Yep....pies are us!
And does a quiche count? I find that if you make a crust, fill it full of stuff....grated cheese, cooked veggies, leftover cooked meat and dump on some eggs and milk or cream beaten together and bake it....you have a meal.
Similarly, fill that same crust full of fruit and a bit of sugar and some thickener...you have a fruit pie. No need to measure, who can tell just how juicy or sweet a lug of peaches or a bushel of apples really is...your pie might be a little sweet, a little tart, maybe juicy....but it's all good.
Then there are the blind baked crusts that you fill with whatever you think of! Pudding, fruit and whipped cream, cooked and seasoned ground meat of some sort, cheese and mashed potatoes...
Yep...pie is a good thing!
Linda C

I love pies of all kinds - sadly, I don't bake. I'm afraid of pastry except to eat it.

My mouth is watering just reading this thread.

Not being fond of raisins, a raisin pie really doesn't sound very good..but I'll bet it makes your house smell delicious! I am a pie baker too; don't think we've had ten cakes in the house in the last 20 years!

Lately there have been problems with the pie crust..don't think I've changed the recipe (what recipe?) but they just don't turn out right some of the time. Has the flour changed? Has the shortening changed? I don't think I'm doing anything different, but maybe I'm just getting older..
and also, I don't make them as often as I used to. Maybe that's it..just out of practice.

I roasted a turkey breast with a lime-chipotle rub last night. At Steve's request, I've got a turkey pot pie in the oven tonight... I used the left over gravy, some frozen veggies, an onion sauteed in butter, some half and half and a (homemade) crust... no herbage because the gravy was very spicy to begin with. We'll see how it turns out.

I make pot pies and quiches all the time... but can't remember the last fruit pie I made... Usually it's just too much for us... although I have a mess of frozen blackberries and raspberries in the freezer, and bought some mini pie tins a couple weeks ago... I need to come up with a recipe that involves straining out the seeds for Steve's dental comfort. Any suggestions?

Suzy, I've never heard of pineapple pies... but they sound very appealing (hint, hint: recipe please?). The raisin pie sounds vile... but it's only because (brown) raisins are one of the very few foods to which I have an aversion. Well-adjusted folks likely love it!

For those of you who love pies,you have to rent The Waitress. Trust me on this,you must see this film. I think pie is my favorite dessert and when I bake, pie is what I usually make. I've had pineapple pie in fact we always have fresh pineapple on hand because I like it so much,but don't care for the pie. Key lime pie,made with fresh key limes is one of my favorites, and pear pie is wonderful too. Last week I made a chess pie,it's been ages and I overdosed on it. The good thing here is that lard is back. For the longest time you couldn't get it but it's back on the shelves now and a crust without lard just doesn't taste as good...at least to me it doesn't.

I'll give a second to ethe novie "Waitress." It's charming & thw pies are mouth-watering.

Suzy, a question for you. Did you make an actual pie out of raisins? Or did you make something like an ecclescake (don't know if I'm spelling this right)

We love pies here & we make them, we buy them & search out good restaurants that serve great pie. About half the time we used store-bought pie crust because it's easier, but the other half we make our own - and, of course those are made from lard. Not exactlly heart healthy, but it's not like we're eating them every day & you can really tell the difference in the crust.

" mini chess pies on the pie front, but even those had a different kind of crust, cream cheese, butter and flour pressed into a crust." Rob333.......And those are beautiful! Very fancy looking and rich.

"I started making cut-out shapes to decorate my pies, a few years back: it was a joke:"Sara ROFL......why not have fun when you are cooking? Many moons ago, it was my b'day and I felt sorry for myself because nobody even mentioned it. Thinking I'd been forgotten, I baked a cake with a hand making the bird sign to serve after dinner. Then half the people we knew showed up for a surprise party. I was mortified. I also baked a bedpan cake for a nurse friend (mixes all) and used lemon jello with a baby ruth suspended in the center. Well, it did look real.

