SEATTLE — If you're making a pie for the Fourth of July, it should clearly be apple, as in, "American as ...." But, then, let's amend that and hold this truth to be self-evident: If you're making a pie for the Fourth of July in the great state of Washington, let it be apple plus our local, lovely, summertime Rainier cherries.

This is the vision Stacey Mei Yan Fong has for Washington state pie in her funny, friendly, informative and — yes — patriotic cookbook, "50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter to the United States Through Pie."

Born in Singapore, she lived in Indonesia and grew up in Hong Kong, coming to the United States to get a degree in art and design. She was working in the fashion industry as a handbag designer when she started her pie project as, she writes in her introduction, a "way to process the feelings I had of belonging nowhere and to no one, pining for that sense of home."

She'd been here for a decade and decided to apply for permanent residency, simultaneously deciding "to take on a project that would teach me about the country I chose to call home."

Every pie includes regional ingredients and a little pertinent info. Fong notes that Washington State University can proudly claim credit for development of the Rainier cherry, a cross of the Bing and Van varieties; that Washington grows fully half the nation's apples; and that for us, she was compelled to add a local "potato chip crumble ... with crispy crooks and craggles as rocky as the Cascade Mountains." She also gives brief, anti-pedantic histories of each of these United States, and she dedicates each pie to someone she knows from the state of its inspiration with 50 short, sweet, funny essays.

Fong loves pie and also loves America — though the latter not, as you'll see, uncritically. Here's some of what she had to say about both leading up to Independence Day, including our unalienable right to eat pie for breakfast.

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Bethany Jean Clement: Pie is better than cake: true or false? There is only one right answer, obviously.

Stacey Mei Yan Fong: True. Because the pie can be savory or sweet, you can have your pie for every single aspect of your meal. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too — you can have your pie and eat it, too. And a savory cake just doesn't sound as delicious as a savory pie.

BJC: So obviously the pie that you created for the great state of Washington is the best one — I'm wondering what you would serve with it.

SMYF: The topping of that pie is Tim's Cascade potato chip crumble. I thought the salty texture of it would be so nice with how tart and sweet the cherries are, and I feel like it'd be so good with olive oil ice cream or something — just another creamy element to play off the tartness, the sweetness and the saltiness — like you kind of hit all the flavor notes in one.

BJC: I love the idea of a slice of this pie and a cup of coffee for breakfast.

SMYF: Yes, and you can eat ice cream for breakfast — no one is stopping you — and you can use the ice cream as the cream in your coffee, too.

BJC: So is store-bought pie crust ever OK? I'm asking for a friend who's had some baking trauma.

SMYF: Store-bought pie crust is always OK. I feel like people get really bogged down in making their own crust and wanting to get it perfect ... at the end of the day, even bad pie is still good pie if you warm it up and put ice cream on it. [If] you want to focus on making the filling the best filling it could be, Pillsbury store-bought pie crust is incredible.

BJC: Are there any parts of the book that you especially guide people to?

SMYF: I feel like the recipes are cool, and like finding out what your state pie is is amazing. But what I think is really special about my cookbook is the people that I dedicated the pies to. These are the people that have made this place my home ... When people read it, they might not know my Adam from Alabama, but they probably have an Adam in their life, too, that's made a place or a memory or something really special to them. And that's what I love most about this country. You know, I love the Grand Canyon, I love the Statue of Liberty, and I love how different all the terrains and climates and everything are, but it's really the people that have kept me here, and tethered me here, and made this my home.

BJC: So in your intro, you describe how much you love America, but also how it acts like a bad boyfriend, saying, "It lets me down when I need it the most, then builds me back up to loving it again." This seems so deeply depressing and also so very true, especially for women and people of color. We leave bad boyfriends, though. What do we do about our country?

SMYF: I am not blind to all the shortcomings that this country has. But we're constantly getting inundated by terrible things happening all the time ... it's just so much. And I feel like with the book, it's just getting a different perspective — like not being blind to it, but just like not drowning in it all the time ... This country does make it really difficult for me to do that. But again, it's the people that I have in my life that have made me want to be here. And also for all the shortcomings and all the bad things that happen, [there's] all the action that you see people take, and all the change that people are trying to make ... That gives me hope for the future, and that gives me hope for what this country can be and should be.

