fandomhigh | Nightmare Party Planning from the Mid-Century; Tuesday, Third Period [07/23].

"Everyone loves pie," Summer stated, matter-of-factly, from the front of the classroom that week, with an apologetic look toward a certain student who probably had a sinking feeling in his stomach about what terrors she was about to unleash on poor, innocent, otherwise lovely pies, "right? Although, when most people think of pie, they think apple. Key lime. Lemon meringue. Maybe meat pies or shepherd's pie. And pies are great for parties, too, right? Well, today, we're going to explore some dishes that really test the meaning of the word pie, and also tie them into some great themes for your mid-century party!

"We'll start," she said, moving to the first cloche and lifting it, "with a trip below the waves for an Under the Sea party, focused around our coral reef pie, a nice pink meringue blend over canned crushed pineapple, which the advertisement told me is ideal for school lunches, but I think this bad boy's really got shine at your oceanic event! Naturally, there are plenty of great tuna-mold jello recipes you could explore to populate your waters with all sorts of treats to talk about, too. There's a lot to work with in this theme.

"Moving on to our next example, the nightmarishness of this one all depends on how much you like to stick to tradition, or if you're okay with really pushing the boundaries of how things are done and presented. Because we've got ourselves a nice potato salad pie for your next summer cookout! But, you could also present your potato salad in a nice loaf as well! And since we're talking about salads in a pie for the summer, I've got one of those, too.

"Cool idea: a pie eating contest, but with these instead of your traditional whipped cream ones. I'm sure that'll be a hit!

"And, finally, with the end of our examples, we move the end of the year holidays. They'll be here before you know it, so now you'll be nice and prepared with a pie that combines two Christmastime favorites: eggnog and fruitcake! I'd recommend serving this with a nice tuna-based Christmas tree, but there are so many great Christmas options that we might do a whole day on it later in the session.

"These are, of course, only a small sample of things one could do to pies to make a person really appreciate the classic simplicity of a nice apple pie, but I'm sure you guys can come up with some other stuff, too! What sort of themes can you build a horrible pie around? What horrible pies do you know of that you can build a theme around? Also, for the record, I made one of these wild cracker-based mock apple pies for everyone to try if you haven't already, because there's no way I can do a class on pies and not pull it out because this thing is an example of a bizarre idea that actually works. I could probably do a whole theme around Depression-era recipes, actually, and feature this bad boy, but I had to reign myself in at some point.

"So! Let's try some weird pies and talk about pie parties."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ready for pie!

Stewart

Stark

Steve Rogers

Realize that the pies might have just been a vehicle to present even worse things to serve next to them.

The nice thing about a pie for a nightmare party is that anything could be lurking inside! What are some ideas for pies and themes that you could have? What sort of things could go with the pies? Could you just have a pie party and nothing else? What even makes a pie a pie?

Enjoy some weird not-apple pie and discuss!

Steve loved weird not-apple pie! "Do you think I can convince Tony to do this as a party theme?" he asked, grinning.

Honestly? Summer was starting to feel like she couldn't trust people who didn't unironically actually love weird not-apple pie, which was, in a way, ironic all on its own.

"I had no idea how desperately I need to see Tony Stark's take on Depression-era frugality until just this moment," she realized. "This could be some top-notch Raisins of Anger shit. I'm in."

Steve laughed. "I promise to not let him buy a farm in Oklahoma just to throw the party."

Yes, she's insulted to have to share a name with one of these pies, apparently.

"I was expecting the one with the fish looking up out of the pie," Stark said.

"I do like the fake apple one though because it's so strange. And the pink one is good."

"Oh, damn," Summer realized. "The Stargazer one? Fuck, that would have been a good choice."

Her nose wrinkled a little. "Not my best focused class, over all. I might be losing my touch."

Then, there was a beat, and she amended:

"No. Definitely not. I just didn't want to do what was expected. Yeah. That's definitely it."

"You're always unexpected. You surprise me all the time."

Stark grinned at her.

"Promise."

"Yeah, well," said Summer, faintly smiling back, "now I feel all pressured to be surprising, which I'm going to solve right now by being the most surprising by not doing anything surprising at all, therefor establishing a contradictory loop that breaks the whole thing down and frees me from the burden of expectation, so there."

That's what she'd tell herself, anyway, although, let's be real, here, she was still going to feel it.

"Then I'll just have to surprise you instead," Stark offered. "Or we could just surprise each other sometimes?"

Look, if nothing else the jello was always surprising.

And maybe Stark would do something surprising soon! Who could say?

Nightmare Party Planning from the Mid-Century; Tuesday, Third Period [07/23].

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Class Activity: Discussing Pies! - Nightmare Party Planning, 07/23.

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