Yes, It's Really a Cooking Post

Those who know me well know that I don't cook a lot. It isn't that I can't do it, but more that it isn't something I really enjoy. My husband, on the other hand, really does enjoy cooking, so he takes care of most of our meals around here.

I do, however, occasionally enjoy baking. That said, I have never baked a pie. This week in our MOPS meeting (the same one where I was the speaker), our craft project was putting together homemade apple pies. I am on the steering team, and we also were making pies for the wonderful ladies who were keeping our little ones in the nursery, so I just brought my pie ingredients home with me. Yesterday, I got around to putting everything together.

This is actually a very easy and very tasty recipe. The most time-consuming part is peeling and chopping the apples. I take absolutely no credit for this recipe and don't actually know where it originated, to be perfectly honest.

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated pie crusts
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (mine were more chunks)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Find yourself a cute baking assistant to taste-test all of your apples.

We put all of the dry ingredients into a gallon sized storage bag.

Peel and chop your apples. This was a mixture of Granny Smith and (I think) Fuji apples.

Since I was at home, I put my apples into a bowl and mixed in the lemon juice. At MOPS, we were doing this with a second gallon storage bag.

I forgot to make a picture of the next step, but I put the apples into the baggie with the dry ingredients, sealed it, and shook it around until it was all mixed together. I tried to get my baking assistant to help, but he declined. And my other two baking assistants...one was at kindergarten, and the other was taking a nap.

I put the bottom of the pie crust in the pie pan, then poured the apple mixture into the crust.

Then you should add the second refrigerated pie crust on top. Wrap excess top crust under the bottom crust edge, pressing the edges together to seal. Cut slits or shapes in several places in the top crust. (Please ignore my sad excuse for slits.)

Bake 40-45 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Cover edge of crust with 2-3 inch wide strips of foil after the first 15-20 minutes of baking to prevent excessive browning. (I couldn't get the foil thing to work just right, but it did well-enough.) Cool at least 2 hours before serving.

It isn't the world's most beautiful pie, but it tasted really good. (Of course, you have to serve it with vanilla ice cream.)