Eat. Love. Pie.

To give you a little clue of what exactly happened during our lunch break today... I'll preface this post with a few thoughts that crossed my mind over the last couple of hours:

"Life is short, eat dessert first."

"I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert."

"Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos."

"There are two types of people in this world: those who love pie. And communists."

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I knew today would be a sugar-filled day when I stumbled across the box of doughnut holes in the office kitchen... I just kept stumbling and stumbling.

Glazed chocolate cake donut holes are my downfall.

But of course, when lunch time came around... Sister and I decided to go crazy and take a little adventure up to Julian, a small town that is known for its mountainous views and its abundance of delicious pies.

I attempted to snap pictures out the window of a moving car, but I'd prefer not to get my head chopped off by oncoming traffic, so you'll have to live with the glare from the window.

We were pretty hungry by the time we got there, as we had a good hour and fifteen minutes to think about what we wanted to eat (you can only scream Celine Dion songs as entertainment for so long).

Our mom recommended The Julian Grille, so that's where we headed (it's right off Main Street). Walking around Julian makes you feel like you're walking back in time -- there are old school soda fountains, cute little diners, small country stores and markets... the whole deal.

As usual, sister and I had trouble deciding on what to order. so we did the sensible thing and ordered two dishes to split - I love eating with her... it saves me from the awkwardly tense moments when the server asks why you're ordering two dishes ("Oh, would you like to take one to go?" "Um... no, I'll eat both, thanks")

The fish sandwich with homemade tartar sauce and french fries.

The roast beef dip sandwich with an apple pecan side salad.

After lunch... which we attempted to keep on the light side, we headed down main street in search of Mom's Pies -- featured on Travel Channel's PIE PARADISE!!!! Obviously, I've been talking about it non-stop for like a week, so I whined until we found the bakery.

The inside was all cute and homey!

Once again, we decided to sample a few different things.
Our idea was to sample a bit and take home the rest...

We didn't "take home the rest."  This was obvious after the first bite. Plus we ordered the pies with ice cream on top so obviously you have to finish the pie, as you wouldn't want to insult the bakers and waste delicious and perfectly good dessert...

1. Pie crust cookies topped with cinnamon sugar.  So buttery and flaky, these melted in your mouth!!

2. Warm cherry pie topped with vanilla ice cream. The crust was light, flaky and rich, which went really well with the tartness of the cherries.  The ice cream topped it off perfectly!

3. Mom's famous Flaky Apple Pie topped with cinnamon ice cream.  This was a classic apple pie, with sweet apple pie filling -- made from Julian apples! -- and a golden, buttery crust.

Okay, so we finished everything... When in Julian, right??
We decided to walk around Main street and explore all the cute country shops.

Happy Cows :)

We wandered into this little beauty-of-a-store...
Tons of home made candies, chocolates, candied nuts....

------------------------- And then disaster struck!

We walked past this hole-in-the-wall bakery and were immediately salivating at the pies on display.  Did we make the wrong choice with the touristy Mom's Pies?? Can we forgive ourselves if we don't at least try a bite of one of these delicious-looking things?

Apple Alley's Bakery.

We had to try it.
Once again, we went with the whole "sample and take home leftovers" mindset... which failed miserably. As always.

1. Caramel Apple Pecan pie with cinnamon ice cream. This was by far my favorite pie of the day!! The caramel pecan combo rocked with the dense, buttery crust!!

2. Strawberry Rhubarb pie topped with vanilla ice cream.  This was in honor of my momma because rhubarb is her favorite type of pie!  So basically, we were really just eating this for her.  Sister claimed this was the best dessert of the day.  The strawberry didn't overpower the rhubarb taste, and the crust was SO light, it melted in your mouth.

THEN WE STRUCK GOLD:
The owner and baker came over and informed us that she had just created a new pie that had never been tried before - not even by her - and she wanted to know if we could please be her taste testers. UM YES.

3. Mango Apple Crumb pie. This was my second favorite pie! The crumbly top was sooo sugary and delicious, and the mango was real mango not the crappy mango-flavored junk.  It was so good! sooo soo good.  I should probably drop out of school and become a professional pie taster, just an idea?

good thing we're going out to dinner tonight for my mom's birthday!