I think perhaps I have been living under a rock for the last 30 years of my life. Because until last Sunday, I had never heard of the awe inspiring Carl's and I had never tasted frozen custard. First, some history on how I discovered this delicious gem. My husband and I decided to take a road trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The hour long drive was inspired by the opening of a Sonic Drive-In. I know this may sound silly to some, but I am originally from Texas, and Sonic is my lifeblood. Since moving to D.C. in 2000 I have desperately longed for a Sonic within driving distance.

After stuffing ourselves with Sonic's cheeseburgers, cherry cokes, tater tots, and a coconut cream pie shake, we thought it might be prudent to do some walking. We made our way to charming historic downtown Fredericksburg, which is filled with a multitude of antique and junk shops. After perusing the shops and walking off our calorie fest we decided it was time to head back to D.C. On our way out of town we saw Carl's, or should I say, the line to Carl's. We slowed down to see what could be causing this group of about sixty people to stand in the hot sun. One look at the top of the building and we knew this place was special. I slowed down and my husband grabbed a place in line as I found parking.

No. that isn't a typo in the title. Yesterday was March 14th, which, in abbreviated form, is 3.14 (feel free to add the 1592653589793238... if you so desire), better known to us non-mathematicians simply as Pi.

As is usually the tradition here at Slashfood, we are willing to turn just about any circumstance into something to celebrate, so why should Pi Day be any exception? Fortunately for us, the blogosphere was full of others who jumped on this bandwagon as well. In fact, Kitchen Parade collected submissions all week, resulting in dozens of mouth-watering pie recipes all linked up on one page.

So without further ado, following are my top eight favorites, which I will be putting on my "need to make" list. (Corresponding photos can be found in the gallery at the bottom of the page after the jump.)

I've never made ice cream. It's one of those foods that I think it's unnecessary to make because what you can buy in the store is just as good (if not better) than what you could make at home. I feel the same way about pasta.

But I was reading one of Andy Rooney's books (he's one of my favorite writers) and he makes ice cream a lot. He has a very simple recipe, and it doesn't include eggs at all. He says that if you add eggs, it's not ice cream, it's custard. He was on Martha Stewart's show one time, making ice cream, and she agreed that adding eggs was a bad idea. But when she was on CBS a while later, she made ice cream, and she added eggs!

So I'm curious: who's right in this? Is ice cream better with no eggs? Do eggs make it richer in some way, or just turn it into something else?

A good cannelé is one of the things that foodies will spend years seeking. Typically, it is a small pastry with a custardy center and slightly crisp/chewy, intensely caramelized crust. There are special molds available to achieve the proper, traditional shape, but having the molds alone doesn't give you the ability to produce a good cannelé, and so there are few bakeries (especially in the US) that carry the French delicacies. Once you know how to make them, however, it seems like it is possible to do so in a good metal pan of any shape. Melissa, from The Traveler's Lunchbox, has clearly take a page from the Pimp That Snack book with her utterly amazing Cannelé Colossus, which she made in a full-sized bundt pan. Her spectacular pastry took three hours to bake, in addition to a fairly long prep time, but it was worth every second.

It's not often that you hear a food blogger, though they are quite generous with praise, describe a dish in just one word: fantastic.

Lemon bars are tricky things, though they seem deceptively simple. In theory, they consist of a tart, custardy layer on a shortbread-type base, but the vast majority of recipes miss the mark by miles, with fillings that are day-glo neon yellow, too hard, too soft, too tart or too sweet. The crusts tend to fare better than the fillings, but it can still be a challenge to get a good one when the filling actually turns out properly.

The only thing harder than making a really good batch of lemon bars is taking a picture of them. The yellow lemon filling and the pale yellow base do not make for much contrast, and since the bars are often topped with a coating of powdered sugar, you end up with something remarkably unphotogenic, no matter how good they look in person. I am please to say, however, that it looks like Lemon Bars were conquered by Sugar Delirium. Not only does her photo look fantastic, but the recipe for the bars sounds like it turns out a perfectly balanced treat.

If you're not down at the boardwalk, it could be a little bit harder to find frozen custard. Though the rich, ice cream-like treat is very popular in some parts of the country, other stands are few and far between. There is a resource available to frozen custard lovers: the CustardList. This website not only has the locations for various custard stands around the country, but maintains a record of what daily flavors are offered at many locations! You can even get this information while you are out driving to the stand, since they have a setup that allows you to access the database of current flavors via a web-enabled cell phone.

To make your search for a stand easier, you can narrow the field by searching by state. Twenty different states have custard stands listed at the moment, and if you know of one that isn't listed, you can submit it to be added.

Bread pudding is almost a souffle for cheaters. Because of the eggs in it, it puffs up a bit in the oven, but the bread gives it enough structure that it never falls. The bread also keeps the custard component of the pudding from cracking or facing any of the other flaws that can strike a cooked custard. What this all boils down to is the fact that bread puddings are incredibly easy and will taste great almost without regard for what you do to them. How can you argue with that?

For this bread pudding, I started with the basic recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, which is a great source for basic recipes. I changed it by adding dried cherries and using challah bread for added richness. I topped it off with a delicious dessert sauce. The final dish is homey, comforting and very delicious. It can be put together very quickly and served either warm or cold, so it is just as good for entertaining as it is for quiet nights at home.

