Food is so inspiring. Especially during these months of abundance, when gardens and orchards seem to be overflowing with their bounty. When I saw all the different varieties of plums at the market last week, I couldn’t help myself. I bought one of each color (or each variety). They ranged in the most beautiful jewel tones I have ever seen. From amethyst to ruby, black opal to peridot, the vibrancy and deep richness of these colors were seducing. At home, I was even more happy when I put them all on a plate together. They happily stared back at me in their vibrant coats, slightly glistening in the morning light. I left them there for a few days, just enjoying their beautiful colors in my kitchen, until I realized that they needed to be eaten together. As one. In a tart.

For this tart, I used the flaky pie dough recipe from Baking with Julia (Child, that is. Have you seen the DVD of her showing you how to do this? It’s fantastic and utterly Julia. Try renting it from your local library!). She is a big proponent of lard–and I must confess–this does help quite a bit with the texture and overall exceptional quality of the dough. If you do use lard, or some sort of shortening, just make sure it’s non-hydrogenated. But for the fruit filling, I went with my instincts–no real recipe, per say. The colors spoke of their flavor, their tight skins hinting at their juiciness. And although the plums were a little tart (not a bad thing when baking fruit!) I just added a scoop of local raw honey, then a few dribbles of vanilla, tossed it together, and baked.

Margit, one of this year’s pietopia winners, pointed me in the direction of a fantastic book by Nigel Slater called Appetite. In it, he describes a recipe as a living thing, “something allowed to breathe, to change its nature to suit our ingredients, our mood, our desires.” Food can really let us tap into our most inward expressions, things we can sometimes have a hard time connecting with for one reason or another. Slater encourages his readers to take in the spirit of the recipe, and to recognize that our ingredients, feelings, and hunger are not variables that can be subjected to a strict formula and “laid down in tablets of stone.” Break the rules, follow your appetite.

Recipes are wonderful frameworks, places that we can see how others are combining flavors and textures. But they don’t need to be always followed strictly by the book. Even with baking, there is wiggle room for adding or simplifying recipes and tastes. Pie dough, in particular, becomes something that you follow the recipe in the beginning, but then you get to know it with your hands. How the feeling of the butter and the flour should be between your fingers, how a little bit should taste on your tongue. The recipe simply helps get you to that place of certainty with your own hands. Do you ever find yourself stressed out in the kitchen because you missed an ingredient, didn’t follow an instruction to the T, or didn’t stir the dry into the wet all at the same time? Try starting with something simpler in nature. Something that doesn’t take ten pots and twelve bowls to make. Something that speaks to you because you want to taste that specific flavor. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, sometimes the more simple the recipe is, the easier it is to over-under do something, because there are less ingredients. But that’s OK. Take a deep breath and try again. And taste it along the way! You’ll be amazed by your results.

Summer Plum Tart
6-8 summer plums, varying colors and shapes
3 tablespoons fresh honey
1 capful of vanilla extract
1 carton fresh raspberries

Wash, slice, and throw out the pits of the plums. Toss them with the honey, vanilla, and raspberries. Set aside.

Julia’s Flaky Pie Dough
5 1/4 cups pastry flour or all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) cold unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups shortening (non-hydroginated, Spectrum is a good brand) or lard
1 cup ice water

To make the dough by hand, mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the butter and, using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut it into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Be patient–this takes a while. Break up the shortening and add it in bits to the bowl. Still working with the pastry blender or fingers, cut in the shortening until the mixture has small clumps and curds. Switch to a wooden spoon and add the ice water, stirring to incorporate it. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and fold it over on itself a few times–don’t get carried away. The dough will be soft, but it will firm sufficiently in the refrigerator.

To make the dough in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, put the flour and salt into the bowl and stir to mix. Add the butter and mix on low until it is cut into the dry ingredients and the mixture looks coarse and crumbly. Add the shortening in small bits and continue to mix on low. When the mixture is clumpy and curdy and holds together when a small bit is pressed between your fingers, add the water and mix only until it is incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and fold it over on itself two or three times, just to finish the mixing and to gather it together. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or as long as five days.

