GOS PIE BAKE-OFF

   Aside from the crazy wild water balloon fight, we had a pie bake-off to raise money for the Greenpoint Open Studios. You know how priests marry the church? Well somehow I ran off to Vegas and eloped with the GOS, and its been my life for the past two months!
   Joann, the Queen of all things bringing crazy food lovers together gets full credit for making the Pie Bake-Off a gigantic success. We had a it at Diamond Bar and there were over 35! pies and each baker had to bring 2 pies each to serve the 100 plus guests who attended the fundraiser. The Diamond, while an awesome bar, is not the biggest venue and thank god it was an evening and we were able to set up the pie derby in the backyard.
    As an organizer, I was busy running around and uh... organizing, which means being a lunatic on a bull horn! Nothing is more giant a-hole than screaming at people on a bull horn, but I had to remind everyone there was a Silent Art Auction going on, too. Lesson learned: nothing competes with food.
   "Please, please please go and bid on the amazing artwork we have for auction."

    But I looked around at all the happy chewing faces and I knew the bullhorn was not working! So I gave up and just stuffed my own face with pie. Maneuvering around the yard was not easy, the place was packed, but I did manage to try a lot of pies. Among my favorites were the Mexican Vegan Mincemeat from Electric Blue Baking, Kimchi Spanakopita from Banchan Terroir, and a frozen Peanut Butter and Concord Grape Mousse pie from Laurel Randolph. And let us not forget about Brooks' Jones' Pizza Commander pie, which he brought in a pizza box. A pie is a pie is a pie is a pizza pie! Check out the GOS blog for the full list of pies. They are out of this world!

   These pie bakers came with a major force. They were in it to win it! And the prize was a coveted dinner for two at the infamous underground Brooklyn Edible Social Club. I find it hilarious that Jerry and Bonnie, two friends of mine, were the winners with their Vermont Death Pie, which was a Bacon Maple Praline Apple Pie. It was delicious, but they were conspicuously close to the ballot box.
   All the guests stayed around for the raffle drawing, too, which was made up of amazing donations from local businesses. Among the foodies prizes were gift certificates to Paulie Gee's, EAT, Scott's Pizza Tours, Champion Coffee, Cafecita Bogota, Dandelion Wine, Brouwerij Lane, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and subscriptions to Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan.
Until the next pie bake-off!
All photos courtesy of Marcinjm.com