Dessert Heaven...

I've gone to the same little country church since I was born. We're a small congregation...about 35 of us (at the most) on Sundays. And for as long as I can remember, we've had either a fish fry or a chili supper each Fall. The fish fry was held every September, until just a few years ago. My grandfather, uncle, cousin, and other church members fried the fish out back, and the women of the church provided the cole slaw, other fixins' and desserts. But it finally became apparent that we just couldn't really even break even with the fish fry. The fish was good, but it was expensive. So we switched to a chili supper, which is much more cost effective. Anyway, everyone in the church had their niche. Miss Ida (my Sunday school teacher from the time I was a toddler until high school) and Verlene always took care of the "pie room." They were responsible for cutting all of the pies and making sure that the dessert table was full. Miss Ida passed away earlier this year, and Verlene is getting older, so the pie room responsibility has passed on to me, it seems.
And I love it. Look at that picture! Pies and cakes as far as the eye can see. I spent a solid hour cutting and plating pies and cakes before the chili supper started, and I kept on cutting well into the evening. I did my best to fill every spot as soon as a dessert was taken. I wanted to be sure everyone had plenty of choices! One of the other church members told me, "Verlene will be proud!"

What did we have? EVERYTHING! We had brownies, cheesecake, banana cream pie, upside down German chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, Derby pie, chess pie, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate maple and pumpkin cake, pecan pie, apple dumplings, pumpkin rolls, apple pie, peach pie, blackberry pie bars...and I'm sure there are more. Those are just the ones I distinctly remember cutting.

This is my favorite picture. I can't think of anything that's more satisfying than seeing a dessert buffet after a meal of piping hot chili! But, oh...the leftovers. There was so much stuff left! We'll be sending folks home from church tomorrow with to-go boxes of desserts! I wanted to eat a little bit of everything, but I used some restraint. Not much, but a little.
The chili supper at church is one of my favorite days of the year. It's a sure sign that it really is fall. I love the sense of togetherness and community that I feel while we're all working together to make the supper come together. But I think I love the desserts the most.