Note: Julia spent so much time on her recipes, perfecting them, each word a necessary step, in order to give people a chance to make food delicious in their own homes. Notice how she wants you to really look at it (clumpy, curdy) and to feel it (press between your fingers) in order to understand what it is your are doing. Give it a try! Getting your hands dirty is not only rewarding, but fun. And you can always wash them when you are done:).

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a circle about 1/8 inch thick and fit it into a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press a little of the overhang against the edge of the pan so that it produces a small ledge protruding over the inside of the pan. Place partchment paper down in the center then pour in a lot of dried beans until it is very full. This will help keep the sides of the tart on the sides, instead of sliding down to the center. Bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool while you make the filling or check your email.

After slightly cooled, pour the fruit filling into the center, making sure to get all the juice from the bottom of the bowl. Bake at 375 F for about 40-45 minutes, or until the fruit is nice and juicy, maybe even a little crisp on some of the edges. Enjoy!

ps–for some more fun photos of Pietopia this year, check out the Portland Farmer’s Market Flickr link! There are some really good ones .

What does your life taste like? In any given moment, the flavors can change, meld, swirl, and morph. But concentrate on just that one moment. Maybe you can’t help it–that one moment has been all consuming for you and your thoughts for quite some time now. Or maybe you’d rather pluck that one particular flavor out of life’s-stream-of-many to discern, to hold, and to savor. People ask me, “what is your pie?” and my answer is always the same, “which day?”

Pietopia, on all fronts, was a success this year. It was fun, it was quite big, and there was a ton of pie. However, I’ve realized that the definition of success for myself doesn’t necessarily lie in any of these outward factors. Instead, it’s success lies in what this contest has taught me these past three years. Pietopia has been a lesson in illuminating the vast potential, complexity, and beauty of human life.

Not long ago, a friend of mine hit the nail on the head by saying, “there are THREE things certain in life: death, taxes, and uncertainty in itself.” So much of life is uncertain that there really is no time to dwell on the fact that we just don’t know what exactly is going to happen at any given moment. Sure, we can plan, project, and create frameworks, but in the end, do we ever really know how things will turn out? This is where human potential (and complexity) comes in. We all have the ability to grasp those unpleasant or life-altering situations by the horns and grow–embracing them by finding a sense of purpose, having faith, and getting through them with grace, gratitude and finding an unexpected richness in life. Shit happens. And we all know this from experience! But what Pietopia has shown me is that people do indeed take hold of their lives and turn the bitter moments into moments sweet with new knowledge, maturity, and experience.

I’ve been waiting for a terrible tasting pie and have yet to see one entered. This may be because it’s hard for many to imagine submitting and winning for a “bad-pie”, or we have been trained sub-consciously through cultural grooming that pie contests are delicious, or people genuinely do find the good and beauty amidst life’s hardships. There is a conundrum of learning from life’s hardships: when things do get hard, many people tend to lean more towards rigidity–to find that control–than simply letting go, allowing themselves to think outside of the box for a moment, and moving forward. And there is a reason for this–sometimes we just need to hold on a little longer to get to the heart of what it is we are learning for ourselves. I wanted to take this regular, human process and make learning from ourselves more accessible to our selves. Pietopia creates a playful structure that gives people room for deep contemplation and self-connection, that also satisfies all our needs to grow during a time of hardship or great joy. I love the reflective nature of the stories, built in with something so tangible like taste. And I love that people embrace this concept with me!

I am happy for Pietopia not only because we raffled off a ton of pies so wonderfully donated by a few lovely local bakeries (so much fun), but because the contest celebrates our lives as they are. Here and now. In the present. In all their imperfect and beautiful glory. Sometimes our present situations really are hard to swallow, much less someone else’s. But it is interesting. Imagine the feast that could unfold if everyone approached the table with the flavors of their lives, ready for each other to consume, commune, and connect through.

You can find the winning stories and recipes of Margit Beerlie, Caroline Ford, and Hannah Kane by clicking on their names. I had been writing a series for the semi-finalists, and it turned out that the first three pies I made for the semi-finalists series, also happened to be the winners! Those stories and recipes were compelling not only for me, but the judges as well.

22×30 silk-screen and watercolor print, by Karen Berger.

