Sunday, October 07, 2007

Standing at the sink

Before next apple season I need to make a purchase. I spent way to much time standing in front of my kitchen sink peeling apples with a knife. Many interesting things happen while a mother is so occupied with fruit. Chick #3 pick up a Bob book and started to read it by herself. My oldest daughter, Chick #1 watch me a long time and thought that it looked to be the funnest thing in the world. She was amazed that the knife could touch my thumb with every cut and not injure me. She thought that maybe she should try but I am not ready to have my oldest daughter cutting apples with really sharp knives. I do not know what it is with mothers but we are always trying to hold that first child back. "Oh, they are not old enough yet", we tell ourselves. Then we have a third and fourth and they show us how wrong we were and how capable and inventive they can be. My poor hand started to ache from pealing and cutting up so many apples.


I made one really nice batch of applesauce and it tasted just wonderful. Never have I tasted applesauce with such flavor. Well. once when I was at my friends house, she served us some of her applesauce and it was very tasty. I figured that this year I would make it down to the apple orchard and buy a mess of apples so I could try it for myself. I kept that sauce as natural as possible by only adding a little cinnamon and brown sugar after the apples had cooked down.
Then I placed the sauce in jars and gave them a nice hot water bath. Don't the jars look so beautiful? I do not know what it is with food in canning jars, it just make me feel all warm inside. Oh, wait I am all warm inside because I had to do all of the hard work to get the scrumptious food in those pretty jars.
Of course a bunch of apples could not survive in my house with finding their way into a pie. I have a goal in my life to make a perfect looking apple pie that also tastes wonderful. I was close yet again but have not yet mastered it. I simply loved the way that my pie looked after it was done. The crust worked well for me while I was rolling it and placing it in the pan. But when I cut open the cooked pie is was hollow on the top. The apples had cooked down and the crust had stayed in its place. I am not sure how to fix this problem. I pressed the apples firmly down into the pie plate. Maybe it was the egg wash that I put onto the crust. Could it be that it got to firm and then the crust could not settle down onto the apples? I do not know. It sure does taste good with ice cream! Yum!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

YUMMY!! The only thing I've managed to do with apples this fall is eat them raw. :)
For what it's worth, my mom taught me to use a crumb topping for apple pies because they cook down so much. Although I think some varieties of apple hold their shape better than others.

Kristyn Hall said...

The show "America's Test Kitchen" said that the hollow crust is caused by not cooking the filling ahead of time. But, once the pie is cut and there is ice cream on the side nobody seems to care if the crust was hollow or not! :o)

The Hen (Charity) said...

with regards to what you have been through this fall,Angie, I think that it just fine that you have not made any pies. Plus eating raw apples will make good milk for your new little guy.

Marie N. said...

I can almost taste the applesauce:-)

I'll be feeling that same heat soon! My inlaws brought a whole mess of apples over to my house yesterday. I'll be pie making first and then I'll see if I have enough for applesauce. If not, I'll freeze some pie filling and apples for apple crisps.

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Looks yummy! I have yet to make a apple pie filling that I really like.

Susan said...

About 15 years ago I bought a product very much like this apple peeler-slicer-corer. Mine screws onto a table or counter, and this one has a suction cup to hold it in place (probably an improvement over mine). This was -- without a doubt -- one of the best kitchen investments I ever made!! It makes peeling a breeze for applesauce. But for pies, I don't even peel my apples; nevertheless, this gadget helps because it makes it so quick to slice them.

Elizabeth said...

I'd rather have a hollow crust than mushy apples. :) (If, indeed, cooking the apples will eliminate that problem.) Personally, I stuff my pies TO THE GILLS and I've never had a hollow crust. Juice run over to the bottom of the oven, yes, but hollow, never.

You've given me a plan for the weekend! The fan on the a/c went out yesterday so it looks like we won't be camping this weekend. While dh works on the fan, I think I'll run up to the neighbor's orchard and get some apples!

Elizabeth said...

You know, now that I think about it... shouldn't we all be baking FOR ANGIE? :)

The Hen (Charity) said...

We should all send Angie Chcolate cookies! She had done her fair share of work lately. :0)