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I baked a pie every day for a year
- sgarrity 8mo agoI didn't even read the article, but the headline made me smile.
- 0xffff2 8mo agoAs someone who loves pie and has far fewer friends and family than the person this story is about, baking a pie every day for a year would also change my life.
- worldsavior 8mo agoFriends are always attainable via purchase.
- embedding-shape 8mo agoAlso neighbours tend to be very glad to receive free stuff :) I usually end up with way too many Basil plants every season and give them away, gotten to know some new neighbours that way!
- adzm 8mo agoDo you have neighbors?
- imgabe 8mo agoIf you just place the pie to cool on your window sill, the smell will cause some nearby hobos to float over, or so cartoons have lead me to believe. Then you'll have some friends.
- delichon 8mo agoFor me the change would be to become spherical. That would simplify some calculations.
- noboostforyou 8mo agoDo I exercise and eat healthy? "Yes, I am in shape (round is a shape)"
- thot_experiment 8mo agohalf way there, now you just have to find the frictionless vacuum
- CrazyStat 8mo agoA friend of mine tries to bake a spherical pie for pi day (March 14) each year, with varying approaches (and levels of success).
- hinkley 8mo agoHeating the middle has to be a pain. And cutting it…
- _aavaa_ 8mo agoWell if you insert metal rods through it you can help with the heat transfer, then you can lattice over the holes. If you pumpkin pie it, you might even be able to have it hold up under its own weight. Plus a bit of stiff whipped cream in the holes would help.
- mordechai9000 8mo agoI would make them fairly small (personal pie-sized) and use a filling that doesn't need to be cooked in the oven to set. The main limiting factors, I think, would be structural integrity and heating the filling to the center. You could set it on a ring (like the rim of a spring-form pan) to support it better during cooking. Now, a four dimensional hyper pie, on the other hand...
- thatguy0900 8mo agoIf we don't care what the filling is you could just use sticky rice.
- navane 8mo agoGovernment job. Retired at 61. But I made a pie everyday!
- recursive 8mo agoSome people find meaning in ways other than the prestige of their employer.
- hypeatei 8mo agoSoftware developer isn't a very prestigious title either. The only thing it has going for it is the pay.
- looselygoosy 8mo agoGave birth at 18 solo while her partner was in prison. Probably deserved a chill life?
- gnatman 8mo agoI’m of the belief that doing just about anything every single day for a year will change your life! A key for me has been to “lower the bar” so that I can keep the promise to myself and maintain momentum through days of low energy or enthusiasm, e.g. playing the guitar for 1 minute, or writing 1 sentence.
- toxik 8mo agoSimilarly, just showing up at the gym/hobby/sport is huge. Even if you do next to nothing.
- Insanity 8mo agoYeah I go bouldering even on off days to “stay in the rhythm”. And I do have honestly terrible days where I feel I’m struggling climbs of even a grade below my comfort level, but at least I went lol.
- renjimen 8mo agoHow do you stay injury free climbing every day? I feel like at even twice week I am entering the danger zone with ligamentisis.
- HalfCrimp 8mo agoI suspect they mean "days that I deal off" rather than "every day". Even elite climbers struggle with ligament issues climbing every single day
- munificent 8mo agoA very timely article when many of us are wondering if AI will eventually push us out of a digital career into something else.
- kaon_2 8mo agoI am hearing rumors that B2B sales is rebounding back to more in-person meetings. Cold emails don't work anymore. I've heard similar tales of current teens early-twenties that there is a trend of doing things in real life again. But... more likely if you start measuring it people are more reclusive than ever, and doing things that used to be normal is now considered "niche and trendy". Our sales process at least is very online-meeting oriented...
- sosodev 8mo agoI challenge each and every one of you to make a pie by the end of the month. I made one, for the first time in my life, last week. It brought me tremendous joy not only to make it, but to have something nice to share with friends.
- 98codes 8mo agoI already did for October, November (twice), and December. Does that count?
- recursive 8mo agoIt would have if you hadn't asked. But as it stands now, I regret to inform you that you'll need to make another pie.
