Runner Up!

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual University Heights Chautauqua. The new wrinkle in this year's event was a baking contest. There were four categories: Cakes, Cookies, Bars, and Pies. I don't like to brag, but I took second place in the pie category:

And as I said to elder daughter, the fact that there were only two entries does not diminish the prize in the least. Every other category had at least 5 entries, prizes were awarded to top three in each. The winning pie was a multiple berry pie with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. What was really fun was that after the contest everyone got to taste each entry. Everyone that is except for those of us who were performing as part of the program, since the band was on stage at time. The girls and Lisa said that everything was very good.

For the record I made mulberry-rhubarb pie. We had seen several mulberry trees on our Ride the River bike tour last Sunday. Saturday morning I got up early and went out with a very large bowl and a tarp. I spread the tarp out under the tree and shook the branches. Then I carefully shook the berries on the tarp into the bowl. Here is my bowl when I got home:

It is a big bowl, I had over 8 cups of mulberries after I washed and picked through them. Sadly I didn't take a picture of the finished pie! Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups mulberries
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

DIRECTIONS

1. Mix together mulberries, rhubarb, sugar, and flour.
2. Pour into unbaked 9 inch pie shell. Dot filling with butter or margerine, and add top crust.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   Bake until pie is done, about 30 minutes.

MY SUGGESTIONS TO CHANGE THE ABOVE

• add at least 1/2 a cup of flour, mulberries make a runny pie, I think that contributed to my second place finish!
• I baked closer to an hour rather than 45 minutes.

On Saturday after I picked mulberries, Pete came over and we built the frame for the porch over our new footings:

Next will be working to get ready to put the decking back down.