Teeny Pies

Saturday I bid farewell to Alabama, and flew on four different planes before arriving in Florida. No one said being a vagabond pie baker was going to be easy and the apparently the cheapest way to get from Birmingham to Ft. Lauderdale is to stop in Detroit, Baltimore, and Atlanta first. I think next time I fly I’m going to try and stick to one layover, max. The day I fly direct will be a dream! 

My last few days in Alabama were terrific. I pulled away from the bunkhouse in current Birmingham resident and fellow friend in pie, Katie’s car and left the drama of the previous seventeen days (yes, I counted) behind. I think I’ll have a separate post about the goings on of the pie shop sometime this week (it’s quite the story, letmetellyou!) 

I spent a few days with Katie, seeing lots of theatre, most of which Katie had painted stunning sets, props and drops for, eating good food, (though nothing quite compares with ‘birthday gas station barbecue) not sleeping restlessly because of an inordinate paranoia about cockroaches, and most importantly, making my first chess pie! 

Peter, a local from the lab, gave me his mother’s recipe for chess pie, which Katie and I turned into a lemon chess with the addition of a little zest, extract, and juice. We donned adorable hand-sewn aprons from her grandmother and set to work. Katie rolled out the crust (her first! yay katie) and graciously let me zest the lemon after I nerdily announced just how happy it makes me. (you’re hands smell like lemon for hours after and you’re left with the prettiest pile of pale yellow, pungent shavings!!! what could be better…well.. creamed butter maybe…) We whipped it up in a jiff, watched Slings and Arrows while it baked, let it set overnight and then had it for breakfast! It was a lovely way to start the morning. A tart little slice, reminding me very much of a lemon bar in pie form, was just what I needed before my eleven hours of traveling. 

So, here I am in Florida, staying with the most gracious of hosts Lisa and Doug. I’ve met the crew and key players of Bob Roth’s New River Groves (which is where they sell the famous key lime pie) and I start tomorrow. I have a feeling that they will teach me a lot, but that I’ll also get to give a little back… they really want to make a bourbon bacon pecan pie tomorrow, and who am I to say no to bourbon bacon and pecans…

My pie education continues and if the rain ever abates I may even get a tan during this leg of the trip!

I didn’t quite realize just how alone I’ve been down here until I had a few extra people spend a night at the bunkhouse. I was just plugging along, working most of the day almost every day, at the pie shop and then trying to fill the seven or eight hour chunk of free time in the evening before going to bed at a not-so-lame time. Not to brag, but I was winning one out of every million games of solitaire and reading a book a night. I was kind of a big deal. And by big deal I mean I was literally going crazy with all of the time I had on my hands. 

The day before yesterday I had a staredown with a cockroach… IN THE MORNING. I’m sorry, I can kind of, very nearly, if I squint my eyes and scrunch my face, almost understand seeing the occasional cockroach at night. But in the MORNING?!? While drinking COFFEE?!? I’ll go ahead and say that the best part of waking up is NOT seeing a cockroach overhead while having Folgers in my cup. The thoughts that ran through my head were as follows:

“AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH. What is that hideous thing doing up so high.” 

“I’m not wearing any shoes, CRAP… I’M NOT WEARING ANY SHOES!!!” 

“I have two minutes before I have to go to work… should I just pretend that I didn’t see it so I don’t have to deal with it or go find a pair of shoes appropriate for cockroach killing… Is it worse to attempt to smash it and have it escape or just walk away?”

“BBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG.”

Then, we began the staredown. I called him an asshole (it was LIGHT outside, I was perfectly justified) and made him a deal. I was going to walk away and if he was still there by the time I finished work he was a goner. And you know what, the jerk was still there by the time I came home and it was incredibly satisfying to kill him dead, dead, dead. My hand was so steady as I thwacked the crap out of him. You know what else, I left his smashed carcass on the floor that evening as a warning to all of his cockroach buddies, “this lady is crazy and not afraid to resort to violence.” 

I’d say that having an abundance of free time here in Alabama is maybe not the healthiest. However, in better news, my computer is up and running and I just may make it out of here with a few strands of sanity left. 

… I’d like to say things have changed. But they haven’t. 

I have to admit that small town living is certainly an adjustment, but the longer I’m here in Greensboro the more I notice the little things worth loving. For instance, there is a huge clock set into the tower at the top of the town hall, and when it strikes the hour it can be heard all the way up and down the main street. Having not worn a watch for the last several years (it kept getting all floury) it’s lovely to be able to keep track of the time according to the tolling of a town clock. My favorite comes at the half hour, however, when just a single bell ‘bongs’ out a gentle reminder that time in fact, contray to my occasional belief, is still passing. (albeit, occasionally at a snails pace)

I also adore the regulars that frequent Pie Lab on a daily basis and fill the shop with their predictable chatter and preference of pie. I really like that everyone now knows my name and thoroughly enjoys hearing about how I’m getting on in Greensboro. I’ve gotten several offers of Grandmother’s secret recipes (all of which I’ve accepted) and this weekend plan on baking my very first lemon chess pie. I’ll let ya know how it turns out.