"Does anyone know their apples enough to know if I just messed up, or if Northern Spy isn't such a great baking apple after all?" Dirtdiver. Nope, I usually use Macs, Romes, courtlands or Granny Smiths for pies. I have a little chart I dig out when I use anything else because I can't remember, either.

"Yep...pie is a good thing!" Linda C ......A well made pie is hard to beat. Sort of excellence in simplicity. Yes, of course quiches count!

"My mouth is watering just reading this thread." Sheila. Food threads always make me drool and more than once, after reading one on the GP, I've fired up the oven at midnight.

" I need to come up with a recipe that involves straining out the seeds for Steve's dental comfort. Any suggestions?

Suzy, I've never heard of pineapple pies... but they sound very appealing (hint, hint: recipe please?). The raisin pie sounds vile... but it's only because (brown) raisins are one of the very few foods to which I have an aversion. Well-adjusted folks likely love it!".......Michelle, I dunno about seed free berry pies. I have a solution, being the new owner of removable bridgework. I just take them out and enjoy, and then put them back in/or not. rofl. Raisin pie is likely not an indicator of a well adjusted person, I suspect. So far, I'm the only one who admits to making/eating one. Pineapple pie from crushed canned pineapple is easy. Just drain off some of the juice, thicken with cornstarch or flour, sugar to taste, and a little cinnamon. If making from fresh pineapple, as above, but dice it fine, and no need to drain.

NannC about the pies all the sudden not coming out as good as usual. I go through spells like that and found it's often a change in the ingredients. I switched shortenings the last time it happened and went to butter Crisco and bingo, the flaky pies are back. BTW, I can use lard as well, but sometimes even the lard seems to vary as to quality with some brands being more strong than others. So strong the taste overpowers the other ingredients.

Andie, yes an actual pie with raisin filling. One plumps the raisins up in a saucepan simmered with enough water to cover them for just a few minutes. Then a bit of sugar, thickening, and a dash of lemon juice. It is a bit stout unless you are really in the mood for raisins. I've also made grape pie, but like the raisin better. Best not to make a very thick pie. I likely won't want another one for another ten years. LOL.

Love to bake pies. I have two different crust recipes. The quick and easy and healthy for a pie crust; oil and water, from 1939 Joy of Cooking, which called for shortening but my healthnut mother always made it with oil. Even in the 60's. I use a lard crust for apple dumplings and meat pies. I have made a raisin pie, easier than raisin filled cookies and satisfied my Dad's yen for those. Our favoirite pie? Concord grape, red raspberry, blueberry crumb. I like Jonathan apples to bake with. The other night I was watching Good Eats. I normally enjoy this cooking show because Alton Brown tells you how to do it and why. He made making an apple pie sound like you were making a rocket. If I had never baked I would have been sooo intimiated.

Pineapple pie I have never made because the dh had a bad experience with one years ago. He and a buddy were painting a house for an elderly lady for pretty much free. She would bake stuff and bring it out to them. He said the pineapple pie was totaly unedible. He could not describe how awful it was. It was not a case of not liking pineaapple. And don't forget cream pies. Graham cracker pie. and butterscotch. Mmmm. Course, that brings us to meranges. When they are good they are very very good, but when the flop.....

Calliope, Ohio is spelled P.I.E.

My grandmother's black raspberry custard pie = heaven.

I can't imagine not baking pies and quiches. Year-round.

I don't care for grape or all-raisin pies, however, I like a heaping handful of raisins on top of apple slices [under the crust], or a half-pint of vegetarian mincemeat instead of the raisins. The apples seem to prevent the tastebuds from being overwhelmed by the raisins.

I use Clear-jel instead of cornstarch, so fruit pies can be baked, frozen, and heated up later without becoming runny.

I grew up making crusts with lard, not changing over to butter-flavor Crisco until I was in my 30's. I never cared for crusts using oil; probably bad recipes, but to me they always tasted like oily cardboard.

Does anyone use Cook's Illustrated method of using vodka when making the pie crust?

