Not so dreamy apple pie

As you can see from former posts, we went apple picking this past weekend!  If you have read older posts, you will also know that I have a deep love affair with picking fruit, and apples are by far my favorite fruit to pick.  So you can imagine how giddy I was all weekend.  Well Sunday night I decided to use some of the apples to make a heavenly pie.  My mom has always talked about the incredible apple pie she made from a recipe by the Pioneer Women, so I decided to give it a shot.

Although this Dreamy Apple Pie looks inviting, don't be deceived.  Don't get me wrong, the pie tasted splendid, it just didn't stay together when I took it out of the dish.  Let me put it this way, my version should have been considered a crumble.  I should be clear, my frustrations were not as much with the pie filling and topping as they were with the crust.  I love using the Cook's Illustrated pie dough recipe.  It is a heartier and reliable dough that shapes easily...I can always count on it.  I did not have such luck with the Pioneer Women's dough recipe.  Once rolled out, it was fragile and impossible to put in the pan without breaking.  In the future, I think I would use the filling and topping recipes, combined with another pie dough.

Even with this critique, don't assume I didn't eat the pie....Andrew and I ate about half of it that night, and the other half the next day.  Just putting on those newlywed pounds!
Oh and my apologies for the not so good looking pictures.  It was late, bad lighting and my sweet tooth was calling my name.

Tortilla Time

One of my favorite meals to make...tacos. Now let me tell you why.  I don't eat much meat, actually I rarely do out of former habit from being a vegan for roughly two years.  With tacos, its an easy dish where Andrew and I can eat the same meal and he just adds meat and I eat all the veggies.  Well tonight we decided to get wild.  Ohhhh yea.  We decided to make our own tortillas!  Homemade tortillas make a huge difference, and they tasted better than I imagined.

We used this recipe, and they turned out really well.  The recipe is simple, and cheap!  You only use three ingredients, how nice is that?

Masa flour, very important

The dough, after adding water and salt

Andrew's meal. Please excuse the paper plates...

My tacos, loaded with veggies.

Banana breakfast

It was my day off and I decided to make some quick and easy banana muffins for Andrew before he went to work.  I used this recipe.  It was super easy, fast and full of sugar and butter, which Andrew loves.  I made the bread into muffin form and then added a bit of brown sugar on top.  As far as I know, he loved them!

Apple picking

Today Andrew and I drove to Millington, TN to pay Jones Orchard a vist and pick some apples.  The only variety they had available to pick was the Arkansas Black, but its a sturdy apple and good for cooking, so I was pleased.  Our picking was a wonderful adventure, we had the whole field to ourselves and spent about an hour picking fruit and having fun with each other.  The best Saturday afternoon I've had in a while.

Stay tuned for some apple pie, apple cobbler and applesauce pictures!  That might be a bit ambitious, so don't hold me to it.

Our apple picker, first time using one of those!

Attempting to pick apples

So happy

Impromptu date night

Tonight we had a spontaneous date night.  The best kind.  And usually these dates revolve around food...
Well we love pasta, so we decided to make some more from scratch, as if we did not have enough a week ago at our pasta party. We had a lovely dinner on our porch and then tried to stay up to watch SNL, which starts at 10:30. Epic FAIL, we both fell asleep before then.

Rolling out pasta

Andrew cutting the pasta

My meal, red sauce and basil

Andrew's meal, with meatballs and cheese 

Anthro Finds

I went into Anthropologie the other day and spent less than twenty dollars!  I purchased a darling little blue votive along with two heavy planters/pots...not exactly sure of the right name (above picture).  Each item was five dollars!  Cheapest trip to Anthro ever!

Diaries of a Fruit Maiden

The only pitfall of my job as a baker is that I work on Saturday mornings, meaning I miss the big farmers markets on Saturday.  On the contrary, I have found a way to make up for this devastating loss that I weekly mourn.
I love local fruit, and anything local for that matter.  At the bakery we always try to incorporate as   much local as possible.  Well I felt like we could do more of that, so I took on the task of going to  the Wednesday farmers market each week and buying any produce that needed.  Another upside to this responsibility is that I get to write blog posts about my trips on the bakery website.  Here is the link, I hope you enjoy the first entry!