The first pie was an apple pie, again made with the apple brandy crust. I am ready to give up on this technique. Working with the dough is not very satisfying, it falls apart with little provocation. But the results on the dish are quite acceptable, or so I am told.

With a big meal, I went with but one slice of pie for dessert. And that was a slice from the Shaker Lemon pie from a recipe from a new pie cookbook "Pie Pie Pie: Easy Homemade Favorites" received from Jeff and Sue at the holidays. Sue and Jeff, if you are reading, I promise you a pie when (if?) you visit. This lemon pie's filling has slices from the whole lemon, rind and all. Jen was askance, but the reviews were generally good, and I enjoyed it.

Oh, and no surprise. Bert was the evening's Perquackey winner.

Of course, with a broken RSS, you'll never see this post. Ah, technology.

I forgot to bring my flash along, so the image blurs when there is movement, which is just about always when Josie is awake. Jen set up their camera on a gorilla-pod and using the remote control, took some "good" pictures. I guess if piebee.com cannot compete on picture quality, I'll just have to compensate with my insightful prose.

Karen made a yummy apple-crisp. We neglected to take leftovers home with us, something I will forever regret.

Or perhaps it would help to be told that Karen has been working in charcoal in her drawing class the past few weeks. Perhaps the feline footprints near where these drawings are kept would be a clue. Perhaps.

Josie helped out, of course. The surprise was she did not do much (any?) sampling of the construction materials. Maybe the psychedelic colors were too novel for this all to register as candy. Maybe it has been twenty months of grownups saying, "don't put that in your mouth!". My daughter, of course, is past that, and has a sweet tooth. As Jen says, "it's all good." Her suggestion for the unused candy cane: Mint (candy cane) chocolate chip cookies

Oh, and I think the commenting is still broken.

Jordi could find no way to light a few candles in a fondue however. So dessert was cupcakes. Here Jen gets some assistance in making her wish come true.

Oh, the name of the hotel was Soylent Green Inn.

But wait, there's more. My cousin Sue and hubby Jeff had all of us over on Friday after. The configuration of the table did not lend itself to a classic photo, but this pic of our hosts looks pretty good to me. Pie was mincemeat, yum.