Cook's Illusterated is a great magazine..so many wonderful ideas in there. I tried using vinegar once but didn't notice any difference at all from my previous crusts so never tried again. It's been awhile but if I remember the recipe called for shortening and vinegar and since I use lard,maybe that was the reason. Have you tried it?

I've never made a crust with anything other than pure butter, not loving the idea of lard or shortening for various reasons. I didn't even know people used oil.

And vodka? Now there's an idea I think I can get behind. Though I think maybe tequila, rum or bourbon would better enhance apples and cherries.

Now you've got me thinking I want to make a quiche for dinner.

Andie McDowell's pie song in Michael
Pie
Pie
Me oh my
Nothing tastes sweet, wet, salty and dry
all at once o well it's pie
Apple!
Pumpkin!
Minced
an' wet bottom.
Come to your place everyday if you've got em'
Pie
Me o my
I love pie

Vodka crust is all the rage on the cooking forum. The reason I made pie at all is because everybody keeps talking about pie and this recipe inspired me... at the same time the talk about mini food inspired me... and the mini won out. I couldn't envision myself making several pie crusts when one is too hard!

Michelle, you do mean berry pies only, right? Because if it's fruit, how about lemon meringue or key lime (hubby's favorite M. He'll be right over to help you out). Or apple, pear or peach? Those seeds are really easy to strain out. Hm. Berry pie without seeds just sounds impossible to me. Hope someone can come up with an answer.

Suzy, what goes on top of the pineapple pie? Crust, crumbs, etc.? Ironically, I've been considering making an pineapple upside cake; haven't seen one/eaten one in years. Guess I am the lone cake maker!

All I could think of, when you mentioned Vodka with pastry, was that it was to lubricate the chef!

I've always made my pies with half butter/half lard - nowadays Crisco. All butter seems too rich for my taste.

There's a variety of apple in England called Bramley, which is wonderful for cooking. In fact, it's too sour to eat raw, and is pretty much the only one used for cooking Over There. Granny Smith's are the closest I can find, but not quite as good.

Rob, I did actually make a pear upside down cake a while back. Recipe from the NYTimes, to use up those pears that never seem to ripen. You cook the pears in honey first. It didn't turn out of the tin very well, but tasted amazing. I didn't count it as cake: it was dessert. And tasted so good, that just us two ate the lot.

I hate raisins, but my mom introduced me to raisin pie as an adult. It was in a restaurant noted for their delicious home-made pies. Raisin pie is the greatest! I've made my own and like them. But otherwise, I can't stand raisins (except in bread pudding LOL)

I kind of enjoy making pies although it is a lot of work when you start with fresh fruit. I always make several and freeze a few. Black raspberry is my favrite too. My mother always made elderberry but they are hard to find now. Does anybody else make piedough cinnemon roles?

But of course! Whatever scraps are left over from rolling out the pies don't go wasted. I sometimes just throw them on a tin, and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, sometimes get fancier and roll them up. They're called pinwheels when you cut the roll down before baking them. Or, I'll make a spare crust for a cream pie down the road, and last but not least, the birds or my chickens love scraps of raw pie dough.

What goes on top of pineapple pie is the top crust. My mother used to make pineapple/raisin pie and it was in sort of a custard base. It's OK, but I'd prefer one or the other.

Sara, when I visited my kids and they were at work, I'd always walk to town to the green grocer to get fresh fruit and apples were usually in the load. I just went tsk, tsk because I noticed a good amount of them came from Africa and here we were in Somerset/Dorset area with apple orchards nearby. My friend down the road a ways, has a huge orchard. He took over his father's business and he says he has to compete with apples imported from all over the world as well. Says people anymore won't even pack their kids in the car and drive out to the country to get their bushel or two in fall anymore. So, most of his is cooled/stored and wholesaled. Sad.

Vodka instead of most of the water; into the dough not the chef. Because it evaporates when baked, leaving a flaky pastry crust.

