In which we say hello

Apparently Pie wants its own blog. Pie and I may need others to talk to, so we will invite Cake, Cookie, Tart, Cupcake and Dessert along to keep us company. Pie and I (and Pie's friends) are starting out on a journey, and I'm not sure how it's going to progress.

I have worked in various offices for nearly 30 years -- publishing, law, advertising, banking -- and have finally come to the realization that I can't do this anymore and keep my sanity. (Especially not banking.) My husband, the incomparable Wigwam Jones, and I are planning a move from North Carolina to Michigan sometime in the next six months or so, and I intend to take the opportunity to choose a very different career path -- pastry and baking. I could wind up a pastry chef at a restaurant or a country club, work at a neighborhood bakery or open my own, start an online empire or cater special pastry and desserts for parties and local events from home. Open a tea room! Open a dessert-and-coffee-only cafe! I don't know yet! I just know that I need to do something creative, to make something, to produce something that makes people smile, and that leaves me cheerfully tired at the end of a day, not exhausted and depressed.

To that end, I'm investigating cooking schools, cuisine classes at community colleges, and anything else I can find to learn about the profession of baking. (Michigan promises to be much more fertile ground for this -- all I can find near me in Eastern North Carolina are cake-decorating classes. Which I will take -- it never hurt to know how to decorate a fancy cake.) While that's going on, I'm practicing pie crust, cakes, cookies, cupcakes and anything else that revolves around dessert and celebratory edibles. (Well, I've always baked; now it's become more than just playing around.) And I'm also sailing around the internet, discovering how very many of my sisters and brothers are out there, baking up a storm and sharing stories and pictures with anyone who happens to come by their blogs.

And so we begin. This weekend I have plans to work on a sweet potato-pecan pie from King Arthur Flour's Baking Sheet, and a peanut butter mousse tart with chocolate ganache from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie & Pastry Bible. Photos will be posted, no matter what the results look like. (Be very afraid.)