Pie!

The first pie - Nantucket Cranberry. Thanks, Pioneer Woman!

I don’t know exactly how this happened that I am making a pie every day on vacation, but it’s happening and it’s fun.  And today I tossed in a bittersweet chocolate cake just for kicks.  So I am in Destin, Florida, where the water is emerald green and the sand is the color and consistency of sugar.  I’m continuing my resetting ritual of sunrise and sunset watching, and mixed in there, I’m making pies.

I am blessed to have a wonderful friend, Jess, who invited me a couple of years ago to join her and a group of incredible people she’s known since she was tiny, for this Thanksgiving trip.  I managed to come for three nights the first time and two nights last year after the big AT hike.  This year I’m in for a good six nights, and I’m feeling mighty lucky.  My sweet husband will come soon, after he finishes teaching tomorrow.

Jess talked about this trip for years before I ever made it here.  She tried to explain how special it was, how I would absolutely love it, and she’s right.  We stay at practically the only low-rise place left in all of Destin, a vacation hot spot that despite hurricanes has seen building boom after building boom.  We are a tiny anomaly on the beach- in one story bungalows surrounding a courtyard with a little lawn and palm trees.  There’s a wooden deck overlooking the beach, and everyone gathers there at sunrise and sunset (well, usually more folks at sunset than sunrise!)  There’s nothing fancy, and the places are really quite basic, but it’s the people who make the experience.  Isn’t that always true?

And there’s food.  A lot of food.  Jess brings cookbooks and gathers recipes.  They often involve lemons, as she has a giant Meyer lemon tree in her yard in Mississippi.  Sadly, this year the lemon tree took a sabbatical, but we are in lemon mode nevertheless.  Charlotte also cooks incredible dishes throughout the week.  People share and bring each other tastes of this and that. More about what makes this gathering special in another post.

Lemon icebox pie. Not pictured: whipped cream, expressions of euphoria while eating.

I guess my pie idea came from pie week on Pioneer Woman.  She had a couple of pie recipes posted that sounded easy and good, and I’m a big pie fan, so I thought, hey, why not?  Saturday was Nantucket Cranberry Pie.  Yesterday was lemon icebox pie – not from Pioneer Woman, but we needed a lemon pie – and it was easy and divine!  Today was Pumpkin Cream Pie, plus a bittersweet chocolate cake from a recipe I’d had kicking around for a while.  Yum!

Bittersweet chocolate pie and creamy pumpkin pie. Both received rave reviews from the panel of seven pie tasters!

I’m counterbalancing the pie with green smoothies for breakfast, lots of walks on the beach, plenty of naps, and a little yoga.  Oh, and moon watching.  Wave staring.  Smiling and laughing.  Maybe some art tomorrow.

I am in awe of people who do food blogs and take such gorgeous photos of the food.  For example, my college friend Nicole, who lives in Pittsburgh, has a beautiful food blog. Check it out! I really like the idea of chronicling the food one enjoys, at home and away from home. And there’s something extra cool when you know it’s real food, not food covered in something weird like hair spray to be staged for a magazine shoot.  Anyway,  I didn’t take pics while making the pies – but Pioneer woman does, so you can go there and look at hers, and I didn’t even take good close up pics of the pies.  Maybe next time!  My little camera has some limitations in indoor light, so I’ve been a bit lazy in this department.  Really, it’s not the camera.  It’s me.  I’m just a little lazy in general. But not too lazy to make another pie tomorrow!