NotQuiteJuneCleaver Bakes a Pie!: sweet creations that begin with a crust

Hello all you happy bakers! I began working on this book, ten or more years ago. It actually didn't start as a pie book. It started as a "sequel" to a book my mom and I were writing. Back in 1997 my mom , Toot Bellah, my daughter Jessica, and I put out a self published book called Christmas Traditions. The sequel was to be called Harvest Traditions. Yeah, I know, great title. We love Autumn around here. Seriously love it. The book got to be so big, it would have been impossible to self-publish and quite possibly incredibly hard to lift Ü . So I started breaking it down into categories and since I do love me some pie it just seemed natural to do pies first. Foolishly, I thought it would be a easy thing to complete: Book One of a set ~ a cookbook about making pies. Simple enough one would think. But then came tarts. They are similar to pies, right? Which in turn makes you think of miniature or individual tarts. Or tartlets, if you like. You might also have heard them called tassies. And then there are hand pies. You know, those lovely filled pies, that you hold in your hand to eat. The little lovelies can be fried or baked... pure and simple ~ hand-held sweetness. And you realize, too, there are many kinds of dough to encase these delicious fillings in. You have your basic pie crust and its many variations. You can make all sorts of crusts for your sweet creation: cookie crust, cracker crust, granola,... mmm, the possibilities! I have done my best to make this book fun and informational and give you what you need to be a successful pie maker. Now go bake some love and may your kitchen be a happy place!