It’s even nice to have a little break from my computer. (mostly nice. 60% nice. 40% a big old pain in the pie-tootie) I’ll be the first to say that not having regular access to internet often times drives me batty, but it’s also been sort of a relief. I’ve not been able to watch episode after episode of Friday Night Lights, and I think in the end, that’s a really good thing. Instead I sit out on my porch and wave at everyone that passes, (there is a lot of waving that happens in small towns) I cook good meals, I read a lot of books, I play a lot of solitaire with my deck of 51 cards + joker to make up for the rogue two of clubs, and I bake the occasional pie. But mostly, I remind myself that it’s ok to slow down.

To end the post I have several pieces of WONDERFUL news and a little link that I think you should check out.

1. July I’ll be in Georgia apprenticing the lovely Mims at her pie shop endearingly and appropriately called Pie Shop! http://www.the-pie-shop.com/

2. August I’ll be in L.A. apprenticing a seemingly wonderful husband and wife duo who own and operate I heart pies. http://iheartpies.com/

3. September I get to apprentice my mum… the fist and loveliest of baking teachers.

4. I’m featured in this quarter’s IC View: http://www.ithaca.edu/icview/eat,_pie,_love.-22886/ I think it’s a lovely article and the pictures are of course stunning, because Katie McKenzie took them!!

The tour of pie is full steam ahead and I think so many good things are to come!

As I slowly adjust to the pace of small town life (my mother keeps telling me to get off the sidewalk before 5pm so I don’t get rolled up) I realize that there’s an opportunity to take some of the pressure off of myself to be doing something every minute of every day. Lately, I’ve felt the need to just go go go, and being here in Alabama, in a town of 2,500 with a broken computer and no internet, I understand that sometimes you just have to slow down. The tour of pie is booked and planned up through August, I’ve been able to write a little bit here and there, and baking at the Pie Lab is wonderful, but baking whole pies for myself at the bunkhouse seems a bit silly. So, I’ve gotten myself a deck of cards and gotten really good at solitaire. I’ve read my way through several books, personally recommended to me by the cutest librarian on the face of the earth. I’ve walked to the end of town and back, and taken pictures along the way. And I’ve been gently reminded by Aaron that what I started out to do was ‘save the world, one pie at a time’ … and I’m not quite sure how that applies to the here and now, but it’s time to start thinking about it. 

I realize that I’m no longer the inexperienced baker that I was six months ago. Since September I’ve been getting better and better at pie baking, and therefore have much more to offer. I’m no longer thought of as a novice, but instead I’m seen as an equal who has something to give. It’s time I step into that responsibility. And I don’t mean to say that I’m going to start making all sorts of demands, throwing my experience in other people’s faces, and acting as though I know more than anyone, because I’ve been on a TOUR OF PIE. But, I am going to start relying on my confidence and newly acquired skill set, and accept fellow baker’s offers of partnership. It’s just another step on the journey of pie. I’m good at what I do and I finally have an opportunity to teach as much as I learn. I don’t know where that will lead me… but it’s always nice to be reminded.

Thanks so much for following along on this wild pie adventure… more to come, when I make it back to the library once again.

Hello loveliest of pie friends. The good news is that I made it to Alabama and working at the Pie Lab is just peaches. Unfortunately, my computer took the opportunity to go on strike, claiming overwork and exhaustion, as well as a few corrupted files… so until I can figure all of that out, I’ll be blogging on Greensboro library time. Which is fairly fun for me, you know I have a love for any place where I’m surrounded by books and the public, but it also means that I probably won’t be able to update as often as I’d like. But, I do have a plan… which is to write blog posts (as well as… you know the cookbook) at night, with a pen, on some paper… and then type them up when I have the time and the internet access.

(this blog post was not pre-written I’m just flying by the seat of my pants with this one)

Alabama is terrific! I arrived in Birmingham on Monday and a lovely undergraduate friend and fellow pie lover Katie gave me a ride down to Greensboro. It’s the epitome of small town, with a population of 2,500 and anything and everything you could possibly need right off of main street. I’m staying in the HERO bunkhouse, because they are the non-profit that owns Pie Lab (check them out, because what they do is incredible and so much larger than just pie) and its just a block and a half away from the pie shop.

The shop itself is run by a very fun and talented group of bakers, who seem to be able to make pies in their sleep. In the morning we get together a couple of lunch selections and in the afternoon we make and bake the sweet pies. The group of regulars are all quite the characters and they pop in and out all day to talk, drink sweet tea and eat pie. 

I have a feeling that the weeks are going to fly by, and all too soon my trip to Alabama will be over. But I fully intend to to take advantage of all that Greensboro has to offer and I promise that updates and photos will come as often as I can manage. Until then, have a good day y’all.