The Great Pie Adventure...

Today I have made a life-changing discovery… the short ,and rather catchy phrase “it’s as easy as pie” is a an absolute falsehood. That’s right - total bogus.  Pie is anything but easy.  In fact, pies suck.  Okay okay, so I may be letting my emotions get the best of me and warp my true feelings on the subject.  So really, all I can say honestly is that baking my first pie was definitely an adventure…

One would think that a delicious pocket of baked fruity goodness would be any easy and charming process. Not true. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself, so I will start at the beginning of amusing tale…  

[and if you are not getting a certain impression of me, yet I’ll make it very easy for you… I tend to exaggerate.]

The day started early, the sun’s light radiating great promise that the morning would be a grand one.  And it was.  Accompanied by friends and armed with  cash, we made our way to the Minneapolis Farmers Market – just north of 94 on Lyndale.  Our first plan of action was breakfast.  We quickly put our plan into motion by each purchasing a cinnamon roll the size of our face, and realized very quickly that eating your weight in frosting is not the classiest, nor the most comfortable way to begin your day. Though I will say, the free coffee I received from the gracious employee who informed me he was “getting so hammered tonight,” was definitely appreciated.  It was exceptionally good coffee.  Next, it was time to shop.  We had written out our lists of produce desires before our arrival, but that did not stop us from covering every inch of the market.  An hour later, we found ourselves laden down with numerous plastic bags containing everything from summer squash and purple carrots, to heirloom tomatoes and bundles of basil.  Among the other wonders of the farmers market, we also discovered a 54lb watermelon.  WHAAT?!  The owner of this monstrosity of a fruit informed us that his family had already consumed an even larger one earlier in the week.  Yikes.  Moving on past the ridiculously-large fruit tangent, our quest to the farmer's market ended well.  On the trek back to the car we eagerly discussed the rest of the days plans, and what we would create using our many new purchases. 

The Market Goers 

So here it is, the part of the story I know you have all been waiting to here about... the pie.  Among many other things, I purchased some lovely strawberries, peaches and rhubarb on the trip to the market.  I had very specific plans to use them to create a pie based on a recipe I found a few months ago.  Now when I say "based on" I do mean that quite literally, for the recipe I used for my pie adventure was more of my own creation - using ideas and measurements from a number of others.  Basically I winged it.  Anyway, after returning home from the market, I spent the rest of the morning prepping the kitchen and getting my wonderful fruit ready to fulfill their pie-filling destiny.  I then moved on to making the pie crust, and finally the crumble topping that would complete the picturesque pastry image forming in my mind.  As the crust chilled, I went to work on the filling, and it was there that my problems began.  Now, when it comes to baking, and you have decided to "wing it," things can get very janky very fast.  First my filling was to thin.  Then as I thickened it, by pre-cooking it on the stove, it was burning.  When it came time to pour it in the crust I had way less than I had planned.  Shoot.  And the crust was a challenge too.  As a college student with limited options, a fork became my pastry cutter and a plastic cup my rolling pin. And it kept falling apart! Gah. Now, none of these things may sound that bad to you.  You may even think I'm crazy.  And though you may be mostly right, I speak for all first-time pie bakers... it is SO much harder than it looks!  

Now despite the drama and unexpected twists to my baking adventure, there were definitely some highlights.  One of the redeeming factors, and also my favorite part of my pie took shape in foliage.  No lie.  I took half the dough I made and crafted it into individual pie-crust leaves, which I used to snazz-up the outer edge of the pie.  All the greatness is in the details.  

And here it is.  The finished product.  Full of blood, sweat and tears [though obviously not literally... yuck.]  

Ta-da!

As the Great Pie Adventure comes to an end, please take time to reflect and realize that the beginning of this story was much better than the end. Haha. Oh well. It's almost midnight and I am tired. Though I will finish with this...

...it was delicious.