We have been having “Saturday Pie Day” for a while. Most of the Saturdays we do not work, so I have a pretty relaxing Saturday routine, including yoga in the morning, hearty brunch, long afternoon nap, and bake a pie in the evening.

So this is how our Saturday Pie Day works: we have a pie recipe book (more on this later); during the week, hubby picks out a pie he wants from this book, and I bake it on Saturday! This methods sounds a bit childish, but it works really well – for one, we get to try a large varieties of pies. if it was up to me, we would have peach pie every single week. (Fun fact: I have been having the same instant noodle, the exactly same flavor and same brand as lunch every workday for YEARS.) Hubby on the other hand, always picks a pie he had not previously had. He also tends to pick a pie with different texture or made in different crust from the week before. For me, it challenges me to try different techniques and learned a lot more about the traditional ways of pie-making.

Our experience on trying different pies are surprisingly positive. First the recipes in this pie book are pretty solid. Moreover, these recipes are very authentic – these are pies that you only see on the menu of family deli on the Great Plain. Hubby discovered his love for custard pie, and I just adore the process of make them. They are so easy to make (without turning on the oven!) AND they usually require overnight refrigeration, which gives me massive pleasure to watch how hubby waits that night out. 😉

Now back to the book. There are lots pie books out there and everyone of them received mixed reviews. I like the METHOD of having a pie recipe book so we can pick something new, which is not easy to do on the internet because you cannot search what you do not know. But I do not feel very particular about this book vs other recipe books. This one does give 300+ recipes so again it fits our METHOD better. And I have not tried a recipe that is not good. Hubby absolutely loves this book. He keeps it on his desk, probably because it makes him feel important – he is a bit addicted to the power.

This pie book also presents crust recipes that I was not familiar before. And interestingly, when I testes these crust recipes against the ones highly praised on internet, we actually liked the ones from this book better. Before, 99% of time for fruit pies I use double butter crusts, but after trying different pie crusts, I pair berry pie and peach pie with quite a few different crusts now. Some recipes are pretty traditional, which is great conversation piece for parties. I was surprised when older folks were reminded their childhood pie by the pie I baked from this book. So now, whenever I bake for a gathering, I always pick a recipe from this book.

It feels nice to have some regular family activity going on – it makes me feel more grounded and secure. We had a long-standing tradition of outdoor Saturday back to California. It will be interesting to see what strikes us next when we move to our next city.

So, what is your fun family activity?