The only way I can think of for seedless raspberry, blueberry, etc, would be to make a strained filling; jam-like but not sweetened as much. Hmmm, if one used a cornstarch thickener (make that clear-jel), and less than usual sugar, say 1:4 ratio sugar to puree... D'ya mind if I wait for blueberry season before trying this?

Meanwhile, if you want a snack now:
Make flaky piecrust, roll about " thick. Use a sharp knife to cut into pieces about 1"x3". Spread each piece thickly with seedless fruit spread (leave a rim unspread). Bake about 15 minutes or until the crust is lightly golden. Hide from kids until after dinner.

Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, wild blueberry, raspberry or blackberry depending on what's in season when we visit northern Wisconsin.

But the pie I'm still working on is pecan. For years, I used my own version of my father's recipe, basically Joy of Cooking but with about twice the pecans called for and a four-part sweetness component -- equal measures of light and dark Karo syrup, granulated sugar and dark brown sugar.

But last time, I added a twist from a Proudhomme recipe, toasting some of the pecans in the oven and grinding them to make a pecan butter. It's very worthwhile. I also tried his all-butter crust, and while it was easy, it wasn't as flakey as the J of C basic dough I usually use. More experimentation is clearly called for, but that shouldn't be too taxing, since my daughter had the great wisdom last year to marry the son of a pecan farmer.

DH's favorite winter pie ... :) Cranberry-Pear

{{gwi:143141}}

I have made the vodka crust the last 2 times I have made crust....and it's much better than water! And it doesn't even smell boozy when baking.
AAH....sour cream raisin pie....can't be beat....well maybe by a pecan pie...or apple. And any apple that's free is great for an apple pie!. If it's green, add more sugar, if over ripe, less sugar and more flour. Windfalls from a neighbor's tree are the best! I have made pies from apples hardly bigger than a golf ball and as green as a shamrock! LOL! They took a lot of sugar....but the apples were free!
Linda C

Reading about all of the wonderful, mouth-watering pies that all of you create, I REALLY feel like a fish out of water! -- 'cause I haven't made anything but a pumpkin pie for years! How does one make pies and not eat them? That's my problem; sweet things have to be "not on the premises" for me not to indulge! Oh well, it's fun to read how the "other half" lives. :>(

I worked at the library today and brought home Waitress and watched it tonight. Boy I want to make a lot of pies after watching that film. I've never tried the vodka crust but will give it a shot this week. We always have vodka.

I never should have opened this thread! Used to bake a lot, pies and cakes plus a lot of sweet yeast bread type baked goods. Then kids left, husband is diabetic and baking just for me I do not do. Now I desperately want a pie, any kind, but husband is home and I can't hide it from him. Oh well. I better go and eat my oatmeal, LOL.

Pies? You betcha. Pumpkin, apple, quiches, pot pies with the super crust for wet savory fillings right from Joy of C, the Pate brisee. I use chicken fat, and the crust comes exactly as it should, perfect. I make my own everything, as frozen/canned fruit is very expensive here. As the token American, I make sweet potato pie, and anything from the great fruit available. Today for the first time I made lemon curd, but I'll probably end up eating it with a spoon! Whole wheat crusts, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip,etc. I bake cakes too. I make zuccini and carrot cake, banana bread, you name it. Chocolate, too if I have to, as I really don't crave it but DG and the rest of her family don't consider it dessert unless it's brown and dripping. I'm underwhelmed, but it makes folks happy. I make my own granola and peanut butter too. Very expensive here to buy, too good and cheap and easy not to make it.
Years ago, a wonderful Midwest singer named Claudia Schmidt had a fabulous ode to pie, and I can still see her on a small stage in a little Chicago bar glowing about pie........Batya

Will someone please invite me over for Pie! I thought I could hold out and then there was Rob's photograph of the Chess Pies. I don't play chess so that helped me stay strong. Then today I saw the image of the Cranberry Pear Pie and fainted dead away.

I can't take it I tell you! Pie!!! I must have Pie!!

I'm on my way out now...no matter it's tipping down rain and the wind is at 46 mph. I'm off to Sweet Laurette's Patisserie!

