Let me be clear here: My first words were “more meat!” – shouted across the table to my parents who thought it cute to feed bits of filet mignon to their infant daughter – so there’s really no conceivable way I could ever become a strict vegetarian, let alone vegan. Seems to me that doing so would be akin to denying the innermost bit of my soul, the very crux of my being.
let's be honest: there's no real substitute for butter when it comes to pie.
All that said, I have found after a quarter of a century of carnivorous habits that animal products and I don’t actually get along all that well. For the past few years I have seriously cut back on meat intake, and more recently have swapped out cow’s milk for the almond kind.
From Thanksgiving to Christmas this year I have decided I will try my hand at a vegan diet. This is partly out of a desire to resist the holiday season urge to fill my body with as much buttery baked goods as I can get my hands on, and partly out of sheer interest – can I really eat vegan and not be famished after two days?? Even though the thought of butter-less pie does make my soul cry a little, I decided to venture into some seriously unknown territory and bake this vegan blackberry/raspberry/pear creation.
A couple of weeks ago, after churning out two gruelingly beautiful (uhh if I may say so myself) pies for a “friendsgiving” celebration (the second of two pre-Thanksgiving dinners) — one “
the patron saint of pie 
