What: your best pie or tart recipe to celebrate the "Merry Month of May"

When: enter by May 31, 2012 (submission must be dated by then)

Why: winner's recipe will be featured on PiePals.com

What: most fresh fruit isn't ripe yet, so what will you feature in this late spring pie? Your creativity and matching of the "merry month" theme will be rewarded! Remember the PiePals theme: "dishing up delicious!"

To enter, join PiePals (it's free and easy!), then enter your pie here. Be sure to put "Merry Month of May" in the "Contest Name" field so we'll know you're entering.

Photos are encouraged but not required.

Remember to feature fruit or ingredients readily available at this time of year and to give complete instructions, including a crust recipe.

We will select 3 recipes to make, and will carefully follow your directions. We'll take pictures of the finished pies. And then we'll have a tasting! All three recipes will be shared on PiePals, and the winner will be featured on our home page before Memorial Day.

Good luck!

Your Pie Pal, Rebecca

A bougainvillea bower was dropping magenta flowers into the aqua pool and a short waterfall burst from rocks overhead.  OK, the rocks were fake, but we are terribly near Disney World, after all, in Orlando, FL.  Nevertheless, the water and colors together made me happy.

The American Pie Championship is being held here and the big pool at the convention center hotel invited me in.  It felt good to get moving, swimming in that blue pool after sampling…how many pies today?  Granted, I probably consumed less pie today than most of the 3 year olds there, but I tasted at least 12 pies.

Part of the championships is the pie festival, held nearby in a park.  I’m not much for crowds anymore, but this was worth it.  About 30,000 people descended on this park today and ate to their hearts’ delight (well, maybe to their mouths’ delight) as commercial pie companies shared their goods.  For a price of only $10 for adults and $5 for kids, people could walk up and sample every pie there.

The street was lined with pie pushers!  There were probably 10 different pie companies, all sharing individual servings of several different kinds of pie up to every comer.  Chocolate, cherry, pecan, apple, blueberry with no sugar added, lemon meringue, “Dixie” pie, Key Lime pie, peach pie, rhubarb, pumpkin, strawberry, you-name-it pie.

My favorite part was watching the baby strollers go by – full of babies and pie samples stacked up high enroute to a seat in the shade.  People enjoying pie and each other, making new friends over pie.  Even more beautiful than magenta bougainvillea in an aqua pool.