- 98codes 8mo agoOK then... let's see, it's citrus season -- meyer lemon meringue it is, with a swiss meringue[1] of course. [1] https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-swiss-meringue-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/easy-swiss-meringue-recipe
- Waterluvian 8mo agoI did this recently, and you know what I really loved about it? It's a great entry-level baking activity where the upside is that you have a pie (something you can gift or just eat!) and the downside is that you have a sort of cobbler. You really can't !@#$ up a pie. Omelette is another good one. At worse you have scrambled eggs. I mean, yes, at worse you burn your neighbourhood down and your dog runs away. But in terms of the more likely failure modes like screwing up the dough, breaking it, messing up how watery it is, etc. you can mostly just keep baking until it's done, mix it up, put into bowls, serve with ice cream, down the hatch.
- esperent 8mo ago> You really can't !@#$ up a pie I mean, it's hard to end up with something completely inedible but you absolutely can mess it up. Soggy wet pastry at the bottom is the biggest problem but there's plenty of advice around about how to avoid that.
- rwmj 8mo agoI started practising guitar every day and it didn't change my life but I have a lot of fun doing it.
- sejje 8mo agoThere's still time, my friend. Keep it up.
- top_sigrid 8mo agohttps://archive.ph/6YBoH https://archive.ph/6YBoH
- drcongo 8mo agoOne of the most Guardian headlines of all time. I'm old enough to remember when they were a newspaper.
- zabzonk 8mo agoNah, that's not a pie! [brandishes a Yorkshire meat and potato pie] Now, that's a pie. Apologies to Crocodile Dundee.
- jancsika 8mo agoTo be more precise: she baked breadbowls and calzones. :)
- nozzlegear 8mo agoI would love a pumpkin pie right now. But I'd settle for pecan.
- natebc 8mo agoWaffle House pecan pie can hit the spot. ... cup of black coffee, damn fine.
- raddan 8mo agoSweet potato pie is at least as good as a pumpkin pie if you've never tried it. If you're making filling from scratch, it's easier too. I learned not too long ago that the "pumpkin pie" my mom made every year was actually a sweet potato pie... that kind of blew my mind.
- Obscurity4340 8mo agoI wonder if there is a savory sweet potato pie. Would be great with gravy and cheese
- amelius 8mo agoIf AI continues like this, we can all retire and bake pies all day long.
- incanus77 8mo agoPie is such a gift. My wife died nearly ten years ago and soon afterwards, I took up pie baking, which is something that she loved to do (I just loved to eat it — since childhood I've had a birthday pie instead of cake). I had all the stuff, after all. I got good at it and love to share them with friends at gatherings, or even just give them away entirely. Right before COVID, I did a Friday Pie Day thing where I gifted a pie to someone in town based on social media discussions. One time, someone got it for her coworkers who had just shipped a tough release.
- vrosas 8mo agoWhen everyone got into baking early covid I couldn’t understand why no one was baking anything, like, good. No pizza or pie or cake or muffins or banana bread or even a damn focaccia. The world collectively just decided the end-all be-all of baking was… sourdough.
- 1bpp 8mo agoMaybe because the large time investment and trial+error in making good dough provided something to focus on when stuck inside.
- layer8 8mo agoNot trying to gain weight when being stuck inside, maybe.
- renjimen 8mo agoSourdough is the bomb though. I agree about the lack of variety, but in its defense, sourdough starter can be used for a variety of other baked goods.
- gusgus01 8mo agoPlus bread itself is used in other recipes, like sandwiches or toasts or for mopping up sauced dishes.
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- profsummergig 8mo agoI decided to make rotis every day for a month (am male of Indian origin who hadn't ever cooked breads), AND eat them. The first one was completely inedible. The 30th day's rotis were edible, but nothing like what women in my family make. But still, edible. Eventually had the confidence to experiment with making Naan. This led to experimenting with Asian-style Pot-Stickers. The main benefit to me was confidence, and belief in pmarca's "you can just do things".
