Day 17: NaNoPIEMo 30 Pies in 30 Days - Gifts

Today’s pie is a gluten-free key lime pie. Arthur Salm, one of the pie winners gave me a bag of limes from his tree, and it’s citrus season and pie season so it seems I should make a a pie with these limes. We are having a Santa Ana condition which means its hot, and a nice cool pie sounds refreshing. I found a great recipe for graham cracker crust made with oats instead of graham crackers (yes, I’ll make sure the oats are GF). Instead of Key Limes from Florida, when I receive California limes I like to call it a Cal Lime Pie. Not so clever, but clever enough. Let’s start the bidding at $85. Put your bids down in the comments. I’ll let you know when the pie comes out of the fridge. It needs about 4 hours or so.

I love it when my neighbors and friends drop off fruit and little gifts for pie. I love surprises and when I see a bag on my porch or hanging from my door knob, I know that there will be some pie thinking on my part to see what I can do with the gift.

Yesterday’s pie ended up being a gift I presented to Nicole Lebeouf the Director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service. I took the pie to Ocean Discovery Institute where they wanted to share a special moment with Nicole. She had previously come to visit ODI as a program that has received the President’s Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering mentoring. When Nicole visited before she talked about how ODI makes lemonade out of lemons, but, she said, Did they have a lemon chiffon pie moment? So this year, they wanted to present all their lemon chiffon pie moments along with a lemon chiffon pie. I was honored they picked my pie to present to Nicole Lebeouf.

I took a quickie YouTube decorating class and tried to make it look like an underwater garden. Not quite baking show level, but lots of good karma in this pie.

Day 11: NaNoPIEMo 30 Pies in 30 Days- A Break

I’m taking a break today. Not from making pies, because it is still 30 pies in 30 days challenge, and the challenge is all on me. But I’m taking a break from the bidding. You guys are incredible and I hate to stop the momentum, but a lesson I take from Jill Badonsky’s playful approach to living the creative life, is that sometimes we have to slow down to let our souls catch up.

I love the high energy of the bidding and where it has taken us. Wow—already surpassed last year’s total of $4000 and we are only on Day 11. That’s one third of the way through for those of you who don’t do maths. My personal secret goal that I told no one when I first started was to double last year’s total. I think I might make it!

I hate taking a break from the bidding because it’s brought in so many wonderful donations, but I need to for two reasons. 1. DimeStories 18th anniversary is tonight and I promised them a long time ago I would bring a big blueberry slab pie for everyone. So, no pie to sell. And, 2. I have family coming for Eber’s birthday celebration and it was through chicken pot pie that I courted Eber so that’s what we have every year on his birthday and that pie won’t be for sale either. That’s Day 12, which I’ll write about tomorrow.

Day 13 which is Sunday, I’ll make either a blueberry and sourcream pie or a black bottom chiffon pie.

That said, I have to be so on top of it with bidding. I love encouraging and teasing everyone with the pie porn and what pie at what time. It’s fun, and I think you all are having fun too. But it’s more of a challenge than the 30 PIes challenge.

One thing, that I think would help me is if I had more comments on Facebook from those who are watching. It’s crickets down in the comment section since I’ve put bidding on my website blog. Some folks don’t like the extra click to come over here, but it makes for a great central location. It’s really just a Facebook adventure, this pie auction, but Facebook has changed so much in the last year that the first couple of days I heard a lot of screaming (people who don’t get their pie are loud) that my posts weren’t where they were looking. I don’t know FB’s algorithms, but it seems that if there were comments in the comment section FB would think I’m popular and then put me at the top. I’m not popular, and never found that status to be appealing, but for this short month, I’d love to be popular enough to raise lots of dough (see what I did there?) for the kids. So come along on the adventure, whether you want a pie or not. And who knows, there may be a day where there’s pie for everyone.

And, one last thing, not to brag, but I’m actually a pie ahead anyway. I was asked to write an article for the Rose Bowl magazine and the piece needed to include recipes, so Wednesday, I created this brunch pizza pie to eat while watching the Rose Bowl parade. I needed to include photos so I made the quicky pie, photographed it, and Eber and I had it for dinner. Oh what you can do with frozen puff pastry.

Day 7: NaNoPIEMo 30 Days of 30 Pies, or something like that.

