The other night Amaya and I were reading *Tiny Pie* by Mark Bailey and Michael Oatman. I think that all kids can appreciate the story about a hungry child feeling left out while their parents are having a grown-up party. In the story, she is cheered up by watching a mouse make tiny pie, and there is even a recipe by Alice Waters included in the book. Amaya asked if we could make tiny pie, and of course, I said that we could. The next day I whipped up some of my pie dough while she was at camp, but with one thing and another, we never found the time to make pie in the evenings. Last night we agreed that I would make the pie while she was at camp–“But it has to be tiny, Mom!” This was my smallest pie pan, perhaps not as tiny as she wished. I stuffed it full of all the remnants of clean berries in the fridge: blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries, clearing the way for tomorrow’s trip to the farmer’s market. Though this was not as small as one made for a mouse, it still made a big impact when she arrived home. There’s something about smaller treats that just make us happy.
As a side note (that is really well worth paying attention to if you like sugar-crusted pie dough), I moistened some table sugar with a few drops of water until it was sandy and brushed it on the pie crust. Then I added a sprinkling of raw sugar over that before I baked the pie. It’s a sugar cookie pie crust with texture and crunch because in our house that makes any pie even better.
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