- IncreasePosts 8mo agoWhy didn't you just ask the women in your family what they did to make them? It shouldn't take 30 attempts to get a basic flatbread recipe to be edible. It's not like all the women in your family devised recipes on their own - they just watched other women make them and learned how to do it that way.
- Etheryte 8mo agoThis is like asking why someone built a text editor as a hobby project when Microsoft Word exists. There is value in experimentation and play, in trying to understand things from first principles. It would often be faster to just ask others, but if everyone did that, we would miss out on a lot of innovation.
- inigyou 8mo agoIt's more like taking 50 attempts to design a scalable font format instead of looking up how TrueType works.
- wizzwizz4 8mo agoYeah, I can't believe the TrueType people didn't just use METAFONT.
- IncreasePosts 8mo agoIf you're looking at it solely from perspective of "value" in experimentation and play, then that value mostly comes from expert level understanding of the ingredients and the process. To not ask for guidance from people right near you who know far more than you just seems like egotism. Who has a better chance of developing an innovative omelette dish? Thomas Keller, or someone who can't make scrambled eggs without setting off the smoke alarm? The point is, experts can bootstrap you so you can progress quicker than you can on your own. This is why mentors exist, and is the basis of Bloom's 2 sigma study.
- QuantumNoodle 8mo agoThe sarcastic individual in me saw the title and thought "heh, and you got diabetes?" But I was pleasantly surprised after reading it about how wholesome this was.
- delichon 8mo agoShe is obviously a sweet lady that you would like to have as a neighbor. But I would not include garden variety pie in the wholesome category. The indulgence won't kill you, but it isn't healthy. Apples from her backyard tree are wholesome.
- jdthedisciple 8mo agoRefreshing. There truly is an almost mysterious bliss hidden in giving.
- stephen_cagle 8mo agoNot to take anything from any other activity that someone embraces, but I imagine that for the majority of people in the developed world, taking a 1 hour walk every day would be the most "life changing" thing you could do.
- wewtyflakes 8mo agoWhat does that have to do with the article? It is not about 'the most life changing thing for everyone', it was what was life changing for her.
- stephen_cagle 8mo agoNothing at all. Just a comment on the internet. Taking a walk AND and baking a pie is even better. I'm just making a slight point that walking is probably the simplest most effective thing you can do to improve almost every aspect of your life.
- shermantanktop 8mo agoSure, but it's random and unrelated to the discussion at hand. I bake pies but I also like mushrooms and grilled cheese sandwiches. Every other individual here has random associations they can make. In person, this is seen as commandeering a linear discussion to your personal topic and repeated violations get you uninvited from conversations for being selfish. On the internet we can just ignore a thread, which is what I should have done here but I've typed this far so I'll go ahead and post it.
- sejje 8mo agoI don't think it's off-topic at all. The story is not as much about baking pies as it is doing something every day.
- ericmcer 8mo agoThe point of the pies was the connections it forced her to make with people in her life and then ultimately strangers. Finding 365 people to give pies to is probably harder than baking them all. Taking a walk alone would be missing the main point.
- pmdr 8mo agoIs it just me or since The Guardian left twitter/X they've really been ramping up their paywalls/nagwalls? Love or hate X/Elon, that was really a dumb move on their part.
- borroka 8mo agoBeing intentional in what we do and learn, and practicing it consistently, inevitably changes our lives. We mostly live on autopilot, without thinking about what we love to do or what we might love to do. Every day, we read about people whose lives have been changed by jiu jitsu, CrossFit, or learning a foreign language. It is dedication, focus, goal setting, and practice that change our lives, not so much the activity we devote our time to. Although pies are delicious and I love making them.
- d_burfoot 8mo agoThese kinds of stories may seem silly to some (certainly it would seem silly to my past self), but I think these narratives of personal journeys are going to become more and more important to humanity as AI and automation take over most jobs.
- beauzero 8mo agoThis reminds me of "The Artist's Way".
