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 :)

40 Pounds

Last Tuesday, I went to our local farm to buy some eggplants and other produce.... I came out with forty pounds of apples and two eggplants. Let's just say they were half price... and that was reason enough for me to purchase them.

Well... forty pounds may not seem like much until you have to peel, core, and chop all of them. I started off by making applesauce. My intent was to use almost all of the apples for sauce.

 (Side note: When I was little, I remember my mom taking me to the local park once and we collected all of the apples that had fallen from the tree by the swing set. When we got home, we made applesauce on the stove. I remember the house smelling delicious and that the applesauce was out-of-this-world amazing.) I think that's where this obsession with applesauce came from.

Anyways, I filled up my crockpots (one six quart and one two quart) with apples (some skin on, some not) after I chopped them up. Because they cook down so well, you don't have to chop them finely. I then sprinkled some cloves and nutmeg on top. I added about two teaspoons of cinnamon and about 1/4 cup of brown sugar. I also added about one cup of water (apple cider works better if you have it in your fridge!). I adjusted the amounts for the smaller crockpot as needed.

Then, I just put the tops on the crock pots, went to sleep, and when I woke up, the apples were very soft. I took the lid off and turned the crock pot off. I let it cool for about half an hour and then stuck an immersion blender in on high speed until it looked like this:

I then made another big batch of applesauce in the crock pots. But... I still had apples left. I think I have a problem with comprehending quantities. Obviously, I didn't really understand how much forty pounds of apples was.

So... on to the next thing: apple pie filling! I followed this recipe exactly (except I don't have a pot to fit everything in so I had to split it in two). It does make a HUGE quantity. But it made five full pie fillings. I tasted it (well, of course!) and it is DELISH. 

I let it cool for about an hour because it was super hot and then stuck it in five quart size freezer-safe bags. I bagged up the applesauce the same way and then threw it all in the freezer. Have I mentioned I need a chest freezer? Our little guy is just not cutting it.  

Thanksgiving prep will hopefully be easy now ;) yeah, right.

I even gave about twenty apples to our neighbors. And I had to throw at least thirty into the trees behind our house because I was SO exhausted.