the Dalaverse

Oh my god. Y'all, I was just watching Paula Dean (which is why the y'all), and it was Pie Day, and some of you know this but some of you may be learning it for the first time: I love pie. Pie is the most amazing food conduit on the planet, because you can put fucking anything in a delicious flaky crust, bake it, and make magic.

So first they made cheeseburger pie, which was really easy - baked a burger patty and a cheese slice in some puff pasty, voila. Then they made mudslide pie, which was also very easy - coffee ice cream in a chocolate cookie crust, drizzled with chocolate, walnuts, and (real) whipped cream (sidenote: I wonder if anybody sells Baileys or Kahlua flavored syrup? Or if you could make some...::ponders::)

But then, they brought out the piece de resistance or whatever that charming phrase is.

The mother of all apple pies, as Miss Paula is the mother of all who love hearty food and butter. This was not your ordinary apple pie, my friends, it was not even particularly pie-shaped. It was a giangantic dome of sweet apple love. For serious, it contained twenty-four (24) apples and it was a foot high (they measured it). But wait, I'm not done - they then covered the whole thing in a volcanic flow of caramel and pecans. And topped it with ice cream AND (real) whipped cream, goddammit.

It was beautiful. It made me want to weep. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at an apple pie the same way again.

Aside from the wonders of Food Network, I am in a good mood because I crossed some things off my waiting list. A letter of loan approval came from Sallie Mae today, even though they said they never sent one (not that I'm complaining, mind!). And I also booked a really cheap flight after discovering studentuniverse.com. Cheap as in nearly a third of the price I'd have paid for a regular ticket. Things are looking up. Tomorrow I am going to the bank to get statements and a letter printed, and I'm going to get my passport-sized photos taken, and finish my online visa application, and visit the Gtown library because of the sad fact that the Gburg library is, after lo these many years, the suck. (It really does pain me to say that, since I spent an average of three hours a week there, every week, through my entire childhood. I had my library card before I could hold a pen; Dad signed it. I'd still have it if my wallet hadn't been stolen a couple years ago. The new one just isn't the same, holographic face or no.)

Sigh. The dessert options in this house are sorely lacking. Mom bought these little 100-calorie cups of low-fat ice cream, and that is just a. inadequate for my ice cream needs and b. taking the 100-calorie pack thing waaaaay too far. But I shall shut up and eat one, and go to bed happy.