I just realized that I never blogged about the pie-stravaganza a few weeks ago.  Considering how much I talked about it beforehand, and how much shit I talked on facebook the day of, I am kind of surprised that I haven’t posted pictures yet.  But here they are.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll backtrack.  A couple of months ago Barrie decided that it would be an awesome idea to have a pie contest.  So five minutes later, she sent out a mass email detailing rules, judging criteria, entry fees, prize structures and location.  The stage was set.  The pie contest was born.

I signed up to bake.  Now, I don’t claim to be a good baker.  In fact, while I love to cook, I fully recognize that I am rather poor at baking.  For one, it’s too exact.  You have to measure things and think about chemical reactions and lots of other crappy details.  The other issue is the CONSUMPTION of the finished products.  I love dessert.  I have a huge sweet tooth and a distinct lack of self-control.  I am not the kind of person who can eat half a piece of some awesome cake and say, “hmmm…  I think that was enough for now” and put the rest in the fridge.  I am more of the “holy crap this is delicious and I want to put it in my mouth NOW” personality type.  And since Mike DOESN’T have a distinct sweet tooth, if I started baking a lot, we would end up with a massive excess of pastries and those pastries would end up in my belly.  And ON my belly. And my ass.  You get the idea.

But since it was a contest, and I had never actually had an excuse to attempt a pie crust before, I signed up to bake.  And I signed Mike up to judge.  Because while he doesn’t really like pie, he DOES like to judge things.  (This explains why we spend so much time watching dance-themed reality tv competitions.)

The contest was held at a bakery here in Seattle called Curio Confections.  If you live in Seattle and haven’t been here, you need to go now.  If is THE cutest bakery in the world- it’s cute, it’s quaint, it serves a rotating menu of mouth-watering cakes, candies, pies, tarts and cookies, plus a sprinkling of savory options like quiches and pot pies, and they have wine.  Sugar AND wine- is there anything better?

But we didn’t come to eat THEIR pie.  We came to eat OUR pie.  (But we did drink their wine.)

First, Barrie greeted us.

Actually that’s not a picture of Barrie greeting us.  I don’t know what the hell she’s doing in this picture.  I took this picture sometime after she realized that her boyfriend Dominic hadn’t remembered to bring the pie prizes and Mike volunteered to drive him to retrieve said valuables.  I later found out that they stopped at Taco Bell on the way back to the bakery.  Who decides they need a chicken soft taco before they have to go eat 12 pieces of pie?  My husband does.

Once they got back, the judging began.

This was my pie.  Apple and Peanut Butter- it tasted really good (I thought), but let’s just say that I definitely lost points for presentation.  Honestly, it’s a miracle that I even finished the pie in time and in one piece.  Basically, my ugly-on-the-outside-but-yummy-on-the-inside pie had a really, really nice personality.

I didn’t place, but I didn’t have very high hopes.  I mean, look at what some of the other entrants turned out:

Now those are pies.

This shot features the winner right in the middle- amazing, melt-in-your-mouth delicious peanut butter mousse tartlettes.  Seriously, these were so good that I continue to dream of them.

The judging was intense.

Okay, so the only person who thought that the judging was intense was Mike, who, in hopes that the judging sheets would be given to the entrants after the contest (so that everybody could learn from their mistakes), decided to write a 250 word essay about each pie.  He took so long and go so into it that Barrie had to eventually tell him to hurry the eff up because the bakery was about to close.  Like I said, he really was hoping to “help” each contestant.  ::eye roll::

While the judging went on, Ange and I discussed our baking technique.  Or talked about knitting.  Or just gossiped.  Whatever.

But eventually, the winner was announced.  Yay Mary Jane!  And yay for the picture that looks like Barrie is copping a feel!

ps- not only is Mary Jane an AMAZING baker, she is also my mom-hero.  Seriously, if I ever have kids I hope that I am half as awesome as she is.  Plus she is a ridiculously fast knitter.  I am jealous on many levels.

And this is what I look like after having pie and wine for dinner:

Thank you Barrie for organizing the best pie contest EVAH.

Since moving to Seattle, I have been incredibly lucky to have met an amazing group of friends through my local knitting group.  Somehow, the stars lined up in just the right way that the six of us (there are others who come, but Barrie, Brooke, Ange, Kate, and Rita make up the core of the group) really bonded within a few months of meeting each other.  So just like in any relationship, this past weekend we took it to the next level- we pooled together and rented a house in Port Orchard, WA for our first weekend getaway.

Well, it wasn’t just us- we decided to let our significant others come too.  This is partially because Brooke’s husband Shaun is an awesome cook, partially because it’s good to have people around who can lift and fix things, and partially because the boys have all met and actually get along with each other.

Overall, it was three wonderful days of delicious food, really fantastic friends, lots of laughing and a chance to knit in the middle of the day and not feel like a lazy ass.  Here are some pictures, courtesy of Rita, our resident photographer.

It was a gorgeous, sunny weekend and we had a great view of Mt. Ranier from our porch:

There was also a trampoline, which Rita put to use.  She really would have loved our house back in Orange:

Brooke and I did not partake in the trampoline festivities.  Instead, we actually got some knitting done:

Appropriately, the house had sheep on the property!

There was also one overly friendly goat.  I won’t get into details, but when I went to go pet the animals one afternoon, we had a special moment that involved his head between my legs.

