Pie Lab

I'll have another post about the work we've been doing coming up, but I wanted to have this one be dedicated solely to the Pie Lab.

Luke and I decided that we would like to work in the Pie Lab just for fun. So, I let our sponsor Deborah know and she said, "Sure! Come on in on Saturday morning!" Luke and I arrived at 8am in time to learn how to use the French press to make amazing coffee, get acquainted with the cash register, straighten up the store for the day, and start baking! There's been almost no rules and we have definitely run wild in here.

We started the day off by deciding to make a Southern classic--chess pie. This was ambitious because not only had we never made a chess pie before, we'd also never seen one--so we had no idea what to expect. We didn't even know if it went in a crust or not! Following the sparse recipe in my "Best of the Best from Mississippi" cookbook that my momma gave me, we created something like a super moist and sweet cornbread. It came out pretty good, though I've felt pretty self-conscious about whether or not this was how it is supposed to be all day. We've had positive reviews, though.

Throughout the day, we also made a pecan pie; a tomato, broccoli and cheddar quiche; a spinach, feta and sauteed onion quiche; a ham and cheddar quiche; a "super fruit explosion" pie (I made this one up--it's got strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, apples, pears, fresh lemon juice and a lattice top); and a honey bourbon caramel peach pie (I found the recipe online!).

Anyway, I guess this post was mainly to make y'all jealous of how awesome my day has been. The kitchen is stocked with all kinds of ingredients and we've been having a blast making up recipes as we go along! If you have any favorites you think we should try in the weeks to come, let me know! We're always up for new ideas and new adventures!

Peace, Love, and Pie,
Nora

HERO

Checking in from Greensboro, AL where we're just settling in before we start work tomorrow with our Round 4 (!!!) sponsor, HERO, Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization. They're this awesome not-so-little non-profit that seems to do a whole lot of everything here in this town of 2400 people. They have a construction wing (which will be our main assignment), a housing resource program, a YouthBuild program, a thrift store, a Pie Lab, and a small business incubator that generally allows them to do whatever it is the community wants them to do... We have an orientation tomorrow that will give me more concrete information about all this stuff so I'll be able to explain it better to you. For now, let's just say that I am overwhelmed with joy and anticipation for all of the adventures and opportunities here.


Transition was nice and long and spread out. I got a ton of much needed TL bonding time in, which as always was just awesome. Some very exciting news: I'm making plans to move into a house in Denver with a few of my favorite TLs in September!! I'll hopefully find a job with a non-profit and be able to take a couple of online courses to qualify for a Certificate in Non-Profit Management. I'm really excited to see how things fall into place and for all the possible adventures out west.


My team started out transition in a pretty rough place--we spent much of Round 3 frustrated with each other, which I know isn't uncommon for NCCC teams at that point in the year. We did some hard work over transition to try and talk out what was going on and get to a place where we could all survive until the very end, and I finished up the week feeling pretty good about it. We also were granted the addition of another Corps Member, Jacob, whom my team likes a lot. So we're back up to 10 on the team and we're all looking forward to a great round.


I've got better internet access this round, so I'll be sure to keep y'all updated on any exciting developments as they happen. For now, check in with me! Let me know what you're up to and how everything's going for you!

xo