pastry geeks #31days

Our host family in Nashville was getting ready for a chili cook-off on Friday, where they would enter the pie competition.  We watched in awe as they threw together these three pies.  Clearly they had done this before.  Lots. 

The mom made two chocolate pies from scratch while the dad made apple.  She made two so that we could eat one.  (She doesn't like meringue so she left that off ours.)  But look at the meringue.  They had to work as a team to get it just right.  It's perfect.   .  

I won't tell you the apple's secret ingredients but when I saw them I realized -- of course!  That's the way a pastry geek would make an apple pie.  The only recipes I'd tried involved buckets of cinnamon and honey.  No, my friends, that's not what the pros use. 

Pros also make their own crust.  Easily.  Right in front of you.  Like it's nothing.  And that lattice?  Would've taken me all day.  But he worked that crust like he was tying his shoes.  Brilliant. 

Both pies won third place in their respective categories!  And the family won gift cards in two separate drawings.  Not a bad day at the park.

I missed the festivities while across town at Donald Miller's Storyline Conference.  A friend of mine knew our host family and set up our time there so I wouldn't have to stay in a hotel.  A huge blessing, and so much fun!  This display in the kitchen reminded me how many types of geeks there really are!