- aziaziazi 8mo agoLovely story but the beautification is a bit off. > Hardin Woods would bake [...] using fresh ingredients local to her home in Salem, Oregon > She baked her first pie, a lemon meringue > The next day Hardin Woods made a peach pie > After that came a chocolate cream pie Does lime, peach and chocolate ripen within the same season in Oregon? Vickie cooking for is community is already touching, this claim about freshness and locality is skimmed by people who are already convinced, spotted by those who disagree and raise critics of the skeptics.
- sejje 8mo agoI mean, the first pie was in California, per the text right before that. She was visiting family.
- aziaziazi 8mo agoRight, the location is off too! The ingredients probably aren't sourced in Oregon after moving to California, but anyway the season ("fresh") and location ("local") point stands. I guess she use local eggs.
- bell-cot 8mo agoBetween "The Guardian" and it being a warm/fuzzy-type story, I'd read that as "fresh local ingredients when available". Vs. too many pies have fillings straight out of a can.
- medi8r 8mo agoIt is something hard wired in our brains. Cooking, social connection, giving, all in one. We evolved to cook for each other. No wonder she is damn happy. Being 60 helps too.
- user68858788 8mo agoBaking everyday as a way to keep a professional identity is an interesting idea. Being semi-retired, I’ve noticed that I am starting to struggle the curiosity and motivation that kept me going when I still worked. This article makes me think I should pick up a habit of doing some “work” daily.
- fnands 8mo agoYeah, I think it's a tough one for some people. Case in point: my parents. My father has always had a million hobbies, and his work was what was preventing him from fully exploring them. He's taken to retirement like a fish to water. My mother on the other hand (still working at 73) like most academics has been very dedicated to her work, and her main hobby outside of work has been hiking. I'm a little worried that she'll struggle a bit to adapt to retirement.
- siavosh 8mo agoBeautiful. I recently saw a youtube video [1] on radical neighboring that really inspired me. Led me to another book on the gift economy [2]. All which to say, I now always bake two loaves of bread. One I keep for the family, the other I give away. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dynQV-oKM0E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dynQV-oKM0E [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208840291-the-serviceberry https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208840291-the-serviceber...
- jonah 8mo agoPie - specifically pie crust - is my specialty. I'm in a constant quest for the best (and simplest) method. It's also a very tasty hobby.
- tgv 8mo agoI occasionally make a pie, and while I had problems getting the dough workable (too tough/crumbly, or too wet/sticky), the taste and texture so far turned out quite nice. It's just butter, castor sugar, flour, baking power and a bit of salt (and a bit of egg when the recipe demands it). However, I can't say I've got a good feeling for it. So what's your recommendation? Other ingredients? Special tricks? Do you keep lab journals?
- jonah 7mo agoJust seeing your question - here are some notes: The key is to have small (rice grain/pea size) chunks of butter evenly distributed through your dough without "working" it too much which generates gluten resulting in a "tough" crust. My latest approach is this one: Evenly mix the salt and sugar with 2/3 of the flour and then quickly mix in the cold butter with a food processor* - just enough to distribute it through the dry ingredients. Then quickly mix in the remaining flour. Dump that mixture into a bowl - it will crumbly and too dry for a crust. Now, carefully sprinkle cold vodka (to wet the flour without producing gluten) and cold water over the dough and FOLD it in with a spatula*. Envision the flaky layers you want in an ideal crust and understand that you are trying to mechanically create those layers with the spatula. Then, form into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill for several hours. Then, you can take it out, dust the ball with flour and roll it into a pie pan-sized disc. Don't be afraid to use enough flour on the surface and dough ball to keep it from sticking. https://www.seriouseats.com/cooks-illustrated-foolproof-pie-dough-recipe https://www.seriouseats.com/cooks-illustrated-foolproof-pie-... https://www.seriouseats.com/myths-that-need-to-go-away https://www.seriouseats.com/myths-that-need-to-go-away * Another approach, if you don't have a food processor is to freeze your butter and then grate it directly into the bowl of dry ingredients tossing the flour frequently to coat the individual bits of butter and preventing them from clumping together. Once all the butter is grated and mixed in, add the liquid and fold it in. *If you are having issues with the dough being too dry or wet add the liquid a bit at a time while working it in and just stop when it gets to the right consistency.
