Goin' to the Apple Pie Contest

Stupid me. On the one day of the week when it really mattered what I had in my wallet, I was walking around with four one dollar bills. At the pie contest, four dollars buys two 'half' servings of pie, or the equivalent of whole piece. With 44 entries, I would only get to taste 1/21st of the possible pies to try, or a paltry 4.7% of the bounty on display. As an "innovation manager" during the work week, shouldn't I taste at least 10%, and bid up the silent auction price for the winning pie, and expense the whole durn thing?

Guess not.

This is not an uncommon problem for me. I frequently walk around with not-quite-enough cash, and in most cases it prevents me from spending foolishly. On apple contest sunday, though, it was a burden. Given that I had no connections to the contest, other than an early round judge who had opted not to stay for the 'public' tasting and a contestant who hadn't made it to the finals, I could find not a soul to beg for a few extra dollars. With four dollars -- two tastes -- I had to choose wisely. And as anyone knows from experience, things do not always taste as good as they look. To improve my odds of getting a taste of something good, I stuck with a couple semi-finalists who didn't make it to the next round:

The first one I tried, with the leaves, above, was attractive but had a terrible, overworked crust. No tenderness there. The apples were undersweet and there was a layer of grainy apple mush at the bottom. 'A' for effort, 'F' for execution.

The next one I tried was modest (no fancy decoration) but had a marvelous crust. It was buttery, flaky, tender...all the things a girl could want in a crust. The apples were slightly oversweet, slightly over cinnamon, but kept their shape and texture. It was good, not gold medal good, but certainly better than the attractive leaf pie.

After I used up my four dollars, I tried to think of things to do. I took some photos and milled around, hoping someone with too many tickets might, out of a spontaneous act of kindness, give me a few. No such luck. I'm just not built for sympathy (I've been told I look mean...sigh). Lula was waiting for me outside, and I just couldn't keep traumatizing her (she hates spending time alone, unless she is asleep). I left before they announced the winners. So much for taking home the gold ribbon pie. 

Here are a few more images from the pie contest:

     

Comments

[Ivan]

Can't believe they wouldn't take a debit card. Get into the 21st century, apple pie people!!!

[Seth]

Who said you look mean? Your alkie former roommate? You look sweet, like a nice Jewish girl chef in the crazy world of big business.

I am in a very nice coffee shop 10 meters from my house in Jerusalem, where I enjoy great soups and mediocre but welcome espressos (nobody in the whole country grinds fresh, so the best you can hope for is a stale shot that's at least thick, which you get, at random, about 1/4 of the time at good places and not at all elsewhere).

S