Pies

To remove the skins from peaches easily, pour boiling water over them, then quickly dip fruit into ice water. Use your fingers or a small knife to slip off the skins. To minimize cleanup when baking fruit pies, set pie plate on a baking sheet to catch liquid overflows. -- Cole's Cooking A to Z

We asked you how many Moon Pies Jimmy Zangwow received from the Moon and how many he gave away to the Mars Men and Grimble Grinder. One of our most avid readers, Ja'Leesa Blunt of St. James and St. John Catholic School, picked up on the fact that the answer to both questions is the same: 1,000!

Pie at your door If you're a pie fan but you're short on time, the Bama Pie folks offer a simple recipe: www.bamapie.com. If you prefer to order by telephone, call 877-588-0995. With more than 60 years of experience in producing gourmet pies, the company has built a thriving mail-order business, selling pies made from fresh ingredients with no additives or preservatives. The company's Heritage Collection features six flavors, including Bourbon Pecan With Chocolate Chunks and Apple Cherry With Pecan Streusel.

WESTMINSTER -- Anita O'Day Bullock was "absolutely thrilled" when she sold two pies at the Carroll County Farmers Market 17 years ago.More and more people have acquired a taste for the pies. Before the doors close at 3 p.m. at the Ag Center on this Saturday's special market, called the Spring Show, she will sell about 100 pies, she said."I use recipes I have collected over the years," she said. "French apple with raisins, and cherry are the customers' favorites."The pies couldn't be much fresher.

BY NOW, TURKEY across the county has been served in every leftover style possible,and most folks are bustling back to work not only with hopes for the holiday season, but also shopping lists and scheduling needs.Though thoughts of snow, Christmas carols, Christmas trees and giving are enticing, I always hesitate to let go of the holiday that celebrates one of the best feelings around -- gratitude.Even if for a brief moment, the most private person experiences the pleasure of someone else's help or love.

"World of Pies," by Karen Stolz. Hyperion. 160 pages. $18.95. A creative-writing teacher in Austin, Stolz utilizes a striking approach to fiction in her first novel: Each chapter chronicling the life and times of small-town Texas girl Roxanne involves some sort of recipe, which is printed faithfully at chapter's end. That approach could quickly become too cute and stale, but Stolz is such a skillful writer that it seems entirely natural that her characters...

Taylor Teagarden got his face crushed by three pies folllowing his walk-off home run to beat the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night. Should he also have had his mouth washed out? Teagarden, obviously surprised by the barrage at the hands of Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds and Robert Andino during a postgame interview, uttered an expletive that was audible on FOX's broadcast. No seven-second delay?

Doris W. Pearce, a retired junior high school secretary and former Lutherville resident, died of respiratory failure Friday at Fairhaven Retirement Community in Sykesville. She was 89. Doris Way was born in Baltimore and raised in Hampden. She was a 1935 graduate of Western High School. From 1959 to 1979, she was a secretary to the counselors in the guidance department at Woodbourne Junior High School. She was married for 62 years to Irving E.W. Pearce, former supervisor of supplies at the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard, who died in 2001.

'Pie-ing the principal' teaches wrong lesson What am I missing here? I refer to the June 21 article in the Howard section of The Baltimore Sun titled "Pie-ing the principal a reward for behavior." I fail to understand how throwing pies in the faces of the principal and other school administrators is "an opportunity." Food throwing has always baffled me as a very messy way to waste food. But I am totally bewildered to comprehend how "up to 20 lucky students in each grade level got an opportunity to throw whipped cream pies" was "an opportunity," "a reward," and "a perfect way to end the school year."

CREATURES that slide, glide and slither are not some of my favorite things, but students at Piney Ridge Elementary School found such creatures fascinating.The school recently presented Reptile World, a live program designed to dispel many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding reptiles.The program featured several representatives of the reptile world, including an albino soft-shell turtle, an iguana, an alligator, a crocodile, a python and a boa constrictor.The hands-on approach of the program encouraged the students to view the creatures up close.