The art work this year was stunning. Vanessa Kauffman, Robin Miliken, and Karen Berger’s prints are breath taking–if you’d like one, take a look at the Eating Is Art shop, they’re on sale there. Chris Baskin out did himself with some of the most beautiful pie plates imaginable. He donated enough for the winners, but make sure you take a look at the rest of his beautiful collection on his website. In the end, I feel blessed, excited, and exhausted. It was a great event, but also I’m looking forward to being able to focus more on the personal and individualized work I do with my clients at Joyful Life Wellness.

22×30 silk-screen print, by Robin Miliken.

22×30 silk-screen print, by Vanessa Kauffman.

Plates by Chris Baskin.

When I first read Margit Beerli’s story, I was instantly taken back. While she has some 60 years more life-experience than me, I couldn’t help but reminisce about when my grandmother would tell me stories about her mother as a child, or even her grandmother’s childhood! The phrase “patterns and rules” really struck a chord for some reason. Maybe it’s how sewing was an art on both sides of my family–my mother made her own lined suit as a teenager, along with most of her clothes; my great grandmother on my dad’s side was a beautiful quilter. Maybe it’s my own lack of sewing knowledge or remembering the stories of the women in my family making beautiful garments and bed spreads. Maybe it’s my understanding that times past are times past–something I’m just now getting used to. It’s funny how as we age time seems to literally speed up. As a kid, I remember hearing “one hour and forty five minutes” and thinking that was FOR-EV-ER! But I’ve realized that I enjoy getting older; I honestly wouldn’t go back in time for anything. I enjoy the process age brings us of learning, exploring, pushing, discovering, and understanding. Andrew and a lot of my friends joke with me that I’m an old soul. And you know what? I take that as a compliment and I hope that it’s true.

Margit Beerli, Rinky Dink Pie

My life is simple right now because I choose to live uncomplicated and because I am in the third third of my life. I have raised my family, tripped, stumbled and danced through my middle years and now I’m savoring my surroundings: blooming peonies, the quality of light in the morning on the mimosa tree, the surprise of gold finches suddenly taking flight in a cloud of yellow. In the kitchen, I’m searching, always searching, for deep deliciousness in what I prepare, for seduction and surprise. My pie draws from the past. It comes from my mother’s childhood where there were patterns and rules. Every Sunday, in the summer, the family would meet at the park for a picnic. Mrs. Nelson always brought Rinky Dinks, individual tarts with an ambrosial coconut custard filling. You were allowed to eat one. I will make my pie of the coconut filling and lace the top with a thin criss-cross of dark chocolate. Imagine it: the custard so delicious it makes you stop, close your eyes, and succumb to sensuousness rarely experienced. And then the little bit of crunch and the shot of chocolate toying with the pie. There you have it, simple and deep, calm and seductive, pure and delicious.

Rinky Dink Pie

2 cups granulated sugar
1⅓ cups water
4 ounces angel flake sweetened coconut
7 Tablespoons salted butter
7 egg yolks
Pie dough for one crust

Good dark chocolate, chopped and melted

Bring sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cook at a simmering boil for 15 minutes. Add the coconut and continue the simmering boil for another 15 minutes. Cool and add the butter. Beat the egg yolks until they are light yellow and stir into the batter.
Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out pie dough and cut into a circle larger than top diameter of your pie pan Carefully place the circle into the pan, pressing down along the sides and fluting the edge. Pour batter into pastry shell. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the pie is a lovely golden tan. Insert a knife into the center and it should come out relatively clean. Set on a rack to cool completely. Drizzle the chocolate sparingly across the pie. Serve at room temperature. If you are not serving immediately, keep in the refrigerator.

Phew! It’s not only a mouthful to say, it’s a mouthful to try. Another semi-finalist of Pietopia, this entrant’s story won the hearts of the food-writer judges for her honesty, clarity of feelings, and ability to relay her deep relationship to these specific tastes. The story is touching, the pie is a chocolate-caramel-banana flavor bomb, what better combination is there for a contest like Pietopia?

If you make this pie, you’ll instantly understand her story on a deeper and more meaningful level. This is what happened to me! Sure, I “understood” with my mind that banana’s, fudge, caramel, and kids were all a little messy and sticky–but I didn’t realize to what extent this could be taken to and how wonderful it all was together! You might even be surprised yourself.

