First Place Times Two

In our church bulletin it there was a advertisement to enter into a cooking/baking contest on Wednesday July 24th. Being that my first time seeing the ad I knew I wanted to enter but couldn't set my mind on what dish to enter. After pondering if I should enter into the cake or pie category, I was leaning more toward the cake then it hit me, my banana cream pudding pie. Why was I even thinking on baking a cake, when I normally do its from a box and being that my pie was homemade it just made more sense and that all of my family loved it too!

The morning of 24th had arrived,  the contest began at 6pm at our church, and all the contestants had to have their food ready and prepared for the judges. Being that everything had to be prepared prior to showing up, my plan was to wait to prepare my pie till the very last minute so it would taste fresh as possible.

Lunch time was approaching and it was time to begin the banana cream pie recipe.

The first step is the crust. Yes its homemade no graham cracker crust normally used for cheesecakes. Made with vanilla wafers and 1 stick of butter. Then bake for 10 minutes and cool.

As the crust is cooling its time to make the vanilla pudding. Again, this isn't boxed vanilla pudding you use, its all homemade on the stove with: sugar, flour, eggs, egg whites, vanilla and milk. 

The next step is to slice (2) bananas in slices. Layer banana slices with vanilla pudding continue until all is in pie.

Now time to make the meringue. A tip that I've learned is to always make sure the bowl is clean and to always beat the egg whites first before you add the sugar. 

After you put all the meringue on top of the vanilla pudding its time to go in the oven until lightly browned. 

Being that this was the first cooking/baking contest at our church their wasn't as many contestants as I was expecting. Which you may think that it would be a good thing since you would have more of a chance of winning but I wanted this to be more of a competition. As we all waited for the results the judges confirmed that their wasn't enough contestants that into each category which meant that (1) person was going home with (2) trophies.

Knowing myself when it comes to competition, I'm one that makes sure I follow the steps and double check. Seeing my pie on the table next to the other dishes I had hoped that it would be me leaving with the (2) trophies. No that I was trying or being conceded but I just wanted to win!

Within minutes the results were in with the winners! The first few names they listed weren't me, so I was getting a little nervous maybe it won't be me. Then it came "Jessica McCallister" won a trophy for best tasting dish. The judges called out other names for other trophies then it came down to the last trophy. All the contestants looked at each other wondering who it would be and little did they know it was "Jessica McCallister" that won for overall appearance. Yes it was me that won 2 trophies for my pie.

Afterward people were asking me for my recipe, during the conversation I said I would send them the recipe but afterward as I was thinking I couldn't give out my award winning recipe. So till next year my fellow cooking/baking contestants.