- hsuduebc2 8mo agoI was worried that this is sone LinkedIn post. Thank god that was not it. Wholesome.
- whackernews 8mo agoBecause it’s the guardian I assumed she was British and therefore making meat pies, gave me a different vibe for some reason.
- 14 8mo agoChristmas 2013 my mom gave me a nice stand mixer. She knew I like to cook and bake and owned a bread maker but she knew I always felt bread makers were good but just fell short or being great. This gift also changed my life forever. Days later on New Years I decided my resolution would be to not buy bread for an entire year and make it all myself. Also I was a father or 3 and funds tight back then so buying bread for school lunches all the time really added up. So I started making bread and did not buy any for months. Slowly it became better and slowly I started making other items like pizza dough and bagels and cinnamon buns. I got to a point where I no longer needed to measure and could just free pour ingredients and my baking was really good. Then soon into 2014 I decided to buy a huge stock pile of flour and several other ingredients from Costco so had like 200lbs of flour and lots of oil and pasta sauce and chicken and suddenly work laid half of us off until things picked up. Having all those ingredients saved me and my kids. Never did they go hungry. We ate lots of pizza and always had bread and bagels and if I had to buy it already made there is no way I would have made it. I did not achieve my resolution on July 14 2024 me and my wife split up suddenly after some shenanigans on her end and I was suddenly the primary care giver for 3 kids and the stress was too much and I did not have it in me to continue making bread but kept strong for my kids and never let on my struggles. Lastly even though I did not achieve my resolution I did make it almost 7 full month's making bread and I never lost it. I still make bread but my biggest hit is homemade pizza. My kids struggle to eat store bought stuff as my home made is just so much better. If anyone would like some simple pointers on how to make amazing pizza dough comment and I would be happy to give a few quick tips.
- klondike_klive 8mo agoYes please! I'm getting pretty decent at bread now, I've been making a loaf every three days or so for a few months. But I would love to add pizza dough to my skills.
- 14 8mo agoMy biggest tip is so easy and after starting it the difference was immediately noticable. And this applies to pizza or bread dough. There are many factors that will change how your dough tastes, feels and bakes. Texture is a massive factor on how people rate your bread or other doughs. Two big factors that massively help with that are as follows. First knowing how long you must knead the dough for. I won't get into too much detail for this just look up dough window pane test on YouTube and there are lots of videos. The TLDR is you knead until you can take a small ball of the dough and gently spreading it with your thumbs should be able to make a thin pain that lets light through easily without ripping. If it rips you need more kneading. Again look at some videos. The BIGGEST improvement to my doughs was when I started adding powdered milk. I use about half cup to 3/4 cup when making enough pizza dough for about 3 large pizza. For a couple loafs of bread probably half cup is plenty. Again lots of information on why powdered milk helps but will let you research if you want to know more. All I can say is that my dough was always good before milk powder but the day I saw the suggestion to use it and did I can't go back. I have had friends say my pizza is the best they ever had. Last year my ex asked me if I wanted to come meet her friends and some girls but also would I mind making some pizza dough lol! Honestly there are lots of tips for good bread and dough but just adding milk powder will up your bread huge. Good luck I hope you give it a go if so also hope you come back and comment how it went. Cheers!
- demute 8mo agoRead the title and was like ”what did this guy do, deploy a new version of Linux ever day? Moreover, it’s spelled ’Pi’”
- avanticc 8mo agoIt is funny how the conversation immediately shifted to sourdough and the pandemic. I think that era taught a lot of us that having a physical ritual, something you can actually touch and smell, is a vital anchor for mental health. When your entire work day is spent moving bits around a screen, producing a physical loaf of bread or a pie feels like a radical act of creation. It is less about the food itself and more about the proof that you can still interact with the physical world in a meaningful way.