Caroline Ford, Pietopia Semi-Finalist 2010

My younger brother has a spirited, cheerful three-year-old daughter and a giggly, flirtatious one-year-old son. Except, my brother is a drug addict and dealer and is in prison with a 20-year sentence. He has completely missed the exciting “firsts” of his babies and will continue to be absent for their early years. It breaks my heart, but I love the kids so much I can hardly stand it.

The little lives of my beautiful niece and nephew are like my Gooey, Sticky, Banana Caramel Fudge Brownie Pie. The soft, mushy bananas are the muddled circumstances and easily bruised emotions. Layered with salted caramel for all the tears along the way, a little chewy for my brother’s stubborn resistance. And the pie is oozing with dark, bittersweet chocolate for unexpected pregnancies that have brought two delightful babies.

The filling isn’t very stable. It is sticky and messy, but the combination is a sweet harmony. Each bite of the pie is happy and rich. The lush texture and comforting flavors make me swoon and grin and dive in for more. These two young souls have brought my family and the mothers’ families more joy than we could have ever imagined. They are perfect, adorable, laughing and smiling children surrounded by love, and they are exactly the delightful surprise we have all been craving. Sometimes messy is deliciously right.

Banana Caramel Fudge Brownie Pie

Crust: (makes enough for 2 single crust pies, save the other for later!)
2 ¼ c all-purpose flour
¼ c cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
12 T butter, chilled, cut into ¼” pieces
½ cup shortening, chilled, cut into 1/4” pieces
1/2 cup water, very cold
Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in food processor; pulse to mix.
Add butter and shortening; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal (pea sized pieces).
Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing just until mixture comes together.
Remove dough and shape into 2 equal discs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
To roll out, remove one disc from refrigerator and place on floured surface. Flour disc and rolling pin; roll out dough to a 12-inch circle, about 1/8” thick.
Transfer dough to pie tin, press gently into pan. Fold excess overhang under and crimp edges.
Prick bottom and side of shell with a fork and chill for at least 30 minutes. While chilling, preheat oven to 375 degrees with a baking sheet on the middle rack.
Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights; bake on sheet for about 25 minutes, or until pastry is set and golden. Set aside.

Fudge Brownie Filling:
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
2 1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1/2 cup flour, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
2 tablespoons ground espresso
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Beat eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow; add both sugars and combine.
Add remaining ingredients and mix to combine. Set aside.

Other Layers:
3 ripe bananas, cut into ¼” pieces
1 cup caramel chews, cut into small pieces
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
To assemble:
Layer cut bananas, caramel and chocolate chips in bottom of par baked pie shell.
Pour brownie batter over top in spoonfuls, gently smooth over filling.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until brownie is set. Insert toothpick into center to check for doneness.
Serve warm and gooey.

Leading up to the Pietopia event, I am going to share with you the six semi-finalists pies and their stories. The semi-finalists were the entries that made it from round one (the food-writer judges round) and have passed along to round two (the baker-judges). All the stories this year were absolutely fantastic! And it was a really tough decision for all the judges. As I post these pies and you read through the stories, I’m interested to know what you think about the food-memory-communication connection. How would you describe your life through taste? The pies take on a whole new flavor if you decide to make them–because you know you are tasting not just food, but someone’s story. Let me know if you do!

These pies represent a different type of nourishment we all need, something I call Primary Food. Primary food feeds us on a deeper level and includes our relationships, careers, and even spirituality. We can eat as healthy as we want, never skipping greens, and always getting the correct amount of vitamins and minerals each day. But if we are unhappy in our jobs or our relationships, the rest of our lives can be colored by those situations making us feel both physically and mentally drained. Having fun, enjoying your life, and those you spend it with are essential to feeling and being our best! What’s your primary food like?

Galaxy Pie, by Hannah Kane, Pietopia 2010 Semi-Finalist

There are at least 70 sextillion stars in the observable universe. Most stars are between 1 billion and 10 billion years old. This boggles my mind.

