Pie in Your Face
Tired of doing all the cooking? Is your idea of the perfect pie one that you eat rather than bake? Then cut into the Oklahoma City pastries from www.pioneerpies.com. Choose from pecan, Dutch apple, cherry crumb, rhubarb, and mincemeat. Each hefty pie costs $24.95 and is shipped to wherever you choose.

Down south in Tampa, Mike's Pies keeps winning gourmet awards for their confections. Savor a taste of the tropics with a "Killer" Key Lime Pie from www.mikespies.com. A few other award-winners from Mike's include the Reese's Crunchy Peanut Butter and the Heath Bar. We also enjoyed the Orange Blossom with a light graham cracker crust and their basic cheesecake that's baked in a water bath??it's a tall slice of rich, creamy heaven.

Playing With Your Food
When you're tired of holiday feasts, ask some friends over, and let them do the work. Amy and John Franks of Virginia Beach devised a great plan to make this happen. Their board game, Convivium, from www.conviviumcooking.com, has everything you need to invite several friends to help you play the game, which results in a complete Mexican meal. After you play Convivium once with their recipes, we recommend adding favorites from the Foods pages of Southern Living. Now we're just waiting for the Franks to sell a version that gets the dishes washed too--that would guarantee good clean fun.

Gourd Crazy
Get the family involved with a crafty project for the season. On a chilly winter day, stay inside and make something from autumn's oddest vegetable--the gourd. Create Christmas ornaments, rustic bottles, natural dippers and scoops, and purple martin houses from these vessels.

Buy organic gourds for fashioning birdhouses and crafts at www.welburngourdfarm.com. This company offers reasonable bulk buying prices, and all their gourds are dried and ready for use. Be sure to check out their link to The Top 100 Gourd and Craft Sites.

Drop in on the gourd lady of Missouri at www.justgourds.com. Melynda Lotven's site provides projects for every holiday. The "Gourd Info" section tells you how to clean, dry, and cut gourds, and also links to the American Gourd Society's chart of gourd shapes. We're sure you'll have a gourd-geous December.

This article is from the December 2002 issue of Southern Living. Because prices, dates, and other specifics are subject to change, please check all information to make sure it's still current before making your travel plans.