#MoonPieDomination

Last Thursday's Epic Pie Tasting event was, as always, a rousing success.  We tried a number of new pie recipes, including one that requires you to line a baked pie crust with Twinkies.  YEAH, I KNOW.  (Honestly, it had been eons since anyone on Team PJP had actually eaten a Twinkie, so after we sampled around and ate most of the box...we had to supplement the coverage of the crust with vanilla Zingers. And I had completely forgotten just how overly processed, but delicious Zingers taste.  Shameful, I know.)  The crust and snack cakes were then covered with pineapple, vanilla pudding, and bananas...which sounds odd but was a fan favorite (it was dubbed the "Tropical Island Delight" by most).  (In full disclosure, I did not try it.  I like my snack cakes the way Hostess intended them...right out of the package.) We also tried a mocha pie (needed more coffee), a chocolate mint pie (needed more mint), a blueberry/gooseberry pie (big hit), a red velvet pie (too dry) and a buttermilk pecan pie that too closely resembled our buttermilk chess pie.  We will definitely rework some of these for a pie tasting in the future to see if we can improve upon the versions we tried last week.  Note to self:  more coffee and more mint.  And start selling the Blueberry Gooseberry pie ASAP.

And for maybe the first time ever, our crowd of guests erupted in applause...not for a pie we created, but for the concept behind it.  We used our tart papers and created homemade Moon Pies, thinking ahead to the eclipse that occurs on August 21st.  I read recently that thousands of people from all over the world will visit Columbia to view the once-in-a-life time eclipse event because the eclipse will fall directly over Columbia.  Which made me think that we should either a) rent out our personal homes on AirBnB for premium cash, or b) figure out something fun to do at PJP.  And since I'm not super keen on strangers sleeping in my bed, we've decided to open on Monday the 21st and sell Moon Pies (along with all the usual).  The Moon Pies we made were undeniably cute, but need some work in the consistency department.  Making the filling from scratch and not creating a gooey mess is more difficult than you would guess.  We want the Moon Pies to be packaged in tart bags and tied with cute ribbon, so we have some tweaking to do to make them enjoyable without a spoon and a pile of moist towelettes.  Because how can you wear your special eclipse glasses if you are covered in marshmallow?