Though I often daydream about being an astronaut, my job has nothing to do with space, or stars, or even science. I’m a project manager at a nonprofit. In my job I deal with details. Thinking about the vastness of the universe provides a little perspective when I get bogged down in the minutiae of my work. In recent years, I’ve developed insomnia – specifically, the kind where you can’t stay asleep. On nights when I find myself wide awake at 4:00am, I sometimes try to imagine the entire universe in my mind’s eye. I start with a mental image of me lying in my bed. Then, like a camera lens, I zoom out to my apartment, my street, city, country, planet, and on and on, until I’ve zoomed out as far as my brain can possibly comprehend. It has the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of feeling sleepy, my heart starts to beat faster. It’s the most thrilling feeling I can create for myself – imagining the scope of everything.

This pie represents the delicious feeling of being so very small, and the wonder I feel when I consider everything we don’t yet know about the universe. The ginger snap crust is unexpected and hot, like a star. The creamy filling is like the band of light in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The sweetness of the caramel entwined with the richness of the bittersweet chocolate remind me of the choices I’ve made – I love what I do, but part of me will always wonder what other, more extra-terrestrial, paths I might have taken.

Stellar Gluten-free Ginger Snap Crust
2 cups ground gluten-free ginger snap cookies (around 40 cookies) (Trader Joe’s brand are the best!)
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Pulse the cookies and sugar in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Slowly add the melted butter until moist clumps form.
Press the mixture into a lightly greased pie plate.
Bake until golden, about 8 minutes. Cool, like the crust of a newly-formed planet.
–
Cosmic Cream Cheese Filling
8 ounces heavy whipping cream
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
8 ounces sweetened condensed milk

Whip cream until it forms stiff peaks.
In a separate bowl, beat together cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth.
Mix whipped cream with cream cheese mixture.
Pour the cream cheese filling into pie crust, almost to the top.
Freeze for at least 4 hours.–
Remove the pie at least 20 minutes before you serve it.

Make the sauces on the stove:
Caramel Swirl
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the water and sugar in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves.
Increase the heat and boil uncovered until the sugar turns a medium brown, about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Slowly (and carefully) add the cream and the vanilla. Simmer until the sauce is smooth and thick.

Bittersweet Chocolate Swirl
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Slowly melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over hot water.
Stir in sour cream, sugars and heavy cream.
When fully blended, stir in vanilla. –

When the caramel and chocolate sauces are still warm, but not hot, drizzle in a swirled pattern over the cream cheese mixture.

Throw a few pieces of a broken toffee bar on top if you like, to represent the randomness of the universe.

Pietopia is officially here! Starting tomorrow (May 21st), you can officially enter your 300 word explanation of what your life tastes like, in a pie. I am so excited to see all the flavors of your lives come together in this fun contest! But wait, it gets better–if you are one of the first 50 people to enter, you will receive a Pietopia Pie Crust kit! This includes Stone-Buhr flour, the recipe for Grand Central Bakery’s perfect pie crust, a coupon for butter from Organic Valley, all wrapped up in a great little bag! You can pick them up at Grand Central Bakery, I’ll be sure to let you know which one’s will have them when you enter.

To enter, click here to pay the $10 entrant fee then email pietopiacontest@gmail.com your story and recipe. To read more details about the contest and about the judges, you can see it all on the Pietopia page. We have such a fantastic line up of prizes and judges, this is going to be the best Pietopia yet! I’m really looking forward to your stories–they’ve been amazing every year and this year I know will be no exception. May the pie be with you–and good luck!

Pietopia Recap
What does it taste like to be unemployed, starting a new job, just married, divorced, a new homeowner or desperately searching for housing? What kind of pie would describe the way you are feeling right now? Could you imagine your thoughts, concerns or joys transformed into the All-American Pie? This is a call to entry that has been put out for the past two years to the city of Portland, my current hometown, to find out what the flavor of peoples lives are through a pie.

To participate, please submit your pie recipe and written explanation, including why you chose the recipe and how the taste of it relates to the current state of your life in under 300 words starting May 21st through the deadline of June 25th 2010. Submissions will not be accepted after the June 25th deadline. The project will culminate with an exhibition of the winners at the Portland Farmer’s Market Buckman between 20th and Salmon on Thursday August 5th, 2010. Each winning pie will receive a limited edition screen print reflecting the ideas in the written statement. Pies will be judged upon the creativity and innovativeness in ideas reflecting the ingredients used in the recipe for the first round of judging by the food-writers panel, and for how well the actual flavor aligns with your story in the second round of juding by the bakers panel. The contest is not limited to Portland residents, anyone, anywhere can enter!

