Apple Pie & Baseball

No, there is nothing more American!

These two proverbial pastimes made my afternoon. I got to listen to my Nationals shut out the Marlins (thereby also taking first place in the National League and winning home field advantage for the playoffs next week!) and bake with apples I picked with my good friend Kailey on Wednesday. There's a fantastic, tiny orchard around the corner from my neighborhood and I noticed they had a "U PICK!" sign out front. Then she invited me to visit the orchard and pick apples with the moms group she's in so I went, and we picked about 15 pounds each. We spent that morning in the honeycrisps, which are super yummy, and it was such a fun way to spend the morning. We definitely went back today. There's an apple extravaganza planned for next week--we have big plans for pies and apple butter and apple cocktails and anything else we can pin! Meanwhile, I had to try making something today.

I had originally planned to pickle my cucumbers, but I needed to run the jars through the dishwasher. So, while I waited on that to finish, I couldn't resist starting on some apple pie. A test run, if you will (or impatience, whatever. call it what you want). I also had some Pilsbury pie crust (don't judge me) in the fridge in its last days so I needed to get rid of it.

So I made pies. Plural, 'cause they're mini! I cut out dough with my Salty Dog Cafe glass and made tiny pies with tiny leaf cutouts made from extra dough.

 

I used this filling recipe from sugarywinzy.com which was simple and smelled amazing. I even made my own brown sugar (1 T of molasses to 1 cup of granulated sugar, then measure & use according to your brown sugar needs)! Since I didn't use her crust recipe I guessed and baked at 425 for 23 minutes. A taste test will tell if I need to post some adjustments. I shall let you know.

 

 

Picking apples reminded me of when we were kids and used to go in the fall. Being in the apple trees reminded me of being back in Virginia, where Winchester rivals the North West's apple growing. Orchards make me happy! Eating apple pie reminds me I do like Autumn!

Oh, and I did also finish making pickles. I'll post that later this weekend.

Off to do dishes,

kt

 

 

 

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Dragging My Heels

hello, and happy sunday!  as i write, the sounds of a football game on television are filling the background, and the signs of an impending autumn are showing up one by one.  i love summer.  i want summer to last longer.  i will miss summer.  i am, indeed, digging in my heels and trying to prolong the arrival of the next season.  this is the shortest summer i have ever experienced--out here it's over before you know it.  Orion arrived in the morning sky about a month ago and i balked at the idea of my warm, long days coming to their inevitable end.  i want my garden and the summery flowers in their blue and yellow pots to keep on keeping on.  i want my trips to the mountains to be green hikes and magpies, full aspens, and dirt trails.  i am was not ready for the summer to end.

i have found myself easing up a bit in the last few days.  crispy blue skies and chilly mornings are helping me, as are productive school days and a few recent gatherings with friends.  i think a bag full of apples from Christina's tree and a dinner last tuesday have sparked the fall cravings.  a friend of ours had somehow acquired a huge turkey breast and wanted to cook for us, so he and his roommate made an amazing dinner of roasted turkey and garlic & cheese mashed skin-on potatoes (yay, Idaho!).  not to be too ahead of things, they were sure to include fresh corn on the cob to keep things a good mix of soon-to-be-gone summer and almost-here autumn.  it was quite a great preview of what's sitting on the horizon, but the kicker was an AMAZING wine our friend Becci brought over.  she's just returned from her annual vineyard visits in Oregon and arrived with two reds that just about have me sold on the next season.  some years there's a sip of red that just makes me sigh and want to sit outside and enjoy a cool evening by a fire with friends or with my Mister under a blanket and stars.  that sip of a big, nice red wine after months of white wine & summer ales alongside the bright, fresh farmer's market fare of summertime just changes things.  i had that sip last tuesday.  the vineyard was Palotai and it was called "Bull's Blood."  yeah, i know, but it was really, really nice.  it made me want fall.

