Piepalooza - The Perry Pi Day Party

I ate very, very well last week!

My social butterfly-dom was in stellar form, with fabulous friends, good causes to support, and great food ... :)  Coffee dates on Monday and Thursday, Piepalooza to support the Perry Nursery School for at-risk children on Wednesday, Temple Beth Emeth's Brisket Bake-Off on Saturday, and the Zingerman's Tour de Food Gatherers on Sunday - wow.  Boy, have I had fun!

Today, I'll tell you how great it was to have pie at dinner and to start my meal with dessert.

I was one of two judges for the Cream/Custard/Meringue category at Piepalooza, so I was the giddy taster of chocolate, coconut, lemon, pumpkin, peanut butter, and cream pies ... sigh.  So much love and care had gone into the entries!  Each was delicious in its own way, truly - I was a very happy camper, and seriously challenged in weighing each offering against the others.

When the points were tallied for my division of the competition, the charming picnic basket pie carrier - emblazoned with a tag announcing that it was the prize for "Best Tasting Pie" in its category - was awarded to the beautiful, rich, decadent Chocolate Cream Pie (above) prepared by June Geise (left). Her sorority sisters - who were wonderful, welcoming volunteers at the event - were so thrilled for her!

A fresh raspberry pie won in the Fruit category, while a Toll House pie won the "catch-all" Other category. And yes, despite my feet hurting in brand new gorgeous red pumps, I boogied over to try both of those fabulous achievements ... as well as a divine pie baked by Lia Dykstra (whose mom, Marcia, is on the Perry Board of Directors and is responsible for my invitation to the party - thank you!), which had a shortbread crust, a marzipan-like layer of almond filling, and a topping of raspberry jam ... and a creamy, peanut buttery pie prepared by fabulous teacher Sheila Metz (whose class of little ones prepared individual cherry cheesecake tarts for the competition) ... and a luscious rhubarb pie (I adore rhubarb!) ... and a rich pecan pie ....  Oh, I think I sampled a good 75% of the 20 entries, once they were divvied up to serve to all the guests!

And then there was dinner!!!

Dinner consisted of lovely finger foods and hors d'oeuvres ... here, let me show you:

Zingerman's donated some beautiful pies for the Pie Walk:

And I even won my chosen auction item: a beautiful basket with a birdhouse that has a chili pepper decor (perfect for a Food Floozie's yard!), a tiered tea candle holder, a membership to English Gardens, and flower seeds to spiff up my back yard this summer ... yay!

Now I'm going to run a marathon and do a wheat grass fast to recover from the week's hedonism ... yeah, pffft!  I'm already looking forward to next year's Perry Nursery School fundraiser - a celebration of cakes and cupcakes!