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

The ballroom opened before us under an arch of red, white and blue balloons:  cool and dark, quiet, looming large, with pistachio green walls.  This was the national pie baking championship? 

Ah!  My eyes adjusted to the light and there in front of us was a long, very long table draped in white, crowned with 425 pies.  Different  pies.  My mind started to warp.  Yes, I’d arrived in pie heaven.  These were the commercially produced pies, where duplicate pies were being judged in the ballroom next door, while the amateurs prepared for their contest.

And sure enough, there around the perimeter of the room were gleaming stainless steel ovens, with tables and bowls and rolling pins and bakers!  Bakers with red hats, bakers with blue aprons, bakers with mixers – mixers they’d traveled with from home – and favorite pie pans.  Dan brought his favorite cast iron pie skillet to bake in, all the way from Flint, Michigan.

Then I knew it was going to be good.  These are pie people, baking their hearts out.  Their stories are the best.  I’ll be reporting on them in the next few weeks, complete with pictures. 

For now, let me assure you that these are characters of the first order.  And they are here to compete!  They work on their recipes, tossing out whole pies that “aren’t good enough,” polishing their “product” until it’s ready to enter here.  They all want to win.  And yet, there’s a sense of community and camaraderie that is palpable.

Pie.  It brings us together.