Alanna, who writes the column (and blog) Kitchen Parade, has done it again. Even after cooking through a whole year's worth of different vegetable recipes, she still can come up with more! This Asparagus Custard Tart, for example, is a gorgeous example of what to do with fresh, spring asparagus. The tart is much lighter than a quiche and not nearly as eggy, though still very satisfying. It has a short, simple list of ingredients that blend together to produce a brilliant dish. Alanna slices it into eighths and serves it with a side salad as a main course, but with a fruit salad it could also make a lovely brunch or item. Don't be put off by the crust, either. If you're pastry-challenged, you can use Pillsbury refrigerated dough.

Egg custard tarts are one of the best things you can get at a good Chinese bakery and a great incentive to go out for dim sum around lunchtime. They have a flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crust and a tender, eggy filling. I have never before seen them in multiple colors like these tarts that Tien Mao got at the Egg Custard King Cafe in New York. The tarts in the photo are flavored with almond, strawberry, honey dew, and mango, but the cafe offers other varieties, including traditional, banana and egg white, as well. The tarts are only 60-75¢, so be sure to pick up one or two if you're visiting.

[Via Gothamist]

Bread pudding is more in the category of "comfort food" than something elegant, but that doesn't stop this serving of lemon-scented Bread-Pudding French Toast from looking both stunning and absolutely mouth-watering. Ivonne, the blogger who writes Cream Puffs in Venice prepared this as part of an relaxing Sunday brunch. It was made even more relaxing by the fact that the custardy casserole is prepared the night before and simply popped into the oven in the morning. She used fresh lemon zest to give the bread pudding a light, springy taste - the perfect pick-me-up for a gorgeous April morning. Of course, if you serve it with whipped cream instead of maple syrup, it can easily become a delightful dessert. Want the recipe? Look no further than her post.

Who says there is nothing great about British food! If the diverse range of British food bloggers is anything to go by the UK is really leading the food world, from historical English recreations, thoughtful comment through to recipes from the Ottoman Empire...

1. Cooking With Ginger has a great rant on what to eat, or rather, when what we are supposed to eat one day is countered by some other revelation the next.
2. Anne of Baking For Britain may not be one of the most frequent posters, but by heck laddie her writing is well worth waiting for. I love the mix of historical facts and adapted recipes. The latest compares homemade Sedgemoor Easter Cakes and a pack purchased from M&S.
3. Eating Leeds has AT LAST become a proper Englishman in actually liking custard - and seems to be a master at making it too.
4. The English Patis has posted one of those 'I must make this' recipes, a Spiced Apple Cake.
5. Fiordizucca Goes English is keeping it local with a Nettle Tart. Do nettles grow anywhere outside Europe, it's something we should all know?
6. Sqeezeweasle writing as Gastronomy Domaine got a mention in Olive magazine, but didnt boast about it like I did!
7. A new blog to me - Rustic - details how to recreate Hunkar Begendi and Tas Kabab which is basically lamb and aubergine from her Turkish homeland's Ottoman past.
8. Finally Johanna has been out partying and plying welcome party-people with Tomato & Pesto mini-Galettes.

It's no secret amongst my friends and family and even fellow blog-friends that I am not a fan of custard desserts. I've never liked pudding (i mean the creamy Bill Cosby kind, not what some countries call cakes), I never ever understood the fascination with creme brulee, and even desserts that sounded new and fancy to me like panna cotta and creme caramel were, well, still custards. I don't know what it is - I guess I just don't find the soft, slimy texture all that appealing. I like something I can bite into.

But I have to say that of all the custard-y desserts out there, the worst one in flan. I know that flan is supposed to be chilled after it is made, but I find that it's almost always too cold, too slimy, sometimes weirdly grainy, and whatever caramelization that has occurred on the top and/or bottom has congealed into a gummy layer of something reminiscent of the cartilage between oxtail bones. 

Maybe I'm just bitter that too many Mexican and Latin cuisine restaurants serve only flan for dessert. Is it that much harder to make pastel de tres leches?

It's that time of year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown began with God and TV, then touched on the weird and the wonderful. Finally, that most American of all themes: the lawsuit.

There are more than a few people out there who continue to give lawyers a bad name. Some of them are the lawyers who take on what many people deem to be frivolous lawsuits. Sometimes it is the lawyers who take it upon themselves to speak up for people and protest what they perceive is a legal violation or some sort. These may not be all the legal battles caused by food this year, but they certainly were noteworthy ones, whether they deserved to be or not.

1. Silver dragées. This lawsuit isn’t new to 2005, but it is ongoing nevertheless. A California lawyer had essentially managed, much to the chagrin of bakers in the state, to block the sale of little, silver cake decorating balls in the state in a suit against candy makers and bakers. He cites health risks despite the fact that there has never been a documented case of poisoning from silver dragée consumption.

2. Bottled Fly Trauma. In , a hairstylist and his wife were awarded more than $300,000 after finding a fly in a bottle of water. Neither the man nor his wife consumed any water and, in fact, the bottle was unopened. The couple mentioned that they were “plagued by nightmares [and lost] of their sense of humour” as a result of the incident.

Elise at Simply Recipes is hosting this month's Sugar High Friday, a blogosphere event that celebrates the sweet. The topic is custard and the entries include flan, custard pie, and ice cream. I'm completely smitten by nanaimo bars shown here which are a brownie-style base, a custard middle and a chocolate top layer. Check back at Simply Recipes over the weekend as more recipes get added.