I’m exhausted. I write these blog posts the night before and have them scheduled to show up first thing in the morning. So I’m writing this one with my eyes partially closed. I may not even know what kind of pie I’m telling you is the pie for tomorrow. I think it’s called an ORANGE SPICE CARROT PIE in a CREAM CHEESE PASTRY. It will go brilliantly with all the coffee we are drinking to adjust with the Daylight/Standard time change jet lag.

This pie helps in two ways. The kids Ocean Discovery get free meals, and they often don’t eat all their fruits and veggies as kids are wont to do. I usually take the pounds of apples or pears or peaches and make pie for the kids. A cobbler with sugar and ice cream is SO much better than a fresh fruit when you are 9 years old. They also leave pounds of untouched little ziploc baggies of carrots. I love carrot cake but I don’t make much cake. I finally found a recipe for a carrot cake type of pie. All the same spices, and mixture, but not cakey but very moist. It will be in a cream cheese pastry, and I’m hoping to make some cream cheese whipped topping. Yum. And, the carrots won’t go to waste.

I’m rather excited about this pie, especially after the success with yesterday’s Chai Pie full of fresh ground spices. This pie will also be filled with fresh ground spices and fresh carrots. And DREAM, I mean, CREAM CHEESE!

Bids start at $85. Place your bids in the comments. Highest bidder when I pull the pie out of the oven wins. Watch for updates on social media. But the winner will be posted here when bids are closed.

This is me yesterday…I’ll survive!

Day 6 NaNoPIEMo 30 Pies in 30 Days

TODAY’S PIE IS CHAI PIE. Yes, that rhymes. I keep saying it out loud because it makes me smile. I read about this pie and wanted to make it mine. Sometimes we read a story and wish we’d written that story. This pie is like that. Chai Pie has all the spices of chai in a custard pie. It’s from Kate McDermott’s Art of the Pie cookbook, my favorite pie book.

All the hoopla from the $1000 pie yesterday has kept me swaying with happiness. I want to start the bidding today at $1001, but I’d be pushing it, I assume. Yet, if you want to go ahead and make a bid like that, please go right ahead. I’ll write about it like I did yesterday’s bid. Go to Day 5’s pie blog and you can read all about my awe. It might make you cry like it did me. Take Kleenex.

Okay, I’ll start the bidding at $75. Let’s do this for the kids. Let’s show them pie-love!

Place your bid in the comments. I’ll name the winner with the highest bid when the pie is done.

Day 5 $1000 PIE

Yesterday sent me stumbling, then mumbling, then bumbling. Clever rhyme, but that’s really what happened. I struggled yet again with the social media links because they boggle me with their breakage, and trip ups, and “save” then not save. But while in the midst of all of that, I saw bids coming in, so I knew that something was working. I kept working on the day’s pie, one of my favorites—the aroma of rosemary and balsamic marinated steak with a garlic, mushroom and onion cream sauce just bursts my olfactory senses. I get a little high from it. Then the social media issue, and messages coming in saying my links aren’t working had me miss the sweet spot on my onions becoming transparent. But I figured caramelized onions was actually better for the recipe so I went with that and ignored the broken links for awhile. At least until I had one more person ask me about the links, so I sent the right link, and then stepped away from the stove while I went to see what the bids were at.

$1000 had come in for this Rosemary Steak and Gruyere in a puff pastry. That’s three zeros, I kept saying. I repeated it to myself as I wandered about my house aimlessly not sure what to do with myself. I wanted to cry and to jump up and down, and my dog wanted to go for a walk, so we did that. The whole time, while she was pooping and peeing, I was thinking, $1000! For a pie!

I get it. It’s not for the pie, it’s for the kids at Ocean Discovery Institute, but still, my little fundraiser has always felt like that—like a little fun fundraiser. I did it on a whim, and the donations come in on whims from people who want a yummy pie and want to contribute. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if the fundraiser grew to a bigger pie?

I love these kids that the money goes to. I see them as hope for a future we don’t know yet. I know they will struggle and have to persevere, but I also know many of them will achieve things I could never dream of—like becoming a world-renowned scientist. I never believed in a cure for cancer, but these kids make me think it could happen. Over the years I’ve watched some who are already changing the world as PhD students at Scripps, scientists in molecular biology, graduating from UCLA, UC Berkeley, reaching for the stars, and touching them.

