obsessed with them like my old college roommate, Tim was, but a pie was always a reliable dessert. Familiar. Comforting. Apple. Pecan. Cherry. Tastes of home and seasons. Until a few years ago, I never really thought of savory pies because the only one I had really ever had was a chicken pot pie. It was fine, but not necessarily what I craved. I did have a memory of a vegetable pasta pie that my mother had made when I was little, but it seemed to be a lot of hassle when I could pretty much just eat the filling. 

Then I started watching Bake Off. From the beginning. It was an early season when Mary Berry was a host and it was still on BBC. They were asked to make picnic pies and my life changed. In particular, I remember the vegetarian pie that Ruby made.  I needed to make one. I don't think my first pie was as pretty as Ruby's, but I do remember loving all the wonderful tastes contained in pastry. It wasn't long after that I resurrected my mom's vegetale pasta pie. Then I started making vegetable enclosed pies- timbales-, potato topped pies and then I attempted my first hot water crust pastry. My world was changing. Pies were the perfect dinner. Maybe they were a little more time consuming, but I liked the shift from day to evening during pie construction. The steps and stages could be interspersed with a run or a school pickup. Plus they were just the perfect comfort food. I made at least two pies for my most recent Burns' supper, both vegetarian, both receiving all the compliments. 

I texted my nephew back three pie recipes that are staples in my dinner planning with lots of added instructions about substitutions and  additions because I take big leaps from what they say. One is this Samosa Pie which I make totally vegetarian. The other is this Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie for which I make the mashed potatoes differently every time I make it.  The last one was a Cauliflower and Chickpea pie from Chetna. 

There have been some March 14ths that have arrived where we wound up getting a pizza pie because life was just too busy, but other ones where we had pie for dinner and dessert. I've got a shepherd's pie on the menu for this one. We'll see what else happens. 

Cauliflower Chickpea Pie Before

Cauliflower Chickpea Pie: During

Vegetarian Haggis, Samosa Pie and Shepherd's Pie