Page 48 of Cozy Girl Fall
“Hm?” Penny pulled her gaze away and licked her lips. “Oh. Um, both.”
Philip chuckled but pushed his paper chains to one side in favor of focusing on the pies.
“OK.” Angie clapped her hands together. “This one first.” She pushed one plate forward ahead of the rest and pulled out her own fork. Philip went first, spearing the tip of the slice, Penny went next, choosing a piece with optimal crust to filling ratio, and Angie popped her forkful into her mouth without too much preamble. It felt nice, a little nostalgic, to be doing this with herparents. She’d taste-tested recipes before with her colleagues at the restaurant in the city, helping them with notes of flavor and texture. At least, she had done in the early days. In the past year or so, there hadn’t been much time at all for experimenting with flavors and improving their craft.
Penny’s mouth filled with saliva. The pie was still warm, the apple was tart but pleasantly off-set by the cinnamon sugar crust. “So good,” she mumbled and Angie glared.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Penny.”
She stuck her tongue out to show she’d swallowed before repeating her analysis. “So good, Mom. Do we have any ice cream?” She loved the combination of hot and cold and how the ice cream would melt into the pie’s filling.
“Yes, I think so. Try the other two first and then we can talk about ice cream.”
Dutifully, they moved to the second plate and Penny nodded as the flavors hit her tongue. This pie was much more nutty, the filling more smooth and solid compared to the apple chunks of the first pie. “What is that, apple and pecan?”
Angie smiled, pleased. “Right in one. What do you think?”
“That’s my favorite so far,” Philip mumbled, sneaking a second forkful under Angie’s disapproving eye. “What? It’s tasty.”
“Third pie,” Angie demanded and handed them eacha glass of water to cleanse their palates first. “What do you think?”
Penny chewed consideringly. The texture was really good, less solid than the pecan and more sticky, the cinnamon sugar crust carried through reminding Penny of a pumpkin spice latte. She frowned.What was in this pie?She couldn’t pin it down. “It’s really good, what is it?”
“Guess,” Mom said with a smirk.
Penny hummed. “Well, I can definitely taste the apple and cinnamon, and I want to say pumpkin?” Angie nodded in confirmation and Penny took another, smaller taste of the pie. “There’s something else in there but I can’t pin it down.”
Philip swallowed and raised his hand like they were in class and Angie looked amused as she nodded at him. “Honey.”
Penny groaned. Honey, of course. “Clever.” She glanced at her dad and found a smug look on his face. “How did you know?”
“I saw her put it in the mix.”
She snickered. “I think that’s cheating.”
Philip shook his head. “No, no. I’m just using all my resources.”
Angie giggled. “I’ll allow it. So, which is your favorite?”
“The first one,” they answered in unison and Angie frowned, because that was her original signature recipe.
“Pie three is a close second for me though,” Penny tried, and her mom sighed.
“I need new taste testers,” Angie muttered. “Get Ethan and Tasha to stop in this week for pie, OK? I need impartial judges.”
“OK,” she agreed. “But I’ll warn you that Ethan might not be unbiased. He wants you to like him, so he’s likely to kiss your ass.”
Philip guffawed, his heavy breath blowing glitter everywhere and earning him a glare from his wife. “He knows we love him.”
“Unless he hates my pie,” Angie said, winking as she pushed away from the table to grab a brush for the glitter. “Then I’m afraid he’ll be banned from the house.”
“Understandable,” Penny said and smiled, reaching over to take one of their hands into hers and squeezing gently. “Thank you for yesterday. Having you there with me helped.”
“Of course, pumpkin,” her dad said gently as her mom pressed a kiss to the top of Penny’s head. “Keith was being an ass.”
“Philip,” Angie said, swatting at his arm before she sighed. “But your father is right. I’m not sure what got into Keith. He’s normally not so …”
“Dickish?” Penny supplied and her mom frowned but nodded. “I can’t blame him for being hesitant after the way I left things before.”
