i made a pie

the unheard of happened!  get your parkas people because hell just froze over....a little.  I BAKED A PIE! and almost from scratch!  i found the recipe in the November issue of Better Homes & Gardens - and i would gladly link to it if BHG's website wasn't so awful!  am i alone in this experience?  doesn't matter!

Update: i did finally locate a link to a very short video on how to make this pie. hope the link works cuz i never know with their site!

at many points during the process, i could have taken photos, and there were some good ones to be had, but i was too busy trying to get it right so i only have a few.
first off, i didn't take photos of the cherry compote simply because i didn't think about it.  it was the first item that i did not make completely from scratch. who knew you couldn't get cranberries in December? well, i couldn't at least.  so i had to substitute Cranberry Sauce from the can. i'll be interested to see how this taste when i make it with the real thing next time.  i was able to mix my own Cherry Valley hand picked cherries with said sauce so i felt like that was a draw.
what you see here is the apple filling. i've never cored and apple before so i took a little shortcut: using 8 Granny Smith apples, i just cut both ends off, then peeled them, then cut them in a block fashion, much like you do a pineapple. this allowed me to skip the actual coring process & that was nice since (1) i don't own an apple corer & (2) have no idea how to core an apple.

OMG this smelled soooo wonderful cooking!  apples + lemon juice + dark brown sugar + flour. D-Lish!
skipping to the almost end...here is another shortcut i took.  i chose not to make my own crust. i figured baking a pie was way more than enough so why kill myself. if there was anything i was certain i could mess up, the crust was it! i elected to by the pre-made kind you find in the biscuit & cinnamon roll section. next time i will try the frozen pie crust as advised by one of my swimming girls!

but check that, and the next photo out will ya?  those leaves on top? oh yeah, i totally cut those out myself. since the recipe was for November and, thus, Thanksgiving, the theme was to top the pie with "leaves". hard to believe, but i don't own a single cookie cutter and, therefore, no leaf cookie cutter.  i started out cutting out leaves with a small pairing knife & then realized i should have done Christmas ornaments.  so i attempted to change gears half way through & cut out some MCM ornaments & round ornaments - wish i'd thought of the stars in time though.

and the most shocking thing of all?  this thing is not only edible, but actually pretty good!  and i have the testament of the swimming crew to back me - that's a collection of aunts, great-aunts, moms, grandmas  & great grandmas!  all that experience cannot be wrong!

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