hindsight is 20/20

So for Thanksgiving, I made three pies: one apple, one apple-cranberry, and one pumpkin.

Freezing apple pie filling is something I'll have to try again. We tried to thaw out the filling on our drive from Virginia to Florida (yikes!) and it worked pretty well. However, when I went to bake the pies, there was a lot of water in the bag. In hindsight, I probably should have tried to get the water out and keep the pie filling in tact. Hindsight is always 20/20, though ;)

I started by mixing up the pumpkin pie. I always use Libby's pumpkin pie recipe. Maybe it's just a tradition? It never fails though. So yummy, and such comfort food!

The color was a bit different than I've seen and I think that's because I used real pumpkin puree. The taste was SO delicious though. AJ is constantly sneaking off to the fridge for more.

The pie that I was super excited about serving was the apple-cranberry. The one I got from Trader Joe's last year was beyond yummy and I was eager to see if I could recreate it. I had read a recipe online that called for mixing a cup of cranberries into the apple pie filling and baking... so I decided to try that.

Hindsight is 20/20 again. I had an inkling... let's call it woman's intuition... that I shouldn't have done that. I wanted to simmer the filling with the cranberries until the cranberries popped and could be infused with the sweet apple flavor. Well, my impatience won out again. I wanted to get it done quickly, so I just mixed them in with the filling.

Lattice crusts are probably the prettiest pie crusts, in my humble opinion. Here's how to do it: roll out a pie crust and then cut it into stripes (a butter knife works fine here). Lay the stripes across the pie filling one way. Then you pull back some of the stripes and start going the other way. It's like basket weaving.

When I finished, I brushed it with an egg wash (a whole egg mixed with some milk) to give it a shiny finish after baking.

This is the final result:

 It was a beautiful pie. Now if only the bottom crust didn't get soggy and I was grumpy all Thanksgiving because of it.

The other pie I made was plain apple with a pecan sandies topping. My mama loves pecan sandies so she was my inspiration. The crust didn't have as crisp as a texture as I would have liked, but I'll try again for Christmas :)

We have SO much to be thankful for! I love this season of the year when we spend so much of our time with our families :)