Get as creative or as traditional as you want with your pies! Savory, sweet, fruit, cream, custard, meat, or vegan, do it up! The winners will bring their pie’s to the Buckman Farmer’s Market (20th and Salmon SE) August 5th, 2010 for some good old fashioned tasting (yes, that’s right, free pie tasting! yum!). Come and and find out what the taste of your community is like! Plus check out the amazing silk-screens that will be specially designed for each winning pie, the 2010 edition pie plates done by an amazing local ceramicist, a raffle, and more!

For the past three years, I have been holding a pie contest called Pietopia, where the entrants are asked: What does your life taste like, in a pie? People submit a 300 word essay and their recipe for a chance to win. This year’s contest will be held on August 5th at the Buckman Portland Farmers Market. If you are interested in entering, you can read more on the Pietopia page here at Eating Is Art. I’ll be regularly updating it as I find out more about sponsors, judges, and of course, prizes!

I’m really excited that there has already been some really exciting publicity concerning Pietopia this year! Last month, I was interviewed by Jennifer Anderson at the Portland Tribune for an article titled And let them eat PIE: Portlanders seek to change the world one slice at a time. This is a great overview of what is happening in the world of pie here in Portland, Oregon. And apparently, there’s a lot.

Gina Hyams, of the forthcoming book Pie Contest in a Box, also recently interviewed me about Pietopia. Below are a few questions from the interview and you can read it in its entirety here.

What are the origins of Pietopia?
The idea of Pietopia manifested from my deep love and interest in community, connection, communication, design, and the senses. Everybody eats, so I started thinking about how this could be translated. Food and eating are our common denominator and a way for people to communicate and connect through, so I began searching out new ways to apply design-thinking and problem solving to my life passions and Pietopia became the brainchild. I chose to use pies because of their timeless appeal to the seasons, cross generations, and the local culture. I am also interested in exploring the ancient correlation between taste and feeling. The goal of Pietopia is to incite communication, connection, and communing as the interweaving entities within the fabric of our daily lives; as well as how the senses of taste and smell and the feelings/memories they can evoke, spearhead this process, and open doors for understanding. Pietopia seeks to channel our connection with food as a way to communicate, ultimately discovering what a city’s quality of life truly is.

What is the structure of your pie contest?
There are two panels of judges. The entries go through a first round of judging by food writers. Their top choices are relayed to the bakers’ panel, which determines whether the pie matches the flavors described in the baker’s story and life. I then hand off the winners to a group of artists who reinterpret their story into a visual silk-screened poster. The poster is an original piece of art and along with a few other wonderful goodies, are the prizes for the winners. The whole process starts in mid-May and culminates at the Pietopia tasting, traditionally held at a farmers market in August.

What criteria do you consider in evaluating pie (and conceptual art literary pie)?
There are actually two different sets of criteria entrants have to go through. The first is the written part: how well can you describe the taste of your life, in a pie? (For example, I am just waiting for a Ramen Noodle pie with a poignent description of that persons hardships, or a Ginger Bourbon Pecan pie describing the grandeur and complication in someone’s life.) The second criteria is the actual flavor. It’s up to the baker judges discretion to really meditate on the flavors in this pie, read and re-read that entrants story, and taste it some more to see if the two actually correlate, or if there is a disconnect or missing link.

Is there a proper technique to tasting pie?
In Pietopia’s case, yes. Food says a lot. In fact, everything we eat has it’s own story. We use food to communicate with each other every day (ex: birthday cakes, condolence casseroles, welcome cookies, I-Love-You chocolates, etc…). Pietopia is calling our food-as-communication tradition out. So as you taste these pies, you are aware of someone else’s life using taste (of the pie itself), smell (of the pie, of the people around you), sound (as you hear the winners story or talk to them directly), sight (of the visual art work, the pie, and the winner themselves), and touch (the texture of the pie, the warm breeze, brushing up against people as you try to get seconds…). And the more a person is engaged in something by using all of their senses, the more likely they are to be receptive and possibly even understand a differing perspective better.

