0 A Must Try Apple Pie

I love apples! I eat an apple every day. (After all, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.) 

I love the crunch and juiciness, the heartiness and ease of apple-eating! This season is apple's prime time and there are so many great varieties on the market.  I don’t know if you have had a Honey Crisp Apple but they are all the rage!  We have been marveling at our house at all the new varieties that are popping up lately. 

There are a couple of interesting NPR segments about the Apple industry.  Click HERE  or HERE if you want to listen/read the recent segments about the Apple industry. 

These next few weeks, pies will be made by many people – as Thanksgiving is such pie-holiday! So, I thought this recipe would be a good one to share.  My mom has been making this apple pie for events lately and I’ve been the lucky recipient of a leftover slice here and there!  This one is a winner.  I asked her to teach me how to make it and in the translating of the recipe I realized that she has combined a couple of different recipes - Southern Living and Trisha Yearwood.  The result is this incredible deep dish, made in a skillet, two-crust pie with a gooey caramel bottom. 

  

Mom has tried it with apple pie filling instead of fresh apples, and a combination of the two.  Using canned is far simpler, as the peeling of the apples is the biggest chore of the pie, but we like the fresh apples better.  It’s less mushy.  We didn’t make our own crust, but rather used purchased pie crust dough.  (I really like the flavor of the Trader Joe’s or if you don’t have that, you can use the Pillsbury crusts found in the refrigerated section in the red box).

Deep Dish Skillet Apple Pie

2 refrigerated pie crusts- ready to be used

1 stick butter

1 cup brown sugar

4 pounds tart apples (peeled and sliced)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp flour

1 egg white

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

Peel and slice apples.

In a mixing bowl place apples, cinnamon, sugar and flour and toss well to coat.

Preheat oven to 350˚.

Place butter and brown sugar in skillet on top of stove on medium heat, let melt, swirling with wooden spoon until fully melted.  Remove from heat. 

Carefully drape one of the pie crusts into the skillet filled with brown sugar/butter sauce. (I know this seems counterintuitive to place this over the goo, but it is correct).

Immediately spoon all of the apples on top of the crust.  Cover with the 2nd pie crust and crimp the edges with your fingers to seal along the edge. 

Whisk egg white in a small bowl until foamy.  Brush egg white over the entire top of the pie.  

Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. sugar.  Cut a few small slits into the top of the crust dough.  

Bake for 1 hour. 

Let sit for a few minutes to set.

Serve slices with vanilla ice cream.  

I wanted to snap some photos in the daylight but this was the last
slice of pie remaining when I got a chance to photograph it.
You can see the goo in the pan from the brown sugar butter sauce.

I made this for Bible study this week in honor of my friend Kristin's birthday because I knew
she likes apple pie.  I offered her the various candles from my bin and she chose
the 1 and 7, representing 17.  She thought this would be a good year to do again. :)
(We had to hold up the candles since they wouldn't stand alone in the pie.)


Happy apple eating and pie baking! 

P.S.  WARNING: I'm not sure that the adage "an apple a day" applies to apples doused with butter and sugar and hidden between 2 pie crusts.  You'll have to eat a raw apple for that promise to be valid. 

Detail: A Must Try Apple Pie

0 Special Fall Dinner

A special fall meal, including some of my favorite flavors of the season, is Pork Tenderloin and Sweet Potato Apple Scallop.  The recipes each have a different history of how they came to our kitchen. 

The Pork: When I was pregnant with Lucy (my youngest child), a few of my son’s school-mates’ mothers offered to bring meals to us when our baby arrived.  We were so thankful and thrilled to have meals brought. (I think providing meals is one of the most wonderful ways to love someone when they have a new child, or are going through any transition or tough time, really.  If you are not already in the practice of doing this I strongly consider you start today!)

