A Storm of Pies? Pie Party Potluck LIVE!

Any pie in a storm? Is that how the saying goes? I’m having this surreal experience of juxtaposing our incredible Pie Party Potluck LIVE 2012 against the hideousness of Hurricane Sandy, which happened within days of it.

It’s been over a week since Sandy, and I’m finally writing a recap post of the pie party because I’ve spent the last week either worrying about the storm, living through the storm or cleaning up from the storm.

A foot of water from the Gowanus Canal storm surged into my basement bedrooms and hallway. It was unbelievable and disgusting. We’ve cleaned, bleached and dehumidified the entire basement and consider ourselves LUCKY compared to the more serious victims of this disaster. It’s a terrible shame and Occupy Sandy has a list of places where you can help locally or you can send them what they need from their Amazon registry for victims.

At this point, Pie Party seems almost like it was a dream. Well, in a way, it was…

Pie Party was the perfect event—a dream event. Over 60 food bloggers and the people that love them and their pies attended the event at “drool-icious” GE Monogram Design Center on 58th Street. This is the space where GE showcases and demos their luxury range of appliances, in a series of kitchens that each and every one of us wanted to move into and never leave.

What I loved about this event is that, since we throw potlucks and swaps, our guests normally bring all the food. What usually happens is that before anyone can eat we have to wait for the majority of people to arrive and for the food to be set out and for the pictures to be taken. There’s a lot of grumbling and tummy-rumbling, and as the host you have to keep answering the same question over and over and over and over, “When can we eat?”

Paula Cecere and her staff at GE, the main sponsor, took incredible care of us. In addition to making the event a breeze, we had pre-pie food! Chef Tagere made divine appetizers and cheese platters. I think I saw some bloggers fighting over her divine lamb burgers, which were on cheese gougères instead of buns = GENIUS!

Dub Pies was also in the house as a sponsor serving up steak-and-cheese and curried-vegetable mini savory pies.

GE provided wine and soft drinks and Smirnoff sponsored pie-inspired cocktails developed by my co-host, Ken Leung, using their latest vodkas, Iced Cake and Kissed Caramel. He made a Coconut Cream Pie cocktail from the Iced Cake and Caramel Apple Pie cocktail from the Kissed Caramel.

Chef Tagere gave us a demo making pie crust using Kerrygold Butter—another very welcome sponsor! Funnily enough, Chef Tagere had never used Kerrygold butter in her crust, and she was blown away by how well it rolled out—NO CRACKING.

And of course, we had PIES, a plethora of pies—incredible, delicious, inventive pies brought by food bloggers from as far away as Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  Be sure to watch the video that will make your mouth water!

I myself whipped up two gluten-free pies: Tamale Pie with a filling of spicy pork, beef and New Mexican chilies (I grew them!) in a polenta crust with fricos-crusted polenta stars on top; and Chocolate Heavenly Pie, which is a meringue crust with a chocolate Bavarian cream filling and whipped cream on top.

I captured all the pie goodness in the video and have a list of all the pies everyone made in my previous Pie Parade post. Ken is the photographer in this dining duo, and he has incredible shots of the festivities on his beautiful blog post.

The objective of this event was to share and eat as much pie as you could while you were there and to take as many pies as you could home. Thanks to Smirnoff for the take-out containers.

As most of us cooks know, food always tastes better the next day when you can relax and pig out. I was very grateful to have several containers of pies to try the day after. It’s like pie roulette trying to figure out which pie was whose.

Some people didn’t take pie home, but every attendee left with an inspiring and tasty gift bag that included a pie server and cocktail recipes from Smirnoff; Abby Dodge‘s new cookbook, Mini Treats and Hand Held Sweets; Kerrygold Butter (they were gleeful!); two regular-sized Dub Pies (these came in handy during the hurricane); Fine Cooking Magazine, Zagat guide, and measuring spoons from GE Monogram; and more. There was one item from sponsors Harvard Common Press, Shaina Olmanson’s book, Desserts in Jars: 50 Sweet Treats that Shine, that did not arrive in time for the event. It will go out to the bloggers who came that would like a copy.

A special thanks to our awesome volunteers: My MOM, Mona, Norma and Icy!

I encourage you to check out the GE Monogram Design Center showroom. You can go there for a gourmet lunch and a product demo on Wednesdays—it’s free! They also host other events for the public. You can check out their offerings and register to attend at their website.

We are thrilled that Pie Party Potluck LIVE! was such a success! We look forward to seeing everyone at our next event and at the Bloggers Without Borders Holiday Cookie Swap, which is coming in December.

Blog posts by the awesome Pie Party Potluck LIVE! attendees

Salted Caramel Tart | Cranberry Walnut Tart Hungry Rabbit NYC
Peking Duck Pie The Experimental Gourmand
Lemon-Lime-Coconut Tart The Experimental Gourmand
Curried Chicken Pie Savory Sweet Living
Chocolate Salted Caramel Pie with Toasted Coconut Crust Food Babbles
Ricotta Pie Urban Blitz Flickr Slide Show
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie A Change Of Eatery
Maple Butter Tarts High Low Food Drink
Spinach & Gruyere Quiche Jennifer Baker
Cognac Infused Pecan Pie A Pug In The Kitchen
The Pie That Wasn’t The Vicki Winters Show
Caramel Chocolate Tart Souffle Bombay

Let’s hope we all enjoy a storm of pies for the upcoming holiday season and no other kind. Stay safe and warm, peeps!