Happy Thanksgiving!

In my own humble opinion, this pumpkin pie looks good enough to eat – but you might notice the hardware that’d make it a tad hard to swallow! That’s because this isn’t real pumpkin pie….they are charms made of polymer clay!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - anyone who calls my house on TG gets a turkey greeting (I have a mean gobble, thank you very much)!

Anyhoo - I made a bunch of these for some of the ladies in my life that I not only adore, but get to see at Thanksgiving time. I love working with polymer clay – and being the food addict that I am, my favorite thing to make with the clay is…food ;-)

I made the tiny pies then made wire loops and inserted them into the back crust. Once they were baked, I attached a ring and strung the charms onto black cord necklaces.

Because I didn’t want the recipients to wear the necklace only a few days, I also made Christmas charms - not all food…

....and let each wonderful woman...
...pick the one they wanted most.

This first batch of charms were given this past weekend……then I went home and went kinda charm nutty and made……

…all of these! Somehow my hands worked liked the wind and I busted all of them out in a couple of hours.

I’m not sure which one is my fave…the hubs likes the presents the best. I really like the ‘Christmas Pudding’ though and the poinsettia ;-) I think my big sis will snag one of the Christmas Lights charms but what anyone else will pick is…well…anyone’s guess!

I had all the stuff on hand to make all of these charms, but should you choose to do some yourself, it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. Watch for coupons to your local Michael’s, Joann’s or other craft store and you can save big!

With that I’ll wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving ;-) Here’s hoping you don’t get too full and that you make warm family memories to take you into this joyous holiday season!

By the way - to all my family and friends...I love all of you! I am so lucky to have you in my life. All of you are what I'm thankful for every day of the year.

Betty's and My Apple Pie.....

This is my old, tatttered, tried-n-true Betty Crocker Cookbook. I ask Betty how to make lots of things...classic things. She's not wild and not quite as up-to-date as some cookbooks you'll find elsewhere, but when I need a good, solid, basic recipe to build from, she's always there for me. We've been through successes and failures together...and even though her stovetop-scar makes her a little less attractive to some, it reminds me that she's all mine.
Now - down to business....To Die Apple Pie.
This is Betty's recipe for two, 10" pie crusts, followed by the sumptuous apple filling.
Standard Two-Crust Pie - 10":
1 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons salt
7 to 8 tablespoons cold water
Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until the mixture is moistened and pastry almost comes clean from the sides of the bowl. I found I ended up using little water...about 5 tablespoons worth. Gather the pastry into a ball and divide it into two portions. Shape each into a disc and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Diameter of rolled pastry should be 2 inches larger than inverted pie plate. Fold 1 pastry into fourths, transfer to pie plate, unfold and ease around sides of plate - try not to stretch it/handle it too much. Trim sides leaving a 1 inch overhang. Once filling (recipe to follow) has been spooned into bottom crust, fold top crust into fourths, place atop filling, unfold and trim to within 1 inch of plate rim. Fold and roll top edge under lower crust, pressing on edge to seal and flute as you wish. Using a knife, cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape. Baking directions follow the filling recipe.
Apple Pie Filling -
10" pastry as prepared above
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of salt
8 cups thinly sliced, peeled, tart apples - about 7 medium (I used braeburn)
3 tablespoons butter
Heat oven to 425-degrees. Mix sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Stir in apples. Spoon apple mixture into bottom crust-lined pie plate and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, remembering to cut slits for venting. After sealing and fluting egde, cover rim with strips of foil to prevent over browning - but remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking. Bake until crust is golden and juice just begins to bubble through slits in crust - approx 40-50 minutes. Cool on rack as long as you can stand it - 'cause warm pie is the best!
Enjoy!!!

Mmmm....Homemade Apple Pie.......

I was painting the top of an unfinished wooden side table on Sunday afternoon, just having a little arts-n-crafts time, when my daughter came to me and said "I feel like baking something!" Little did she know that I'd been thinking about apple pie all weekend - so I put my paints away in about 10 seconds flat we we headed out to find the perfect apples! We've never made a pie together - heck, I can hardly remember the last time I made a pie myself. But I can tell you that whenever it was, it was not a two-crust pie. I've thought about baking one now and again, but like many people, when you think of pie, your brain automatically thinks 'Pie means pie crust! Noooooo!!!!!' All of the pie crust 'anthems' run through your mind....'it has to be flaky!', 'don't handle it too much!', 'you cannot have a tough crust!', 'it's gonna be hard to roll out!' and on and on and on.... Well, for the good of conquering my own hang-ups and showing my daughter that we can bake anything we want - I decided we would indeed tackle an apple pie if for no other reason than to prove we could do it. I did not want to teach my daughter that 'a pie is too hard' to make. That's like telling her, 'math is hard for girls'. Blanket statements like that can be so harmful - especially coming from a parent. Besides, for a young girl who is enjoying cooking/baking more and more, think of all the wonderful dishes that she might never make just because a crust is involved! I had to start her off on the right 'pie foot'. And...being a pie novice myself, it was fun to kill the crust-ghosts together.
Mixing the pie crust ingredients was so simple - and the crusts rolled out with ease. I used my Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer to prepare the apples. What an awesome tool - every apple was uniformly sliced into 1/8 inch slices, ensuring a soft and tender apple filling. I do not like crunchy apples in my apple pie! We spooned the apples into the bottom crust and dotted the top with tiny bits of butter, put on the top crust - then I realized I'd trimmed the bottom crust too close to the pie plate to allow proper closure/sealing of the two crusts. So....the pie crust challenges began. We took off the top crust, emptied the out the apples, and made a brand new crust for the bottom - one I wouldn't trim so closely. That second crust.....was pie crust hell. I rolled it too thin and couldn't roll it or fold it to get it in the pie plate. I tried rolling it once again - knowing in the back of my mind that a tough crust was looming. That second roll-out was worse than the first, so I tossed the dough and made more, again. This one - with a lot of finger-crossing and praying and breath-holding, came out well - so into the pan it went. The apples were re-load, re-buttered and another new batch of dough was made for the top crust as I had to toss the orginial one. This new top crust came out fine and we placed it atop the arromatic apple filling, brushed it with a little milk and then put our labor-heavy creation into a nice, hot oven.
All in all it was a really fun baking project. I ended up making tons of dough (first batch made two crusts...then I made three singles). Thinking about it afterwards, I figured it might've actually been a good thing that I had to make all those extra crusts. Here I'd told my daughter why so many people shy away from making pie -and then our very first attempt almost turned out too perfectly (until I'd trimmed it incorrectly)! In the end, she saw alot of what can happen, and that it can be a bit frustrating but also very fun. And that's what's important.
After dinner on Sunday night, we were so excited to cut into the still-warm pie - I'd bought vanilla ice cream to have along side as well. With the first bite, my husband's eyes rolled back into his head and his pleasure was easy to see - he immediately requested a pie for Thanksgiving. My first bite was a little more exporlatory - but it was pleased....the crust flaked with my fork...it was tender and beautfully golden - the apples...not a crunch in the bunch - it was heaven in my mouth.
My daughter.....her first bite, "It's pretty good..." by the third bite, "I don't think I like apple pie'. Oh well :-) We shared the experience and that's what counts. Baking together is a real joy - like it, or not ;-)