You Pie People are sadists! :)

I am so blessed to live in Amish country. A short drive east and im in pie heaven.

LOL Sheila. Ok,here's your challenge for the day. When you get your pie and after having cut into it,take one of those magnificent photos of yours. Wow..if you can make a bottle look amazing,just think what you could do with a pie!

I tried the vodka crust on the turkey pot pie I made the other day and I have to say it might just be the flakiest crust I ever made. It had never occurred to me to feed excess pie crusts to the birds (though a certain whiskered brown dog has been known to get a scrap or two) but I wonder if I'll end up in the drunken Robin thread if I put the vodka crust scraps into my suet feeders!

There is a restaurant that makes incredible pies in Osseo, WI. It's right off I-94, so we always pick up pies when we visit my parents, and weekend guests have been trained to pick one up on the way when they come visit. The old Norwegian woman who started the place has been on Letterman and she's a fabulous character on account of she sounds like every practical midwestern farm woman I've ever met. Anyway, Steve and I stumbled on her cookbook today at a garden show. He showed it to me and I said "If there's a chapter on pies, we're buying it." There is and we did.

I'm about half way through the second chapter and I have to tell you if you like talking about food, you should really go ahead and buy this book too. Reading it makes me feel like I'm having a fascinating conversation with a very interesting (and vanishing!) sort of woman. ...plus, it has the recipe for the best cran-apple pie that my whole extended family and I have ever eaten!

"Good eats" used Apple Jack in his apple pie crust. I suppose any alcohol would work because it would evaporate. The only thing I have on hand is dh's home made wine, and it would definately not work. I don't even know where the state store is anymore to buy a bottle.

Marda, I didn't check in until just now - and I've already eaten the pie. Now I'm going to have to buy another one! Darn! After I photograph it I guess I'lll have to eat it too?

LOLOL at Tib's remarks. This is one unusual state where liquor laws are concerned. For those of the unannointed, a state store in Ohio means a liquor store. In the last decade or so, they've subcontracted out with a chosen few private stores in each county to administer those sales. That's a hard one to explain, save the state used to actually have government stores where one had to go to buy a bottle of hard booze. If you wanted anything harder than beer or wine, you had to go to a government agency or know someone who owned a still. lol. Only stills used to be big business in these parts back in the hills and stories still circulate with the older lawmen about raids. The officer who bought my parent's house, the one in which I was born, was killed not long afterward in a still raid.

I suppose one would want to buy an alcohol with no taste for pie crust making, unless it would be apple jack for apple pie or maybe bourbon for a nut or sweet potato pie. IOW a complementary taste.

Michelle, don't even go there with local cookbooks, one of my downfalls. It started with an Ozark cookbook called Sugar and Spice my Daddy bought all of us women in the family when we lived in Missouri. It's one of my most treasured books not only for the receipts but the lore. I bought a few from our feed store put out by a church group here to send to family in England. I just had to, knowing they'd have a hissy when they got to preparing groundhog for bar-b-ques, etc. Cookbooks are a slice of culture. You bet.

Virginia has state stores, too. Only they are called ABC stores. A nice sized one has been in the nearest local town for the past 30 or 40 years, never more than a car or two in its parking lot. Frankly, when I've gone in, I've never seen anyone inside except the salesman. I guess business isn't very good for them. The other day I noticed an empty storefront in the nearby shopping mall has a new little ABC store. Same deal: shiny floor, lots of stock, one clerk, no customers. I was so surprised to see it, I forgot to buy the vodka.

Speaking of pies, if any of you is interested, go out & get a book called American Pie by Pascale Le Draoulec. She's a journalist from California who upon getting a job in New York, took the opportunity to make a circuitous cross-country road trip stopping in places looking for the quintesential pie. Part travelogue & part cookbook (as it contains the pie recipes), it's a delight.

