pie challenge

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 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.