So the rain cleared up, the sun came out, and my pie won 3rd place at the UCSC harvest fair. Of course, with half a pound of fabulous Marin-raised Straus organic European-style butter (that is, butter with MORE fat and less water in it) in the crust, and lots of beautiful organic greening and jonagold apples in the filling, well, maybe the judging was rigged.
But there was bluegrass music and loads of kids running between the hay bales, and fresh hand-pressed apple juice, and a wild diversity of pumpkins and squashes everywhere. We did our best to add a little tattooed glamour to the proceedings, even though we didn't get a chance to eat a piece of my award-winning pastry-- after the judging, the pies were sold by the slice as a fund-raiser, and by the time we got up to the head of the line, one lone apple slice and bit of crust were all that was left of my pie.
Thus, pie #2, made the following morning for Shar's birthday. We ate all the eggs in the fridge for breakfast (along with Papa Steve's killer sausage gravy, biscuits, and home fries) so I couldn't glaze the crust, but it still came out pretty cute. No one could find the birthday candles, so a tea light had to suffice.
4 comments:
Long live the Pie Queen. Cute little entry. Have fun!
Marc Theiler
Alaska Classic Adventures
Thanks, Marc!
Surely the judging was rigged. Your amazing pies are yet another reason (as if I needed more) for me to hurry home in January.
You were robbed! I had the tart you made with the show pie leftovers, and I simply cannot believe that anyone used more butter in their crust than you. That crust was an "I now belive in God" kind of experience, and the judges in Santa Cruz were either confused dilettantes high on the organic bud they surely have hiding around there or paid off.
I was there when you won the mega grand prize at the much larger, far more prestigious Gravenstein Apple Fair, I saw the decimated pie that the hard bitten cynical foodie judges couldn't control themselves from devouring, even after eating countless slivers of other pie contenders.
While in the real world we should all be proud of 3rd place, I still maintain your permenant top position on the winners dais of my heart. All hail the true Pie Queen.
xoxChristina
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