Liquor laws are amazinga ren't they? When I first moved to Iowa, some million years ago, you could not buy liquor any place but in a state owned store...and that meant no restraunt could serve wine or cocktails.
Then the legislature decided that liquor by the drink would not send all Iowans to perdition and okayed the state liquor store selling to restraunts to allow them to re sell by the drink....then the next thing was allowing beer to be sold in grocery stores ( previously you had to go to the state store and get your card punched to buy a 6 pack) and then wine and now grocery stores have anything you want to buy...and we have gambling too! state lottery and casinos and horse racing...the whole thing!

Strangest liquor laws I ever met was in missouri....about 20 years ago...the state was county option, which meant the laws varied....and I was spending a week for work in KC. It was a dry county where I was, but I could "join the club"..I could pay $5 and that would pay for 1 1/3 drinks, then I had to pay separtly for the set up...and if I wanted another drink, that was another $5....but if I didn't want 3, I had to leave money on the table....but what usually happened was you "bought" a drink for someone else....and hoped the next night they were there to return the favor.
I don't think anyone came out ahead on that but the bar!
Linda C

LOLOL Linda. When I was a student wife, I worked as the hostess in a "set-up" bar in Missouri. Exactly like you said. You could not buy liquor by the drink in our county. I could sell you the set up........an orange juice, a seven up. Then I had to walk you outside to another building and sell you a whole danged bottle of booze. What does this encourage? Why sitting at a bar and drinking a whole danged bottle of booze. LOL. One could, however, buy beer or wine by the drink. One county over, a whole different ballgame.

Kansas was even worse. Dry county unless one belonged to a club. Clubs were little more than bars.

I was down in southwest Ohio in a township that was "dry" (Ohio voting precints can vote themselves wet or dry if someone puts it on the ballot.). The local VFW had a "pop" machine. Yopu put in a dollar and punched the soda pop you wanted. Everybody knew what kind a beer a pepsi, or diet or 7-up was.

Linda C, you'd love it down here where the county by county laws still exist. Still it's better than what it was inthe 1970's when it was precinct by precinct. Talk about bizarre! I remember a Mexican retaurant in a shopping mall where the precinct boundary ran right through the restaurant. One side of the place was wet & the other was dry.

The liquor laws are still that way in Alabama.
It is county by county...some wet, some dry.
And, we have state stores for liquor.

We still have "Blue Laws" where no alcohol can be sold on Sunday.
A few years ago it was changed in some counties where beer and wine can be sold after noon on Sunday but no liquor.

Here in WI, I can buy my vodka at the local Piggly Wiggly first thing Sunday morning if I so choose. Liquor stores have to specialize in fine wines, gourmet foods, or incredible selections if they want to stay competitive (unless they have a great location).

As a secular soul, I have little patience for Blue Laws... though I grew up with them plenty in ND.

Hmmm. Guess I haven't bought a bottle lately. I'm not sure if we in Illinois can buy liquor before noon on a Sunday or not. As of even a few years ago, we couldn't. Plus, I live in a place where the Women's Christian Temperance Union got what they wanted. When I was first in college here, the restaurants could only serve you wine or beer if you ordered a meal. Funny they never carded the 18-year-old me, dining, often alone, so I could get a glass of wine. Even today, we have very few bars and I think only one real liquor store.

But as far as dry, what I remember was my parents' horror at how they'd close the bar car for long stretches as we'd take the train down to Florida or other states down there. I guess the rule was, if they were passing through a dry county, they had to close up. And back then, in the late '60s through the mid '70s, there were still lots of dry counties.

I personally find the hypocrisy of living in a dry county to be irritating. Our county is dry, but it's very easy to get a drink almost anywhere because of the "private club" rules - i.e. you join the establishment's "private club" by showing your drivers license & letting the owners do a certain amount of paperwork & then you can get a drink just like you live in a normal town. However, if I want to buy a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine, I have to drive to the next county to the huge liquor store that stands right on the county line & is, BTW, owned by some of the powers that be in the biggest Baptist church in Tyler.

