It's finally getting to be autumn, and that means that there are some pretty amazing things waiting to be eaten in my house. In the summer, no one really wants the oven on, so we don't have much in the way of pie.

But the cold snap that's been getting us here in Southern Utah has motivated my wife to get pie-crazy, which is fine with me.

This pie was absolutely amazing, but our history with pie has not always been so good. When Alisa and I first got married and first started having pie in the house, we found them less than appealing. The crust was either too dry or grainy or mushy. The filling was almost always runny, though the taste was often wonderful. This led Alisa to spend a lot of time with her mother and with other members of her family trying to find all the input she could get on the making of pie -- inside and out.