Week 6---> "Bake A Pie"

"Bake" A Pie
Anyone who knows me, knows my strength is not in the kitchen.  Though I do enjoy to make a nice meal for others, when I cook alone... I definitely do not do anything fancy.  I decided I would try to add some new cooking/baking challenges to my list- and baking a pie seems like a task everyone should try, at least once.

I decided to tie my pie with mothers day. 

Though I'm not sure, I thought my mother's favourite pie was coconut cream so that's what I set off to make.  I looked up the easiest recipes I could find and went to the grocery store to find my ingredients  I bought lots of coconut, butter, milk, pudding mix, cool whip... and that was it.  Is that all it takes to make a pie?

 It turns out I selected the easiest recipe of all time to bake for my mom.  I didn't even need to bake the pie.  I did bake the crust and toasted the coconuts.  But that was it.

Step 1: was to make the crust.  It was easy; a mix of butter and coconut- 10 minutes at 340 degress.  

Step 2: Mix milk, vanilla pudding, coconut and cool whip.

Step 3: Fill pie.

Step 4: Put cool whip on top and sprinkle with toasted coconuts.

Who could mess this up? 

I feel like a cop out... I didn't have to "bake" anything.  My mother told me later that there are coconut cream recipes that do require more work....I wish I had of found one of those.  I would have felt more accomplished.

When I brought the pie to my Mother's Day Dinner- my family looked at it with uncertainty.  They have tried my cooking before... though it often tastes ok- it rarely looks good.  At first they were concerned when I mentioned I hadn't cooked any of it. When I started to cut the pie... it wasn't pretty.  It flopped onto the plate like a pile of pudding.  Though the rest of the pieces were better.... there was a lack of shape to each piece.  The family tried it with skepticism.  My brother, especially, was eager to make fun of me (he was a cook for a while so anything I can do he can do better :( ).  The taste wasn't terrible- but how could it be with those ingredients.  The best part was the crust.  My dad discovered if you mash up the crust and mix it in... the whole thing tasted better.  Overall this was a fail.  I should try a harder pie in the future.

My Brother, of course, had to fake that the pie was disgusting. Funny guy.