Apple Pies

Mmmmmm, doesn't that look good?!! I love Apple pie, especially with ice cream. It is one of my all time weaknesses. We use to just eat Grandma's apple pies, then when she couldn't make them, my mom would at least around holiday times. I would make them hit and miss, but I really don't like to bake, or cook (my poor husband and kids). It's not that I can't, I just choose not to, and now with my kids being picky eaters it really doesn't help the cause. When I married Todd I thought I'm going to impress my husband, and learn to make a mean Apple pie, (they have to be good, after all he is from Apple Hill, the home of great apples in any form). I think I did find a great recipe and had great reviews on them, but then my lack of enthusiasm for baking kicked in, and I found Marie Calendar's Dutch Apple pies. Who needs to bake an Apple Pie from scratch when they have Pies like that, that all you have to do is stick them in the oven and they taste so good and there is no mess!

Well anyway, I haven't baked a Pie from scratch, probably for over 6 years. Then My lovely sister who happens to be sewing my Girls Christmas dresses for me (amazing seamstress) changes up all of my non-baking days. She comes to me and says Mindy tells me you make a great Apple pie, I responded "Well I haven't made an Apple Pie in forever!!!". Then she sweetly replies, "I wanted to give my visiting teaching ladies Apple pies for this month, and well I'd make them myself, but then I would end up having less time to work on your girls dresses." Ohhhh, she can hit low. How do you refuse that, I need my dresses, and of course she new that! So of course I say yes and tell her she needs to get the supplies for me. So the deal is made. This was on Saturday. She needs them in a week, no big deal plenty of time. Then Monday she come to my house and has that sweet look on her face, and says " Brett wants to know if you will make some pies for his families too?" What??? "Why not, It'll just be an apple Pie making day, so how many does he need?" Carry, "3", Me, "So, I need to make 5 all together." Carry, "Well, actually 6 if you could, Brett wants to know if you'll make one for us too?" Hahahahaha, I love it, 2 pies turned into 6, what a good sister I am!

So today was the baking day, 6 pies 5 hours, it would have gone a little quicker, but she bought these ginormous apples that wouldn't fit on my apple peeler slicer thingy, so yes, I peeled and sliced most of them by hand. Those better be the best dresses ever!!!! I think that calls for some extra LOVE!!

We tried something new for me this time, I made them all up and we froze them, so the people receiving them can bake them when ever they want, I even cooked up one that I made earlier, and froze, for us so that I could make sure that all the oven temps and such worked out right. They did and my family got to enjoy an Apple pie today. Such good diet food!!

My cute little helper!

TJ was so good today. As long as she felt like she was helping she was in heaven. She had her own dough, rolling pin, pan to put her dough in, measuring cups, flour and a lot of Apples to eat. Lots of Fiber, I look forward to tomorrow. We also had Baby Steins on the TV for her to go back and forth to. I'm glad Knightin was at preschool. Trying to entertain 2 kids probably wouldn't have been as easy.

I love these little devices, they make life so much easier. Unless of course your sister buys Ginormous Apple and you can't use this handy little tool that someone so kindly invented for me!! Yes they made it just for me, and all my laziness! As you can see from the mess, I did get to use it some.

You can kind of see the size of these apples, and this isn't one of the big one. I had already used those up before I thought to take a picture.

One of my finished pies, well almost finished. They of course still have to be cooked. I hope I didn't lose my touch after 6 years. When none of these people show up to church after Thanksgiving from food contamination, I'll know it's time to through in the apron. After today, I again remembered why I went to Marie Calendars! Baking is not Fun!! At least not for me. Too much time, and way too much mess.
I'd rather spend my time on my hobbies, the things I love to waste my time doing, and the best thing about the things I love to do is they don't make me fat, Bonus!

All growing up, when pies were made, my mom would take the left over pie crust dough and make pie crust cookies. They are also one of my favorites. Pie crust is the best! I'm one of those ones that will eat the center out of the pie and leave the crust to eat last, Yummy! We love pie crust cookies in our house, but since I don't like to bake we buy the refrigerator pie crust and just make the cookies. (Though after today, I have to admit homemade pie crust beats the store bought stuff hands down, I had forgotten how good it is). Today I tried them a little different. I usually make them how my mom did, by just sprinkling a little cinnamon sugar over them, but today I mixed sugar and brown sugar, then put cinnamon and a little nutmeg in with the sugar. rolled out the pie crust brushed it with melted butter then put the sugar mixture on them and then cut them up. We found a new winner, I loved the hint of Nutmeg and the brown sugar in with it. Though these were really good I think I'm done baking for a little while, at least big stuff!