Pie

October is my favorite month of year.  I don't know if there is a place on earth, where it is constantly 65 and sunny during the day and drops down into the 50's at night ("good sleeping weather" we call it here in the Northland).  Where Haralson apples are always in season, the leaves are always vibrant colors and the mosquitoes & wasps are mostly dead.  If there were, I would move there. 

Since I am unaware of this heavenly place, here I live, in Minnesota, where I get to live this glory but for thirty days or so.   So this is the month that I make pie.  I have never tried to bake and freeze pie, so I could enjoy a bite of October in mid January, I just bake it and eat it.  Hopefully with family and friends.

You will notice in the photos of my recipe cards, I don't exactly follow my own instructions.  The instructions I typed herein are what I do, now, after using these cards for 16 years! 

I have two versions of crusts that I bake with.  The following recipe I got from my Aunt Linda when Stella was young.  Linda described it as "forgiving" for novice (child) pie bakers.  I still find I rely on its forgiving nature!  You can roll it out a couple times if needed and it still tastes great!  You can also freeze it in balls or in a pie tin to pull out and use.  

Makes 4 crusts

Mix together: 

     4 scant cups of flour

     2 tsp. salt

     1 T. Sugar

Cut in with pastry cutter or fork

     1 and 3/4 c. Butter

Beat together

     1 egg

     1/2 c. Water

     1 T. Vinegar

Combine all ingredients, split in half and refrigerate 1/2 hour.  Roll out.  Don't be afraid to handle the dough!  Store in fridge for up to three days, freeze indefinitely.

Try not to add too much excess flour, a pastry cloth and rolling pin sleeve can help!

The other is Pillsburg All~Ready pie crusts.  Seriously good and fast.   Never make the mistake of saving a few cents and buying the off brand of store brand.  They are hard to use and don't bake well.

Once I tried to make pie using the "Americas Test Kitchen" methods of par baking crusts and pre- cooking and cooling apples to get them into a stable pectin state in order to prevent falling or soggy crusts and a gap between the crust and apples...God forbid.  It took me about six hours to bake a pie and I decided that I could live with a messy pie.  If I ever enter into a State Fair baking contest, I will work on my skill level. For now, if the pie is less than perfect looking, I follow the advice of my friend Ruth, "just cover it up with ice cream!"  

I think "good pie" is highly subjective.  Here is my pie recipe.  I made it up, and wrote it down.  If you like a tart, sort of gooey, spice filled pastry concoction that ends up looking like cobbler in a bowl...try it!

I use the Pampered Chef Deep Dish stoneware pie pan.   If you use a smaller pie tin, use less apples.  You might be able to make two standard 8" pies with this same recipe.

9-10 c. peeled, cored and sliced apples. I use Haralson, Cortland, Macintosh (only if I need pie out of season will I use Granny Smith)

Mix together

1 c. Granulated sugar

1/3 c. Flour

1 T. Cinnamon

Dash of salt, nutmeg, mace, allspice and clove 

Coat apples with dry mixture then drizzle 2 T. Melted butter and 2 T. Lemon juice (fresh or fake will do)

Fill pie crust and cover with second crust.  Vent and flute and add egg wash if desired.  I make a tin foil crust edge cover and bake at 350 for about 20 min. with the crust edge covered.  I remove the cover and continue baking for 20-40 minutes.  I use a cake tester to make sure the apples are done.  

Let cool for as long as you can and serve up with ice cream.  If your pie is a mess....use more ice cream!

Snowman Soap

My gift idea for my toddlers this year was snowman soap. I saw it in a few different places online.  

Ivory soap has an interesting chemical make up (air bubbles apparently) that allow it to be blown up in the microwave and reconstituted with water and molded into any shape you want. Colors can be added too. 

I bought a 10 pack of Ivory soap for $5.99 at Walgreens. 

I started unwrapping the soap to find IT STINKS.  Luckily it was a 30 degree day so I could open windows...and doors.

Using a large tub, I placed the soap inside

I put it in the microwave for one minute.  It takes about 2 minutes to get all the soap "fluffed".   There can be a little blob if hot lava soap inside the fluff mountain, so I shook the container to set it free and microwave again at 30 second intervals until it was all fluffy.

Once it cools a little, I broke it into pieces and put it in the Cuisinart.  My food processor might smell like soap forever.  

After pulsing the processor, the soap becomes powder. (~do not inhale!~)

To reconstitute the soap, add water (approx 2-3 tablespoons) one tablespoon at a time, until it looks like this.  If you add to much water, you'll need to add more soap. It is similar to powdered sugar.

I poured it out onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet and using a circle cookie cutter I was able to make three snowmen from one bar of soap. 

I needed 24 soaps for my kids.  The process took all afternoon.  I had two extra bars, one of which I followed all the above instructions but added orange food coloring to the water that I added, making orange soap for the carrot noses.  

I used a tiny bit of water to adhere the noses to the snowmen.  The instructions I was following here:      http://kixcereal.com/kix-cereal-snowman-soap-experiment/

say to use a small amount of purple and red food coloring to create black, poke a hole and add food coloring to make the eyes.  With my experience with food coloring, I figured if a kid used the soap and got it wet, the food coloring would bleed out ~ everywhere~!!!  I decided to just use a craft paint that will wash away after a couple uses and not make a mess.  (I added the mouth, I thought it would be cuter)

I wrote a little poem and bagged them up.  

Not sure this is a project I would do again for this many kids. Super putzy and super smelly!  Making a few with your kids or grandkids would be a fun afternoon activity!  The expanding soap is fun to watch, crumbling it up is a mess, but a cool sensory experience and you could make any cookie cutter shape or color you wanted.  they would make neat gifts for friends, or just to have in the tub!