This year I entered my first ever recipe/cooking contest. It was the National Pie Championships sponsored by the American Pie Council. The contest was the high point of the Great American Pie Festival in Celebration, Florida.
The contest has 15 categories. I entered my pie in the Fruit/Berry category. My pie was born out of love for my husband, and his love of pears. I can't reveal any more details or the recipe because I intend to enter it in the Tennessee State Fair. After that is finished I will be happy to share.
The festival celebrates all things pie. There are activities and contests for all ages. This year celebrity chef Gale Gand was one of the key demonstrators. One of the highlights, for which we all saved some room, was the Never Ending Pie Buffet. Some of the commercial competitors and sponsors dished out slices of their pie for buffet attendees. Pies of every variety were represented. Publix Grocery Stores offered samples of their house label ice cream.
It was a beautiful day. We enjoyed every minute of it. The contest provided a great excuse for a family vacation. Details of that will come in a later post.
Here are some pictures from the contest:
Getting out of the truck to submit my pie.
No introduction needed.
Thomas and Lily thought the stilt guy was great!
At the Kid's Pie Creation Station, Thomas made his own little cherry pie.
A proud pie maker.
I guess by now you are wondering if I won, right? Nope. I didn't place in the top three but from what I learned about the judging process my pie must have left an impression. The judging begins with the "pre-slice score" for appearance. Then they take a small slice to divide among the judges. After tasting that bite or two the judges either move on or try more for a better idea of the pie. (I learned all this from one of the repeat winners.) By the time I picked up my pie's remains it was half gone! Evidently they had to keep tasting it to decide on it. Who knows? I could have been fourth. In June the judges comments and scores will be released. I'll get a better idea of how they felt and what I can do to improve.
Win or not, it was great fun. I'm already conjuring up recipes for next year!
Here is one more critique of my pie. After weeks of testing the recipe on my gracious and longsuffering family Thomas still loved it. The day we left Florida there was still half my pie left. As we were driving home Thomas asked if he could have "a taste." He redefined "a taste" for us. Thirty miles later we hear an "mmmmm" coming from the back seat. I was driving and Thad was reading so we hadn't been paying attention until right then. This is what we saw:
Thirty miles the boy had been munching.
My little pie monster ate the entire top layer of half a pie. It didn't even fill him up. He was hungry when we stopped an hour later for lunch.
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