Saturday encore ~ Life of Pie

Today's encore post is from September 16, 2014, and guess what I'm doing today...
going back to Pie Town for the pie festival! I've got a peach-raspberry pie in the oven
as I type this Friday night. The house is very smoky. This may not end well.
I am meeting longtime blog readers and friends Janet and Aunt Jean 
at the festival. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by!
There will be pie.


***


We rejoin our pie story early Saturday morning.

(Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) 

Pie transportation can be tricky, particularly when the transport vehicle is full of dog hair and 

the destination is 145 miles away. We placed one pie in a hat box and the other in a cooler 

and roped them in. The security measures protected the pies from contaminants and the bumpy road

and also ensured there would be no snacking along the way.

Our precious cargo arrived safely. We completed our entry forms, received ribbons that identified us

as official pie bakers, then our pies were placed on tables with their competition. 

My orange chocolate pecan pie would be judged against others in the Nut category...

...and Danni and Paul's dutch caramel apple pie would be judged in the Fruit category.

We staked out the competition closely as more pies continued to arrive.

I think there were about 70 pies entered in the contest, and they all looked and smelled delicious.

The judges were instructed to rate each pie's appearance, crust and taste based on this criteria:

 Top crust should be golden brown, flaky and crisp eating.

Both crusts should cut easily with fork, hold shape when served, and have a pleasant flavor.

Bottom crust should not be soggy.

For fruit fillings, size of pieces should be suited to fruit used; texture should be tender; pieces should 

hold shape; flavor should be characteristic of fruit used; no starchy taste and not a really runny filling.

Nut fillings should hold shape and not be runny.

The pie-parazzi watched closely as the official pie cutter sliced Danni and Paul's pie for judging.

I would have rated it a 10 in every category, but nobody asked me.

My pie held its shape and wasn't runny...so far, so good. But how would it taste? 

Here is Danni wearing her pie baker ribbon while we stood around waiting for the judges to do their thing.

Here is a judge studying the appearance of Danni and Paul's pie. 

Her poker face did not give us any clues.

Here is a judge tasting my pie. I wonder if he noticed the obnoxious photographer? 

I took alot of pictures that morning.

One of the nice volunteers asked me, "Are you with the paper?" 

I said, "No, I'm with the pie."

She said, "Which one?"

I said, "The one with the braided crust."

She remarked about how pretty it was. Too bad she wasn't one of the judges.

Neither of our pies were winners, but we were cool with that. We knew our pies were very good,

so the winners must have been great.

Anyway, once the contest was over, the pies were taken to the concession stand, where pieces could be purchased.

We headed over there to buy slices of our own pies so we could finally find out how they tasted.

Here are Danni and Paul standing in line, waiting to buy pie. Then the weirdest thing happened.

Just as we got to the front of the line, my pie was brought over from the contest area.

A lady put it on the shelf with all the other pies, then a few seconds later, picked it up and took it away.

"Wait! Wait! That's my pie!" I exclaimed. "I want to buy a piece!"

The lady said it was disqualified and they couldn't sell it. Huh?

Then a man came over and said he was the health inspector and gave us some song and dance about

there being chocolate on the pie and he couldn't tell what kind of chocolate it was...blah blah blah...

and bottom line they couldn't sell it. So they gave the whole pie back to me. Score!

Now I could have as much of my orange chocolate pecan pie as my heart desired, and 

were it not for the fact that it contained 625 calories per serving, I would have eaten the whole thing.

(Here's a link to the recipe.)

Then our table filled up with other pie eaters, including the guy in the pony tail at the end 

who had come from Utah and was a contestent in the pie-eating contest. 

He brought along a raspberry pie ... and a knife ... so I borrowed it and cut pieces of my pie for everybody 

and he cut pieces of his pie for everybody and we all sat around eating pie in Pie Town. 

What a great day.