This. Is. BBQ! (and pie!)

This is the correct way to do a BBQ:

Brats and halibut on a Traeger. If you throw wet cardboard covered in BBQ sauce on a Traeger for two hours, it would turn out delicious.

Conversely, this is exactly the wrong way to do BBQ:

Nothing to grill, and a torrential downpour in the background. Such is Oregon. The most lame part of that situation with me and the tongs and the rain is that it broke a good five day streak of gillin'. I simply ran out of food to grill. Corn Chex and thin sliced deli turkey meat don't take kindly to the grill.

Luckily, dessert can be made rain or shine.  The obligatory 4th of July BBQ gathering demands a summer berry pie. Growing up, that always meant a raspberry pie, likely because raspberries usually decide they are ready to be picked around that time, but just as likely, we needed to switch it up a bit after eating nothing but strawberry-based items for the previous month.

I made two desserts to bring to my friends annual Independence Day BBQ. The first was a raspberry and peach pie:

I have made raspberry-peach pies in the past, but instead of leaving the peach whole, I pureed it to fold into the berries. It was good, but I'll probably leave them whole in the future.

The second dessert was a variation of the best non-pie, chocolate-based dessert ever: The Emma Torte.  The Emma Torte is a chocolate mousse frozen deliciousness named after my cousin Emma. Legend has it that my mom was making the torte once, and when my cousin asked what she was making, my mom replied "Emma Torte" and so we've all referred to it as such ever since. Because we are silly or something.

The torte usually ends up being light brown due to the chocolate requirements, but with the holiday, I wanted to make it a bit more patriotic, so I substituted in white chocolate so I could make a white layer, a red layer (with raspberry puree) and a blue layer (with blueberry puree):

The bottom layer is a chocolate crust similar to a crust on a cheesecake. Festive, and delicious.

I bet a pie would take kindly to a Traeger real nice...

--Isaac.