My husband is my biggest fan, but I almost lost him by ditching him after three dates. Six months later, we met up again and he pursued me with determination. He was a great boyfriend, I just didn’t see myself getting married at that point. By Thanksgiving, he’d invited me to meet his family and I took my Chocolate Pie.

At that point, my future father-in-law pulled my husband aside and said, “I’d marry that girl if I were you. We need the pie-baking gene back in the family.” His own mother-in-law was a superb pie baker but her daughter had many other talents and pie baking was not an art she was interested in pursuing.

Four months later, my then-boyfriend asked me to marry him at the top of Peak Nine in Breckenridge, Colorado in the middle of a family ski trip with my parents. He’d already approached my dad and he’d been whittling away at my own objections.  That engagement story will wait for another time, but it is even better than my father-in-law’s hurriedly whispered suggestion.

So in my house, home made chocolate pie = engagement ring.