Easy as...well...pie
Every year I buy apples in the fall, fully intent on making lots of yummy apple desserts like pies, crisps, whatever. And every year, I procrastinate and find a million other things to do until eventually, I have bags full of mushy apples which only the fruit flies find appealing, and then end up tossing the whole lot out into the trash. So, when my day at the orchard a couple of weeks ago hadn't gone as planned, I wasn't really that upset that we hadn't come home with any apples, because, after all...did I really think that this year would be any different then the past ones?
But then, I started really wishing that I did have some apples on hand, you know, so that I could at least have the option of letting them rot or not. It got so bad that when I was at the grocery store the other day, I couldn't resist picking up a cute little paper bag of locally grown apples. At least it's not the ginormous sized bag that I usually got from the orchard, I justified with myself. Being that it was a smaller bag, I probably wouldn't feel so bad when I had to throw it out.
Now, just so you don't think that I'm a terrible mother and don't just give my kids the apples to eat, I do, I really do! But C doesn't like apples all that much and Ang has braces so it's a process for her to eat them. Instead, those two usually opt for grapes or strawberries or bananas when given a choice of fruits. Am, on the other hand, loves apples. But lets face it, she can only eat so many.
Anyway, it must have been a sign, because as I strolled past the refrigerated section at the grocery store, I noticed that Pillsbury had their pre-made pie dough on sale, plus, I had a coupon for it, which the store doubled...how could I refuse! I was getting pretty close to this pie making thing!
Now, I know what some of you are saying..."Ewww! Store bought pie crust?" But PEOPLE...remember who you're dealing with here. Remember that I am the Queen of Pie Procrastination, so anything that I can do to get the ball rolling and maybe get an actual pie baked is sooo worth it...even if the crust does end up tasting like crap.
So, I was home this afternoon when I found myself with a couple of hours to kill before having to start dinner and instead of doing laundry or vacuuming or doing any one of a million other things I found myself thinking..."Hmmm, I wonder if maybe I should go try to find one of many unused apple pie recipes and just see what I'll need. But first, I decided to pull out the Pillsbury Pie Crust Dough and see what it was all about.
That's when I noticed something printed on the box that I hadn't noticed before. It said:
'Spice Packet Inside'
Say What???
That's when I got all excited because I realized, not only had they already prepared the crust for me...but they had mixed up a perfect little packet of cinammon, nutmeg and whatever the hell else I would have had to have dug in my cabinets for!
So, fifteen minutes later, after unrolling the dough, preparing my apples and tossing them with some sugar, lemon juice and 'the spice packet', all I had to do was fill the pie, fiddle with the top crust and pop it in the oven...
Yes, you read correctly... I MADE ME A PIE!
And I totally would have taken a picture of it before it got all cut into if I hadn't forgotten to put my pie-spillage-protector- thingy under the pan so that during the last ten minutes of baking, it wouldn't totally leak all over the bottom of my oven. Causing the entire house to fill up with horrible smelling smoke, instead of the cinammon-y smell of fresh baked apple pie. Ah well, baby steps..
The best part was...the crust was awesome! Yes, it truly was, as was the rest of the pie. My husband was raving about it.
Of course, being that his favorite dessert in the world is pie, and I never make any, he may have just been trying to show how grateful he was...
Whatever.