Unfortunately, Mike spent most of Friday working.  At least Rita got a really awesome picture of him out of it:

Max and Kate have been married for about a month now.  Max is obviously being domesticated nicely:

On Friday, Shaun made an amazing BBQ spread for dinner.  We feasted on pulled pork and baked beans, followed by Rita’s ridiculous chocolate lava cakes.  Mmmmm….

On Saturday, I tried my hand at feeding everybody.  I bet you can guess the cuisine by looking at the condiments:

I slaved away over dinner while listening to Mike discuss the the different kinds of hotness that female celebrities fall into.

Rita was my sous chef and prepped the veggies and herbs and rolled the salad rolls, which turned out way prettier than she gives herself credit for.

The food seemed to go over pretty well- we had Chicken Sweet Potato Curry (this is probably the best dish I make), Salad rolls, Bo Luc Lac/Shaken Beef (this one needed work, which is sad because it’s one of Mike’s favorite foods ever) and a “fusion fried rice.”  (I’m calling it “fusion” because I had left the Chinese sausages at home and used some of Shuan’s leftover pulled pork instead.  Improvisation is an important skill in the kitchen.)  We also had Mango Sticky Rice and some of Rita’s amazing Chocolate Hazlenut cookies for dessert.

After dinner, we had to make room for dessert, so we went for a walk:

Brooke pointed out some strange berries, which Shaun convinced us weren’t poisonous.  Even though I was nervous, they both said they were delicious, so I tried them.  I’m not dead yet, but I still have no idea what I ate.

I’m just including this last picture because it’s an elusive image of Mike and I together, even if he is facing the other direction and I look like I’m about 9 years old:

It was a good weekend.

Tomorrow I have to go to work (yay!), which means today was my last real day to be an unemployed bum.  I didn’t get much bumming around done though- instead, I made a nice, late breakfast and cleaned the house like a mofo.

Oatmeal Brulee- Regular boring old oatmeal jazzed up with fruit on top (I have a ton of persimmons from my CSA that I needed to use before they got too soft, and they ended up being perfect in this application!) and some brown sugar, then broiled in their cup to get a crispy crust.  This was so good that I made some extras and froze them for weekday breakfasts on the run.

Mike eating the breakfast burrito I made for him.  Of everything I’ve ever made, this is probably his absolute favorite thing- I think it’s because I put bacon AND sausage in it, so he doesn’t have to choose between the two.  Mike is not a huge fan of making decisions.  I know you can’t tell this from the look on his face, but the burrito makes him happy.  Having his picture taken and then put on the blog does not, but I like to torture him.

Now we’re full, our house is clean, and I’m just waiting for my pants to finish in the dryer so that I can go grocery shopping.  Wish me luck tomorrow!

So, since I currently don’t have a job for the first time since the age of 15, I have actually had time to cook, which makes me happy.  I wouldn’t say I’m a great cook, but I really enjoy feeding people- I’ll happily cook almost anything, even red meat, which I’ve never actually eaten, if I know that people are going to appreciate it.  (I have been told that I cook things I don’t eat better than food that I do, and I have no idea why.  Even Mike, who is always eager to tell me what is wrong with a dish “so I can learn more” says that my meatloaf is the best he has ever eaten.  I have no idea what it tastes like.)  But in normal life, things  get hectic and I get lazy, so if we eate at home 3 times a week I considered it a home run.

Lately though, we’ve been eating home-cooked dinners 5 or 6 nights a week, which I consider a small miracle, because in order to feed Mike, I have to make at least 2 side dishes to go with any main course.  He is really passionate about side dishes.  Not only have I been good about actually planning out meals ahead of time, which really does slash our grocery budget, but I’ve been producing fairly successful fare lately, so much so that Mike actually told me that the goat-cheese stuffed chicken breast I made tonight was “as good as restaurant food.”  This is huge.

I can’t take all the credit though.  I may be getting a little better with practice, but the real star of our food lately is the fact that we are living in a wonderland of produce.  This week, the veggie-palooza got even better with the addition of this:

You see, last week, at the reccomendation of a friend in my knitting group up here, I signed up for a CSA, specifically, the one run by New Roots Organics.  It’s amazing.  When I opened up the bin this morning, I was so excited that I did a little happy dance outside our door.  It’s filled with fresh, locally grown, delicious, organic produce, including red leaf lettuce, crisp fall apples, big ears of super sweet corn, beets (Mary, what are beets made of?), and super sweet ridiculously yummy peaches, among other good stuff.  Thanks to this magic vegetable delivery service, I’ve been able to up the ante on the required side dishes and teach Mike that he likes far more vegetables than he ever knew- yesterday, he asked for MORE LEEKS and tonight he destroyed a pound of green beans (I helped a little, of course).  If you asked him last week, he would have told you that he didn’t like either of these things.

The best part of this whole thing is that it’s ridiculously inexpensive.  The bin we’re getting is the smaller size (I may upgrade later to the regular size), it’s only $25 per delivery, and you can choose if you want it every week or every other week (I signed up for every other week, but I may end up bumping it up to every week, we’ll see).  If I went to say, Whole Foods, and bought this much produce, I’d be out twice that much money.

So yes, I recognize that I just wrote an entire blog post about how awesome vegetables are, but I’m really excited.  We may have moved to a strange city where it is going to be dark and grey and rainy for half the year, but at least I can spend my time swimming in an ocean of organic spinach.

By the way, any suggestions on what to do with the beets?