[I started this post on 12/2 and am just now (12/9) realizing that I never finished this post. Braindead for a week. I think I’m alive again now. So, here’s the post PieMo post]
I am still breathing heavy and out of breath from 30 pies in 30 days, which was really 32 Pies in 29 Days. I have so much other work piled up waiting for me to get back to a routine that isn’t about making a pie and foregoing everything else.
How does it feel to be done? Everyone asks. Like a giant pie has been lifted from my shoulders. This year was an especially big pie. A heavy pie, a steak and potatoes pie with a concrete filling. Everyone also always asks if I will be doing it again next year. Next year will look different, and I’m going to enlist some help. Lesson learned, and there were many lessons learned this year, and that’s another blog post.
Today, I want to at least start the thank yous for all the donors. We raised over $6000. Here’s the pie play by play.
I’ll start with the first five days. Karen Van Dyke, Jimmy Camp, Leslye Lyons and Kathy Dodson all ran off with pies both sweet and savory. I was feeling pretty good about things because I was hitting the over $100 mark almost every day. To think my first year I started bids at $30 a pie. Things have surely grown.
Day 5 I was reeling. I got a $1000 bid on the Steak and Cheddar pie in puff pastry from Debra Liebert and Dan Rodriguez. Then they upped it to $2000. I wandered the house aimlessly and almost forgot to finish the pies.
Day 6 was back to normal with $130 for the Chai Pie. This was an experimental pie for me, but I’ll tell you I will be making it again. PJ Colando won this pie, and she had car trouble and couldn’t pick it up. I can’t for the life of me remember where it went now. I think the kids at Ocean Discovery got it.
Things started flowing and creeping upward with bids and competition. Linda Bannan took home the carrot cake pie, Arthur Salm took home the GF Cottage pie for $200 and Tish Frederick matched the bid at $250.
Heather Bentley took another savory the next day, and another savory the day after - winner Joy Boatman with a match from Leslie Russum.
Day 11 I took a pie to DimeStories so didn’t auction it off. I managed to trip on the way into the reading, throwing the big slab pie in the air, catching it on the way down, only to have it land on the ground in a completely vertical upright position. I started to cry, peeled back the foil and saw it was completely in tact. My incredible agent Betsy Amster donated $100 that day.
Eber’s birthday is always a Chicken Pot Pie, and so many folk donated as birthday gifts to Eber while he got to eat the pie. Ellen Wages, Jean Dunow, and others.
Day 13 I had a winning bid of $200 from RL Maizes in Colorado and a match in New Mexico from Anita Holtz so the whole pie here in California went to the kids- Blueberry Sour cream
Karen van Dyke came back into the game on Day 14 with a nice juicy winning bid for the Apple Blackberry pie, and Heather Bentley came around for another win on Day 15 for a chicken sausage and apple pie.
Day 16 Half Way! This pie was for the Lemon Chiffon Moment at Ocean Discovery and presented to Nicole Lebeouf of National Ocean Services. Shara Fisler donated $500 for this big event.
Leslye Lyons came back around for yet another pie, just before I slowed the bidding for a couple of days while I baked for the 2-Pie Adventure to sell a few books.
But the game started again with a German Chocolate pie and another steak and cheddar pie taken by Lisa Churchville and Marion Wilson and Leslye Lyons AGAIN!
Jumble berry pie was ready for LaTresa Pearson, and the holiday tipsy take away was made by Tudy Wolff with two pies in two days Brandy Pecan and Bourbon Pumpkin.
Coming in for the home stretch, Karen van Dyke won yet again bidding on the Leftover pie.
Anne Mery took the Jumble berry pie at the in-person auction, and for bake-athon with Tammy Greenwood, Carolyn Muhlstein won. She picked it up in her Christmas jammies!
Finale pie was swept off with the big day when I was crawling to the kitchen by Barbara Crena. That same day and other days saw generous donations by Aileen Ross, Anne Regier, Barbara Bartholomae, and if I’m leaving someone off it’s because I’ve lost the use of my eyeballs after reading recipes and dusting my kitchen in flour. But every single dollar is appreciated. I lost my soul and found it in the butter at the back of the fridge during this year’s auction, and I learned that someone always shows up even when you didn’t know you needed someone to show up. I have other more pithy and funny remarks, but I’ll save them for another post.
A big shout out to Karen van Dyke and Lesley Lyons for being such big pie lovers, or at least keeping the show going the whole time. Karen and Leslye bought 3 pies each.
I am blown away by the generosity, enthusiasm, constant support, and just general camaraderie through the whole process. Each and every one of you, whether you won a pie, or just bid, or just watched, or just salivated, or just cheered me on, or sat silently wondering what is this crazy woman doing, I appreciate all of you.