Apple pie mission

I enjoy making apple pies for people. Not sure why, but it gives me a warm fuzzy. I have a Thanksgiving event coming up this Friday and my contribution will be baking an apple pie. Here's the list of items I haven't been able to find...

• Flour

• Sugar

• Brown sugar

• Butter

• Cinnamon

• Nutmeg

• Ginger powder

• Pre-made pie crust

• Lemon juice

• Pie plates

Damn. That's a lot of stuff I've had a difficult time finding. I hit my local WuMart just assuming they would have these. Not a single one. Here's the list of stuff I could easily get...

• Granny Smith apples

• Aluminum foil

I'm not kidding. Finding a bag of granulated sugar in a city of 10+ million people? No dice. Butter? Dairy products are super rare in China. It's just not something they use here in cooking, and baking isn't really a thing here. Who knew? I guess 1.4 billion people probably knew. Go figure.

How did I get my stuff? TaoBao for several items (or at least I tried), and I got hooked up with a store called Epermarket in Shanghai. They specialize in items that western folk might want. They have a guy that drives three hours every day from Shanghai to Hangzhou to deliver groceries. I was able to obtain most of my supplies through Epermarket including all the spices and dry goods.

I found a pie plate through TaoBao. It was delivered apparently last Friday, but not to me. That blows. No idea where it is. I threw out a mayday to my neighbors and several responded in minutes. So many so that I'm now planning to make two pies. I've had surprisingly little problem having items delivered to me. The pie plate is a small hiccup. I've been told by others that it will eventually show up.

When this project comes to fruition I'll be sure to get some pictures. Hoping all at home are psyched for a fun and happy Thanksgiving. Thinking of you all this week and really missing the thought of making some apple pies with Moira.

Big shout out to Mike P for the good advice. I plan to love the ones I'm with this week and share that love via pie. I like pie. Who doesn't like pie?