What is your favorite kind of pie?
Peach pie in August.

Portland, Oregon seems to be Pie Nirvana. Why is that?
It must be the collective unconscious!

What are your plans for Pietopia?
I’d like to do Pietopia in cities across the country, to get a country-wide perspective on what the quality of life tastes like in individual cities. It would be incredible!

Why does pie matter today?
Pie has become a symbol of comfort and community. Those are two things people are desperately trying to get back to and find a balance in their own lives with. I don’t think pie ever didn’t matter, but in today’s busy and tech-heavy world, it’s come to represent our sense of nostalgia for bygone days.

Thank you so much Jennifer and Gina, for the wonderful article and interview! And I am really excited to see who will be entering this year, I hope it’s you!

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There was a lot of puff pastry dough left over from making those Apricot Danishes, so I used them for little pizzettes. I re-rolled out that dough, made some fresh goat cheese, preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, topped them, and then baked them for 35 minutes. They were delicious! However, I think I have probably eaten more butter this week than I’d care to think about—but it was good while it lasted…

I also made a loaf of french bread the other day I thought I’d share with you. This is my go-to bread, when I need something fresh and baked in my life (or for a meal). In a pinch (or when I’m feeling a bit impatient) I’ll use rapid rise yeast which cuts down the rising time in half–this is super helpful if you have guests coming over or need to take your bread somewhere with you, done and not a messy dough blob. This recipe is just good–spread it with some butter, jam, dip it in olive oil, have as a sandwich, or however you like to eat your bread! Cheers!

Everyday French Bread
1 1/2 packets yeast (regular or rapid rise)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups warm water
5 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat (preferably pastry) flour

Mix the yeast, sugar, and water. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until foamy. Add the salt and flour, mixing until you can’t mix it any more (or if you are using your stand mixer, attach the bread hook and knead using the hook for about 4 minutes) and knead the dough with your hands for about 10 minutes. Put into a well-oiled bowl, flipping the dough once to get the top coated, cover with a towel and let rise for one hour (30 minutes with rapid rise yeast) or until it has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and let rise again for another hour. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, shape your dough into two long loaves, slash it, sprinkle it with whole wheat flour, and then bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Speaking of letters, I’ve received several asking where to buy the Pietopia Posters. They are now available at the Eating is Art shop for $30 each. I’ve hung a few in my new house, they are really fun and always great conversation starters! I was so pleased with this years designs too, there is such a variety and all are really beautiful. And now they are available for you to enjoy too!

Have a great Monday!

Pietopia 2009 was so much fun, thank you to everyone who came out to sample some pies, helped with the event, and entered the contest! It was a hot one yesterday, temperatures rising up to almost 95 degrees. But people still came in droves and three of the four pies served were actually still warm from their bakers ovens! Nothing like fresh pie right from the oven, seriously–even if it is hot outside!

I’d also like to thank our gracious hosts, The Portland Farmer’s Market at Eastbank–what a tremendous place to do our event! It was fun to see people come sample some pie and then wander through the stalls filling their bags with fresh things. We also had a few goodies left for us from various vendors which was so nice.

It turns out that all of these lovely winners all have great websites and catering skills as well! Make sure to check them out: Sabrina of A Little Bit of Sweet (and made the apple cranberry pie), Kristina of Meat A La Mode (the white wine rabbit pie) and Elizabeth of Bluebird Pies (the Chocolate Filibert Coffee pie) are all three selling their pies and other great goodies too. Leela of Leelacyd.com is a local food connoisseur and food writer and she has a great blog you must see!
Next year, it would be great to have the pies featured at a local cafe: Pietopia Pie of the Month! It is always interesting to reflect back after such an event and think of how you’ll do it differently next time, I’ve certainly had a few of those ideas after this which I am excited to do.

Cheers!

(winner Sabrina Miller)

(winners Sabrina Miller and Kristina Baesler)

(winner Leela Cyd Ross)

(winner Elizabeth Massa-MacLeod with her family:)