Our county has some of the highest incidences of DWI arrests in the state, but every time a wet/dry election comes onto the ballot the forces of local morality all come out to defeat it at the polls. As far as I'm concerned it's just a big irritant, but I've given up thinking that the liquor laws around here will ever be changed in my life time.

I suspect a lot of it has to do with voter apathy, Andie. I've found it to be the case that when issues like this come up, those who want to see a certain agenda are already united in a block and move as a unit against or for it. The average Joe, especially those whom it doesn't affect directly don't care, and don't show up or are likely to vote either way without giving it much thought, since it doesn't affect them.

Personally, I am not a drinker. Well, maybe two or three a year. LOL. I know, however, it has an impact on our economy and local establishments to have customers go to another county to purchase liquor... and that if somebody wants to drink on any particular day, they'll find a way to do it anyway. So, I'd be likely to always go to a less constrictive ordinance or law in almost any issue. But then again, I don't equate alcohol consumption or nicotine consumption as a morality issue. Just a personal choice issue.

andie,
Just curious in your county/state.

If you get stopped for a traffic violation, driver's license check, etc. and you have alcohol in your vehicle in your dry county with alcohol you purchased in a wet county will you be fined?

My BIL from Illinois was driving through a dry county in northern AL for a weekend at the Nascar races.
The county where the race was held is a wet county.
There was a road block in the dry county checking for alcohol.
It was such a set up because the law officials knew 90 out of 100 cars were going to the races.

Anyway, he had unopened beer in the car, was arrested, spent the night in jail, had to go back for a court date, hire a lawyer, and paid a huge fine.

Just wondering how this is handled in your county/state.

In my state, it varies from county to county.

Wanda, it's sort of subjective. If you get stopped for whatever reason & there's an unopened bottle of wine in your car, that's OK. However, it there are 25 cases of beer, you'll probably get taken in on a suspicion of bootlegging.

I believe there is a law on the books that states how much liquor you're allowed to have for "personal consumption," but I don't think it's really enforced except, perhaps, for purposes of harassment. The big liquor store that's located just on the other side of the "whiskey bridge" in the next county seems to do a booming business in selling mass quantities of beer, especially to the weekend fishermen.

Along the same lines, but change of subject, gamgling in Alabama is illegal.
Florida has a state lottery.

There is a very popular watering hole on the AL/FL state line.
Literally, part is built in AL/part is built in FL.

So, you just walk from the AL side of Florabama to the FL side to buy lottery tickets.

Wanda, I understand that too. We've got a lottery in Texas, but casino gambling isn't allowed. However, since we're only about 90 minutes away from Shreveport, LA where casinos are plentiful the path easterward along I-20 to the boats is well-worn.

As I stated, gambling is illegal in AL.

Casino 'off-shore' gambling is allowed in Mississippi...like you, 45 minutes down I10.

The gift shops, hotels, restaurants, etc. are on the shore.
You actually cross from the shore to water. The 'cross-over' is so well disguised most people don't realize they are on water.
The gambling is only allowed off shore.
The casino sits on a huge barge in the water.
Again, it is so designed, constructed, set up where you don't realize it.

When we have a major hurricane, ie Katrina, the barges are taken north into canals and rivers for protection from the wind and water surge.

Before this type off-shore gambling started about 15 or so years ago, you could get on a gambling boat.
The cost covered your cruise for about 3-4 hours, your dinner, a dance band and drinks.
When the boat got 2 miles off shore, the casino opened.
The boat would then run 2 miles off shore back and forth with the shore line.
When it was time for the cruise to end, all gaming was stopped on the ride back to the dock.

It's amazing how the laws can be 'stretched.'

We call them boats in a moat.

Boats in a moat. I like that. Talk about stretching: When our area first got the gambling "boats," there was a riverboat you'd board, and it would move out about six feet, and then back two hours later, or whatever it was. It was sort of funny to watch (and, frankly, the best part of the one time I went--the noise alone of 300 slot machines is nearly enough to make me jump off). Now I think they're all firmly fixed in place.