As difficult as pi??

Why do they say that something is “as easy as pie” when “pie” is not a very easy thing to do? On Sunday night, I attempted to make an apple pie, and it was sooo not easy. First I had to peel and core the apples, which sounds simple until you realize that all you have in your kitchen that’s suitable for “peeling” or “coring” is a butter knife or a steak knife. Have you ever tried to do something as delicate as peeling an apple with a steak knife? I’m just lucky that all of my appendages are still intact.
Then the directions stated that I’d need to put my pastry mixer on low to create the crust topping. Uhhh … my pastry mixer? I don’t even own a regular mixer, let alone one just for mixing pastries. I found a whisk that I thought would be a feasible substitute for said pastry mixer, but the crust never made it to the crumbly consistency that the instructions told me to achieve before pouring it over my apples. So I used nature’s pastry mixer, aka my hands. Crumbly was finally accomplished!

Clearly this pie was anything but easy. So I started to think that perhaps I’m misunderstanding the phrase … maybe it’s supposed to be “as easy as pi” but pi isn’t easy. It’s a constant, and it’s an irrational number (thank you, Mrs. McGuire, my 10th grade Algebra teacher) but it’s not easy at all.

Eating pie is pretty easy, so I started to think that maybe the saying is “as easy as eating pie” but I know I’ve never heard that before. So I’m starting a petition to banish the phrase “as easy as pie” from our vocabulary and am investigating who I can sue for false advertising. Surely there has to be some Pie Council somewhere that is just thrilled that they have successfully fooled the public into believing pie was easy. I’m on to you, Pie Council. Sleep with one eye open.