Thanksgiving: Journey of the Pies

I've already written a serious reflection about Thanksgiving.  This post chronicles a less serious, but no less important issue.  Kristine and Carol agreed that our contribution to the Thanksgiving meal would be the dessert: a cheesecake, a pumpkin pie, and an apple pie.  This gave Kristine a chance to bake the cheesecake, which she's been wanting to do.  It also allowed her to contribute food without transporting tons of fixings that require preparation in someone else's kitchen.

In the back of both of our minds, and in the forefront of our discussion Thursday night before our trip was an important question.  How exactly are we going to transport these desserts?  Transporting them for a 3 hour trip would require some creativity if we were in the US with access to our various kitchen gadgets.   The stakes get raised since we're in the UK with limited gadgets.  Fortunately, Kristine's ingenuity was up to the task.

Step 1 involved repurposing a couple of Cheerio boxes for the pies, and a pair of raggedy old tights and a couple of pans from the oven for the cheesecake.

Step 2 involved careful placement in the cargo bay of the Golf.

Step 3 involved making the trip from Melbourne to Swindon without damage to our valuable cargo.  This shouldn't have been a problem, except we had an adventure with a bridge on a country road while driving well after dark.  Said adventure involved a bump that nearly sent us airborne and invoked different responses from my passengers.  Clare exclaimed "That was fun!" while Kristine remarked "I hope the pies are okay."

Turns out there was no need for concern.  The desserts survived the trip with no ill effects.  The cheesecake emerged from its tightly-bound pan to receive its topping of black currents.

The pies, despite being unceremoniously stuffed into empty Cheerio boxes, emerged with fully appetizing surfaces in tact.