It's about pie. So it's a Thanksgiving post, right?

Happy Thanksgiving! I was going to write about what I'm thankful for but if you've read my blog for just a teensy bit, you hopefully understand how much I love (and am thankful for) my family and friends.

So I'm going to share my worst experience with pie making. (Not that I have a great track record with cake baking...)

During college, I lived with eight wonderful girls on Linden Street. We were dubbed "the Linden Ladies." They're a dear group of friends whom I love because of who they are and how they contributed to my shaping.

Thanks to my Linden Ladies, I was:

• introduced to Harry Potter
• introduced to Lia's fruit pizza (which, really, deserves its own national holiday)
• treated to hilarious musical readings of unintended funny e-mails
• was shown undeserved love during rough times
• shown firsthand just how much peanut butter and Damien Rice one person could consume

Clearly, these are life-changing experiences. These alone are substantial reasons to go to college.

Anyways, for one semester only, we all had Friday afternoons open so Pie Day Friday was instituted. We each took turns baking a pie and eating it together. It was a fantastic tradition.

When my first turn came, I was excited to try a sugar creme pie from scratch.

It was while grocery shopping that I realized it's a pricey pie to make. I remember passing a Wick's frozen sugar creme pie for one-fourth of the price I was paying for all the ingredients but I wasn't even tempted. I was going to make it from cream, eggs and sugar and, gosh darn it, it was going to be good.

So I got home and began baking. Or "baking." I carefully followed the recipe and put it in the oven where it was supposed to thicken and set after an hour.

But when I pulled it out, it still had the consistency of thin milk. So I baked it longer. A couple of hours longer. Three (or four... or five...) hours later, it never set but the crust was burnt.

So I put it in the fridge, hoping the recipe-maker forgot to mention that it should thicken as it chills.

(Sidenote - this was just one of the many times I thought the recipe-maker got it wrong. I also have thought this a lot about crossword editors. Will Shortz, I'm talking to you!)

Another couple of hours later, I was running out of options and slightly panicking about my $24 pie. So I put it in the freezer while everyone patiently waited for Pie Day Friday Evening to begin.

By Saturday afternoon, it was still pure liquid sitting in a frozen yet burned yet soggy crust.

Somehow, during the course of my "baking," I had created a pie enigma. How did I make something that couldn't be baked, chilled or frozen?

Of course, the answer is I'm just that good.

We laughed pretty hard about my pie and the lack of Pie Day Friday but inside, I was dying a little bit. I was really looking forward to some sugar cream pie.

So I drove back to Wal-Mart, bought the $4 Wick's pie and, over a slice of delicious pre-made sugar cream pie, I was then truly able to laugh at myself.

Needless to say, 1) these are some really great friends for whom I'm thankful and 2) I haven't attempted sugar cream pie since that fateful Pie Day Friday.

Linden Ladies + 2 + 1 on the way, Reunion November 2008

The fruit pizza faithfully attends all of our reunion parties. I wanted a picture to show all of you but I was too busy eating it.I finally grabbed my camera as the last piece was taken. Apparently, it's so good that one can't resist waiting two seconds for her friend to take a picture before taking a bite.