A few weeks ago we took a day trip to a local apple orchard. There aren't very many in our area, so when we found this one, we loaded up and headed that way. Unfortunately, I left my camera behind, so the only pictures I got were on my ancient Blackberry. They were not very good, so I won't be posting them. We picked for about an hour in a couple different places in the orchard. We picked three boxes of wonderfully sweet, crispy, crunchy apples. The orchard owners said to find a tree, taste the apples and if we like them, pick. That's a perk of pick-your-own orchards! You get free samples while you pick! Both my son and daughter ate apples while they picked. We were all quite sticky and full when we were done. It was a fun family day. Those are few and far between in the fall due to my coaching habit! :)
Anyway, now that we have three boxes of apples sitting on my floor, I have to do something with them. Don't get me wrong, we are loving the fresh snacks and easily accessible lunch/breakfast foods, but I forget how busy I am on weekends and they sit there staring at me begging to become applesauce or apple pie. Well, I have mades several batches of applesauce and also made some fritters. Those were to DIE for, let me tell you! I can't make them too often or I will be gaining some unwanted pounds.
An apple pie has been calling my name, but I am terrified of making pie crusts. I have attempted several in past years and they always end up sticking to the counter and tearing as I put them into the pie plate. If they don't stick, they end up so dry and crack as I roll them out. I would get so frustrated that I would end up throwing the whole thing in the trash and sulk. I finally decided to suck it up and try again. My mom always said use "ice cold" water. I did and I can happily report that it was a success! The crust was flaky, but not too dry and it didn't tear as I put it into the plate. I filled up the crust with apples, sugar, cinnamon and a little cornstarch to make sure it wasn't too soggy. I put a crumb topping on this pie. I didn't want to tempt fate and mess up a crust in my second attempt in one day. Again, no pictures. Sorry. It was eaten before I thought to take any.
Since I had successfully made an apple pie, I decided to use up some of my apples that have been staring me down. Apple pie filling was made and processed in a hot water bath. This is not a very clean job, at least not in my house. I had peels everywhere, syrup sticking to this and that and pots full of water and other things cooking on my stove. Six quarts of pie filling were made and I had to stop with that.
It was getting late in the evening and I had other little things that needed to be done. You know, dishes, dinner, hanging with my kids, nothing big! ;) I'm just kidding! My daughter loves helping me, so she was in the kitchen asking what she could do to "help" almost all afternoon. When she got bored, she would go play, then not too long after that, she was back asking to help again. A 15 year old isn't too thrilled to help mom in the kitchen, so he stayed out of the way unless he got hungry. Typical boy, right?
I'm excited to try a pie with my filling, but I better not for a while. My waist-line isn't very happy with me eating the last few pieces of my first pie.
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