and then there was apple pie.  i'm so annoyed with myself because i did not take any pictures of the process.  this is mostly because i was multitasking like crazy and was just that at the moment--crazy!  it's also partly because i realized the pictures of the peach pie from last fall are not entirely appetizing.  i'm still working on getting photos to do their subjects justice.  that's a whole other project!  anyway, i am very proud of this pie. i had my doubts, but went with it and was so happy with the outcome.  it got good reviews (and was brought up twice the next night when we were all out downtown) and have filed it away into the Make Again pile.  i had a bunch of apples from the same garden as last year's peaches and it was time to do something with them.  they were sour as could be, so i was unsure of how they'd work in a pie, but i looked into it anyway.  i googled about pie with sour apples and came up with an interesting one.  it had a super fun secret ingredient:  chili powder!  i did a recipe mash up with my old standby and her recipe and adored the result.  i will be making this pie again.  and again and again.  mostly i just followed her apple cutting steps and used her idea of adding heat by using the chili powder, but i will go back and do another with the citrus.    the whole thing just sounds bizarre, but i'm willing to give it a whirl.  i used my crust--just a bottom, no top--and the filling recipe from last fall's pie post.  i used vegetable oil this time instead of olive, and added a light dusting of chili powder before i stirred it all together.  meanwhile, did i just make a topless pie?  scandalous.

and finally, the week ended with a farewell dinner for a friend at Jaker's, a local steakhouse that is really good.  coffee rubbed tri tip?!  yes please!!!  another night with great company and wonderful food, and three bottles of red (there were eleven of us!).  i tried a glass of a great blend called Cashmere Cline that was really great, then had a glass of Idaho's own Pend d'Oreille, a fall-is-here-break-out-the-long-sleeves cabernet.  SO good.

wherever you are, and whatever the weather or season, i hope you're having a great time and enjoying your days.  hopefully i'll still be coat-free by next posting.

not missing air conditioning,

katie

millions of peaches...

*um, an update of sorts.  this post is from THREE YEARS AGO!  i always wonder what happened to it when i'm hunting that recipe.  i just saw it with the word "draft" next to it in my blogger app.  hmmm...  so weird.  anyway, enjoy!*

...peaches for free.  anyone remember that song?  loved that band and have some fun memories of riding around in my best friend's Cutlass, listening to Presidents of the United States of America on a tape player.  

so, fast forward to these days, and i'm reminded of that song when my new friend Christina (also just moved here from Charleston, but i only met her once there--our husbands worked together and both transferred out here this summer) invited me over to help rescue what seemed like millions of peaches from a branch that had fallen from the peach tree in her new backyard.  i'm excited to have her here and really enjoy her company so i was thrilled to head over and visit.  when she opened the door to let me in, she began singing that song.  *grin*  we're going to get along really well.  


i left with a plastic grocery bag bulging with peaches and headed straight to my kitchen.  i had a pie in mind!  i found a ridiculously easy pie crust recipe a couple of months ago and had tried it once with success.  hand picked peaches and scratch-made pie crust?  yes please!  so i blanched, peeled, sliced and baked and ended up with this yumminess.  just in time for my first in-law visit, by the way.  good times!

the crust is so easy!  y'all, you mix it in the pie dish and bake it right away.  there is no chilling, no butter, no waiting.  i love a great, time-cosuming crust, but this one is great when you get a sudden craving and NEED a pie TONIGHT for dessert (or with lunch?)!  you can use olive oil and a little less salt/more sugar for a savory-ish crust, or leave it as is if you'd like.  i've also linked to the recipe above so you can  see recommendations and suggestions.  enjoy!

i found a recipe online for a rhubarb pie a few summers ago, and have NO idea where i found it, but i scribbled it down on a post-it and have used it every time i want a pie.  i usually use peaches & blackberries instead of rhubarb (i can never find it!) and keep the rest of the ingredients the same. i think it works out well.  

the easiest pie crust in the world

here they are if you'd like to try:

the crust:

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

2 T sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 T milk

mix all in a pie dish, then pat and poke across the bottom

and up the sides of the dish.  bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

peach filling

the filling:

4 C rhubard (or other fruit--

i've used peach/blackberry mix 

and just peaches before)

1 1/3 C honey

7 T flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp butter

mix the first four ingredients in a bowl, 

then pour into prepared crust.  

bake at 450 for 10 minutes, 

then put the butter on top and 

continue baking at 350 for 50 minutes.  

backyard peaches + scratch crust = fabulousness

and there you have it!  my first dessert for my in-laws.  they said they liked it!  *wink*