Pop-culture Pies

Hi pie friends! Remember when I posted a picture of this crazy, excellent pie?

Well, you weren’t the only ones to notice the awesomeness of my pie mind! FYI, which is a network within A&E, (not the acronym for For Your Information … although it is… just not this time) loved the pie so much that they hired me straightaway to do a pop-culture pie series. So, I wracked my brain for the most pop-cultureish things I could think of, I visited the website People.com for the very first time, got the most recent copy of Entertainment Magazine, and then I asked my friends, because let’s face it … I’m not, nor have I ever really been exactly up to speed on all things POP and my friends are way cooler than I am.

I developed six stellar pop-culture concepts and recipe tested my tushy off before I flew to NYC to film just outside of the city at this absolutely stunning house in New Paltz, New York. Any pictures I could have taken of Stone House would have paled in comparison to the pictures on their website, so click on that link and definitely check out the space! They do both events and vacation rentals. The kitchen was gorgeous and by gorgeous I mean my DREAM KITCHEN. They had a huge farmhouse sink and a rather epic gas range with stunning stonework, straight out of a move. And let me tell you if I could have soaked in that tub upstairs for four days straight I would have been one happy baker. Pruney, but oh so happy.

However, I had to bake!! My flight into New York was delayed all day long due to weather which meant that any and all prep time was slowly disappearing as I twiddled my thumbs at the airport. Thankfully, I had an awesome baker, Ashley Holt, from Sugar Monster, crushing the prep long before I arrived. Earlier in the week, I had sent along a list of ingredients, plus all the recipes and an outline of what all of the mise en place trays should look like and she make short work of a hugely extensive job.

The shoot itself took twenty hours!! Because we only had one day to shoot six different pies we started at 7am and didn’t finish until 3am. It was a bit slow at first as the team and I tried to feel each other out. After the first two pies we finally found our rhythm and sailed through the last 4 … and when I say sailed, I definitely mean that they didn’t take quite as long, because filming the creation of pop-culture pies is no joke. I was up to my elbows in flour for twenty hours straight and I just kept thanking my lucky stars that I came from a theatre background and am used to standing for hours, doing the same thing over and over (tech, anyone). Not to mention that I am essentially able make pie with my eyes closed at this point.Basically, what I’m trying to say is, I’m a pie genius. A very humble, beautiful, smart, funny, (and don’t forget hip) pie genius.

So, head on over to FYI and watch my pie series, POP CULTURE PIES .. by genius pie baker, TEENY PIES!!