problem half solved: As American as...

...my first apple pie!!! This Sunday was the area-wide pie social at Blount Christian, and Robert volunteered me to make a pie. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to use my Better Homes and Gardens subscription and made TWO pies... 'Cuz that's just how I roll, mkay?

Bear in mind- the extent of my pie making consists of frozen pies, store bought pie crust, and one little bitty home made graham cracker crust that was part Fiber One cereal (Thank you, Hungry Girl) and just ok. But for these pies, none of that was going to be good enough. I wanted to make a real pie. I wanted to make apple pie. And a pumpkin pie.

So I did, discovering some things along the way.

Such as- Pie Crust has a lot of butter. LOTS of butter.

Not sure how I managed to get all of that butter worked into the flour, but it involved both hands, a butter knife, and sore biceps.

The end result looked something like this. Not the most beautiful creation ever, but the article said "if your crust is lumpy and ugly with butter bits the size of peas, it's perfect." Ok... If you say so...

Now, if you've been a regular reader, you know my baked goods don't always turn out. (Burnt Olive Bread and Angel Food cake for example.) Since we were four hours out from the social though, there was no turning back despite my fear of the Ugly Baked Goods crown rearing it's ugly head. I dumped the crust onto my very squeaky clean table, and went to work.

I also discovered that rolling dough is not easy, but I was successful. I managed to get the pumpkin pie's crust blind baking in the oven while I worked on the apple pie. My apple recipe called for pastry cream in the bottom of the crust. I have no idea why, but I'm so glad I didn't skip it. The cream was amazing!

After that, I re-discovered that my favorite type of cooking is hands on.

And Robert discovered that his wife could hide a pile of apples the size of his head under a lovely blanket of pie pastry.

And he said it would never work... Hater. :P

In fact, not only did it fit, but I had enough leftover to make a dough heart for the top! Here she is, all glazed and ready for the oven.

While my apple pie was baking, I went to work on my pumpkin pie.

Then after coaxing both pies into my decrepit oven, I cried huge flour coated tears into my brand new Thirty-one apron when I saw what my kitchen looked like. Luckily I married a man who LOVES to do dishes. Well, love is a strong word, but he certainly doesn't complain... no I take that back too... He doesn't complain so loudly that I can't drown him out with a blaring radio in the other room. That's practically the same thing, right? RIGHT?!?

Don't feel too bad for him though... As Robert cleaned the kitchen, I cleaned the bathrooms. I think that's a fair trade.

Finally after several hours, and I mean HOURS, of work, the fruits of my labor were ready. I made home-made whipped cream to go with them, and managed to wait until we had sat through the speaker (Former UT president, Joe Johnson. UT and Auburn jokes for twenty whole minutes? Please don't.) before I started hunting for the knife. We ending up spending the entire pie social eating only my pies, and I even surprised myself. They are better than I ever could have imagined. Seriously.