American Pie: Slices of Life and Pie from America's Back Roads - Perfect for Road Trips, Family Gatherings and Cozy Reading Moments

This is my kind of book! It made me want to share food ideas and travel memories with the author, and it definitely made me get out my rolling pin. The night after I finished the book, we invited friends over for garden-ripe tomato sandwiches on homemade whole grain bread with homemade mayo and freshly-picked basil. That is all we needed to go with my georgia peach-blackberry lattice pie! We did add my neighbor's pickled yard beans on the side. My guests came to the kitchen and made their own sandwiches.I am a cookbook writer and retired cooking school teacher and chef. My daughter and I had a restaurant where we featured a different homemade dessert every day. People came from miles around for these old-fashioned treats. Worn out knees forced me to throw in the towel. Also, I had quit having people over because I just can't do all the work that a real dinner entails.This was such a simple solution. Just spend time on a couple of things that are showstoppers (the bread and the pie), put out some good wine, and you have it made. I thank the author for the inspiration.The only thing I take issue with is that the author really had no personal criteria on which to judge pie. I am still trying to make the perfect pie crust, but I have made hundreds of attempts and had lots of near misses. In the South, Pie really is alive and well. We still go berry picking by the railroad tracks and have fruit trees in our yards. Pascale really needed me to ride along with her.It is restaurants that are failing to deliver, and we let them get away with it. Most people, I agree, are too busy to protest mediocrity, much less make a pie.Juliet DeMarko