Guilty Pleasures

“What’s YOUR guilty pleasure?” asked the voluntary-but-actually-mandatory name and email sheet next to the free wine in my hotel lobby.

If you give me a free wine hour, I’m happy to answer a question. However, the term “guilty pleasure” has always bugged me, namely because I don’t really feel guilty about the things that I would list as my top pleasures. Such as, macaroni and cheese. Or pie.

(Or macaroni-and-cheese-pie. But I diverge.)

Our hotel (which was awesome and luxurious and I would highly recommend to anyone going to Salt Lake City) was odd in that it had a specified theme. A theme that we did not know when we made our booking. And that theme was “Guilty Pleasures.” What a weird theme. But because of this theme, we got lots of free wine and massages and things like a hot cocoa bar with bacon bits.

So we drove out to Salt Lake City for the weekend (as you do) to see some special friends who we hadn’t seen in five years. Since they were out all the way from Sydney, it was the least Levi and I could do to get out there and meet up with them. Having received some not-so-subtle hints prior to that weekend, I decided that it would be in my best interests if a pie drove out to Salt Lake City for the weekend as well.

Now this, my friends, is what is commonly referred to as Ozark Pie. There is no actual pastry crust; however, the “batter” separates during the baking process to form a harder outer shell which acts like a crust. It’s like, the coolest thing ever. My book said, “If you have only one apple and a desire to make a simple pie, this one is for you.” And then I said, “Heck Yes.”

I must confess that this pie didn’t make it fully intact all the way to SLC. It was a long drive, and I got hungry. But most of it survived, and was consumed one cozy afternoon in our hotel lobby during wine hour, whilst playing an epic game of hearts. (As we clearly believe in compounding our guilty pleasures.)