"pi day" news and stories

March 14 is National Pi Day, a holiday officially recognized by the U.S. government since 2009. The Greek letter "pi" is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (You might remember it as the never-ending series of numbers you learned in school that start with 3.14....). To celebrate, many restaurants and stores are rolling out specials on pie.

Here are the ones we've rounded up:

Whole Foods Markets' Midwestern stores are participating in a promotion by selling an entire fresh-baked apple, blueberry and cherry pie for $3.14. Each store is offering its own take on the promotion, in addition to the $3.14 pies. At the Milwaukee store, for example, Whole Foods Market will also retail two slices of pizza pie for the sum of $3.14.

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.)

Today, March 14th, is Pi(e) day. Why pi(e)? 3-14 is the date that happens to correspond to the mathematical number pi. A slashfoodie (or a math geek) does not need to look beyond the fact that "pi" sounds just like "pie" to get a craving for a slice of crisp, sweet pie. The two terms are combined to make Pi(e) Day and to give everyone an excuse to have an extra slice of pie for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Of course, the creator of the Pi Apple Pie pictured here may have taken the concept to an extreme, but it is a delicious and amazing dessert all the same.