The Times-Tribune
CORBIN — One of my memories of childhood is awakening to the aroma of pies being baked.
It filled the four-room house where we lived on Mill Street in London.
My father was the soda fountain manager at the Begley Drug Store on the corner of Main and East Fifth streets.
For some reason, that I really don’t remember, the store’s pie provider had gone south and as a way to make a bit of extra money, mom and dad decided they would become the pie bakers.
I remember when they started the project, but can’t put a date to it. I was maybe in third of fourth grade. It lasted into my college years.
I’d awake to the smell of crusts baking for the creme pies, banana creme, coconut creme with shredded coconut on top of the meringue, chocolate and lemon meringue pies, apple, cherry, pecan and so many other delicacies went through the oven of that Frigidaire range.
So Monday when I sat at Rena Reed’s kitchen table and tasted her Hot Fudge Brownie Dessert topped with whipped cream, all those memories came flooding back into my head.
Rena’s Hot Fudge Brownie Dessert will take her to Orlando, Fla., to compete in the Pillsbury Bake-off.
Reed, who lives in Lily will participate, thanks to a suggestion from her 10-year-old son Lucas, in the Bake-off.
It all started a year ago when she and Lucas were watching the 2008 bake-off on the Food Network.
“Lucas said, ‘Mom I believe you could do that,’ and I said, ‘Well we can give it a try,’ and we came up with the recipe and it was picked.”
The applications had to be in by the end of April and eventually, after spending a while on the edge of her seat, on Aug. 31, the last day for notification of contestants, she got the call from Pillsbury.
She was told she was a pre-finalist for the bake-off and had to complete a ton of paperwork and submit it. Then they would tell her if she had become a finalist.
October rolled around and she became a finalist.
“It was out of tens of thousands of people,” that she became one of the 100 finalists who will compete next month.
They’ll compete in four different categories, breakfast and brunch, appetizer, dinners made easy and sweet treats.
She’ll compete in the sweet treats category that holds about 27 people.
The Reeds will arrive on April 11 and the contest is set for the next day, beginning at 8 a.m. and ending four hours later at noon.
She’ll make her recipe three times. She’s to pick the best one for the judges, one for photographs and the third is there in case it’s needed, or it can be left on the table to share with others, she explained.
There’ll be 100 miniature kitchens furnished with all that the cooks would need, she said. The company furnishes everything except the recipe, which should be well in Rena’s head since she’s prepared her dish for practice nearly every week since she was notified. “I try to make three every single Sunday.”
There is a winner chosen in each category and they get $5,000 and a new stove. And out of the four category winners one will be chosen for the grand prize, a million dollars, spread out over 20 years.
When she isn’t cooking, she works at the Cumberland Valley Surgery Center.
For a look at Rena’s recipe, go to http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/PrintRecipe.aspx?rid=47190.
I wish Rena and Lucas well in their trip to Florida. They remind me of my childhood and the terrific things my mother made in our kitchen.
Carl Keith Greene is a writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at cgreene@
thetimestribune.com
