my $85 pie

Saturday night was the annual fundraising dinner for the La Plata Dems - we have a fancy catered dinner, a relatively famous guest speaker (this year it was our State House Minority Leader), and a silent auction - and Britt and I always help put it together and, of course, attend. Laura, the woman running it asked me if I'd bake a pie for auction, and I assumed she meant for the silent auction...but no, instead it (and a few other items) were auctioned off in a live auction, the purpose of which seemed to be for the big-pockets donors to show off by donating in public and getting something nominal in return. (It was pretty hilarious, actually. Laura gestured to me and my crutches and said it was clearly an amazing pie since I'd baked the it on only one leg!)

My pie went for $85! My slack-jawed amazement lasted only until the NEXT pie was auctioned off for something like $125, at which I decided I had been slighted by being told my cooking was worth only about 2/3 of what the other baker could fetch. But I felt a little better when I got email from the woman who bought it (the wife of our former state senator) asking for the recipe. I figured if I had to type it in, I might as well give it to you all, too. And I'm not charging you anything.

( $85 Cranberry Apple Nut Tarte )

I bid on a couple of things in the silent auction, btw, and everyone was quite amused that the woman on the crutches won a private ski lesson. NO I DIDN'T HAVE A SKI WRECK YES IT WILL BE BETTER BY NEXT WINTER.