BJC: I love it, because I feel like pie is not for the America that we have — it's for the America that we aspire to be.

SMYF: It's the America that we want. And pie is synonymous with coming home, and feeling at home ... And whether you're from a red state or a blue state, whoever you voted for, if you could just sit down and have a little bit of a chat, you would find out that like there's so many things that we actually do have in common ... I know that sounds like so easy and so hokey, but it's like tiny moments like that give you glimmers of hope that things can get better, and will get better.

BJC: How are you celebrating July Fourth?

SMYF: Always with my friends, and always at a barbecue, and always listening to a little bit of the legendary women of country music. I love the Fourth of July. I just hope that everybody has a wonderful day, and that you get to eat at least one slice of pie on the Fourth of July and one for breakfast the day after.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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"50 Pies, 50 States" Rainier Cherry and Apple Pie with Tim's Cascade Style Potato Chip Crumble

Makes one 10-inch pie

Crust

All-Butter Crust, rolled out, fit into a greased 10-inch pie pan, crimped and frozen (see below)

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Crumble topping

1/3 cup crushed Tim's Cascade Style lightly salted potato chips

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinch of kosher salt

6 tablespoons ( 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Flaky sea salt

Filling

3 cups pitted and halved Rainier cherries

2 cups shredded peeled Granny Smith apples (2 or 3 medium apples)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

Pinch of kosher salt

1. Make the crumble topping: Preheat the oven to 325°F. In a medium bowl, combine the potato chips, flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

2. Incorporate the softened butter into the dry mixture until it resembles a coarse sand or granola. Spread the mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until dry and golden. Set aside until ready to bake the pie.

3. Make the filling and assemble the pie: Turn the oven up to 375°F. In a large bowl, mix all the filling ingredients together until fully incorporated. Sprinkle the teaspoons of flour and sugar onto the base of the frozen crust. (This will ensure there is no soggy bottom.) Fill the crust with the filling.

4. Bake the pie: Place the pie on a baking sheet, and bake on the center rack for 50 minutes, rotating the pie pan clockwise every 15 minutes. Sprinkle the crumble topping onto the pie, and bake for 10 minutes longer, until the crumble is golden brown and crispy.

5. Let the pie cool at least 4 hours. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt before serving. Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee while watching the rain fall through the trees from the comfort of a kitchen table window in Seattle! [Or at your Independence Day barbecue, held rain or shine, Seattle-style!]

— Excerpted from "50 Pies, 50 States," by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Copyright ©2023.

"50 Pies, 50 States" All-Butter Crust — Single

"Crust is the foundation of all your pies. Bakers have their preferences of which fat to use, like lard or vegetable shortening, but I'm all about the butter, baby. Fat is flavor, and using a butter with a high fat percentage when making your dough means a pie crust that you're gonna wanna eat crimp first!"

— Stacey Mei Yan Fong

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

1/2 cup cold water

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/2 cup ice

1. Stir the flour, salt and sugar together in a large bowl with a flat bottom. Add the butter pieces on top of the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, toss the butter in the dry mixture so each cube is coated. Use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut or rub the butter into the mixture until it is in pieces a bit larger than peas (a few larger pieces are OK; be careful not to overblend). You want big butter chunks in your crust: It helps create a flakey effect, as well as adding delicious buttery hits of flavor!

2. In a separate large measuring cup or small bowl, combine the water, cider vinegar and ice. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture; do not add the ice, which is just there to keep your water cold. Using your hands in a circular motion, bring the mixture together until all the liquid is incorporated. Continue adding the ice water mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. Carefully mix until the dough comes together in a ball, with some dry bits remaining. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead gently until it comes into one mass; you don't want to overwork it.

3. Shape the dough into a flat disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight, before using.

4. Wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen dough overnight in the fridge.

— Excerpted from "50 Pies, 50 States," by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Copyright ©2023.