A thousand dollars goes a long way to helping Ocean Discovery Institute have tuition-free programs. I’m getting all non-profitty here and spouting all the right words. But $1000 does go along way. It makes their dreams possible.

The stumbling was me climb over and around the social media obstacles, the mumbling was me cursing every one of the technological mishaps, and the bumbling was me wandering around the house repeatedly saying, “I made a pie worth $1000.” That’s a big pie.

I asked the kids on Friday “Why do you like to write?” Here are a couple of examples. (I also tell them that they can tell their stories through drawings).

I have a dream, and my dream is that their dreams come true. It sounds sappy, but it’s true. Thank you, Deb & Dan for your contribution to NaNoPIEMo and ultimately Ocean Discovery Institute kids.

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Day 5: NaNoPIEMo 30 Pies in 30 Days

ROSEMARY STEAK AND GRUYERE IN A PUFF PASTRY. That’s the pie, but read on if you want to know why.

PLACE YOUR BIDS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. THE WINNER WILL BE DECLARED WITH THE PIE COMES OUT OF THE OVEN, OR THEREABOUTS. Bidding starts at $95. I’m trying to raise more money than last year, and this pie is worth it.

WHY THIS PIE:

I re-watched Nora Ephron’s movie Julie & Julia last night because of Julie Powell’s untimely death. She is who inspired NaNoPieMo in the same way that Julia Child inspired her. I don’t mean I intended to be Julie Powell with her blog (I say, as I type this blog post.) but I appreciated that she not only reached a goal, but she worked through recipes. It seems easier than it is. Sometimes recipes are easy, sometimes not so much. In fact, when Juiia Child heard about Julie Powell’s project to complete all her recipes in one year, and how she was struggling, Julia commented that it was ridiculous because she had written her recipes to be so simple. She has, and her Mastering the Art of French Cooking is marvelous. BUT, some of the recipes, while simplified from the original, are still complicated. That said, I often use her recipe to make my beef bourguignon pie in puff pastry.

I’m not making that pie this time, but close. TODAY’S PIE IS ROSEMARY STEAK & GRUYERE IN PUFF PASTRY. It may be four little pies, or maybe one big pie. But it will make a perfect Saturday night dinner. I have a similar recipe with different spices in HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 20 PIES—Warrior Steak and Cheddar PIe. It shows up right after the chapter on getting an offer from a publisher.

Julie Powell wanted to be an author. It was her determination and aspirations that helped her reach that goal. But because there are other people, like agents and editors, that stand between us and our goals sometimes, we have to be warriors, we have to keep fighting for what we want. We can’t be afraid. Fear is for the pie-less.

I’m posting this picture because this was a day I was fearless—I had heard about baking a pie on the grill. I tried it, and well, I wish I had an After-Photo. It was as blackened as the inside of the grill. I foolishly was talking to the group of guests I had on my deck instead of paying attention to my pie. For two days, Eber and I scraped apple pie out of the iron skillet. But, I will try it again!

Today’s pie will not be made on the grill. Note to self: try a recipe out before trying it on paying guests.

Place your bids in the comments, and I’ll check in when I slide the pie in the oven to give notice of time is short for placing those really high bids!

Day 3: NaNoPIEMo 30 Pies in 30 Days

Cold and windy day in San Diego calls for Chicken Pot Pie. This was my very first pie to achieve. It’s still my favorite one to make. I hope it makes someone a very comforting dinner, and a nice donation for the kids at Ocean Discovery Institute. Art work by Emil Wilson, excerpted from How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: Sweet & Savory Secrets for Surviving the Writing Life.

Place your bids in the comments below. Bidding closes when the pie comes out of the over or thereabouts. All proceeds go to Ocean Discovery Institute where I teach personal storytelling to the kids. If you can’t pick up the pie, the kids are always happy to eat a donated pie.

Here are the final chicken pot pies! Thank you Leslye!

If you want to donate even without a pie, just click this magic button.

Day 2 30 Pies in 30 Days NaNoPIEMo

Today’s pie is Apple Ginger, Maple, Bourbon pie inspired by Kate McDermott’s recipe in her book PIE CAMP. I write about Pie Camp in my new book., How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies. Place your bids in the comments. Check back anytime! I’ll be watching. Here’s to pie and stories and comfort. Artwork by Emil Wilson @emilswils

Here’s the final pie! Thank you Jimmy Camp.