One of our favorites was a meal that centered around 2 large pork tenderloins that were marinated and brought to us hot off the grill.  The meat was so flavorful and tender.  My guys went wild and I loved how well seasoned it was.  We quickly asked for the recipe.  Lissa, the giver of the meal, passed it along and we are thankful. It is a simple marinade and then the meat is grilled.  It is a winner every time.  I have cut the butter quantity from the original version and don’t notice a difference (except for less guilt).  The trickiest part of this recipe is guessing which piece of meat to buy (since it is usually bought shrink-wrapped in the store and it is hard to know exactly what you are purchasing). This dish is great year round, but I chose to post it this month because it is nice weather to enjoy grilling and it goes so well with the sweet potato/apple dish that I have been craving.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

5 Tbsp melted butter

1/3 cup soy sauce

2/3 cup worchestershire sauce

2 Tbsp ketchup

2 Pork Tenderloins 

Combine ingredients in a glass measuring cup. Pour over 2 pork tenderloins in a dish.  Marinade meat  in a covered dish for 2 hours or more.  Grill, flipping frequently until a thermometer inserted into the largest part of the meat reads 150-155 (approximately 20 minutes).  Remove from grill and wrap in foil to continue to cook and maintain warmth.  

                                                                     

Our tips with the pork are:

*Use a Meat thermometer to know when it is done!  If you don’t have one, this would be a good tool to purchase.  Rather than guessing or cutting your meat repeatedly to see if it is fully cooked, the thermometer inserted can give you an accurate read that will let you know when the meat is safely cooked. 

*Flip the meat in the marinade a few times during the time it is marinating.  (I have this cool marinating Tupperware container which is really convenient and useful for meat preparing - you can flip the container and both sides have a tenderizing texture).

*Be careful when grilling, because the marinade can easily burn on the pork.  My griller-husband suggests you turn the tenderloin often while it is on the grill to prevent charring. There is plenty of marinade to continue to baste while grilling.

*If you don’t have a silicone basting brush, I recommend you get one, as it is much easier to clean and care for than a traditional basting brush.

*Make more than you think you will need, as it is a little hard to stop eating it. (My 8 year old son ate 7 pieces today when we said, "STOP! ENOUGH!")

Sweet Potato Apple Scallop

For my friend’s 40^th birthday (in October) a couple of years ago, several friends gathered and cooked a meal for her.  It was a lovely occasion and the main dish was pork tenderloin (a more complex recipe than the preceding one).  I was to bring a sweet potato dish and decided that I wanted something a little different than baked sweet potatoes, or a sweet potato casserole or mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Don’t get me wrong, I like sweet potatoes of all varities.

My family loves sweet potatoes at thanksgiving and we have a history of voting on “how we want our sweet potatoes fixed” each year.  I love them all ways…they are just so good! We have been known to have 3 versions of sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner- my sister, who likes the marshmallow topped and the crumble-topped casserole has had the great insight to create a ½ and ½ pan and she scoops her portion down the center in order to get some of each!

But the night of the birthday dinner party, I envisioned a baked apple/sweet potato combo.  I searched around for what I was looking for and found a recipe online and adapted it my liking.  It is tasty, hearty and beautiful too.  It is one of those recipes that can be altered according to your preferences.

Sweet Potato Apple Scallop

4 sweet potatoes

4 medium apples, peeled and cored

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp orange juice

½ cup cranberries (as per your preference)

1 cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup chopped pecans

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 Tbsp butter

Place sweet potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil; cook for 20-25 minutes or until tender. 

Drain and cool.  

Peel potatoes and cut into ¼ inch slices.  

Place in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.  

Cut apples into slices.  Arrange over sweet potatoes. 

Sprinkle with lemon juice.  

Then sprinkle cranberries all around the top.

(You can alternate layering of sweet potatoes and apples, if your pan’s dimensions allow). 

Combine the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and orange juice; sprinkle over fruit. [If you are making in a pan with 2 layers of each item, I recommend you sprinkle the brown sugar mixture between layers as well as on top, so as to flavor the bottom half as well as the top.]   Dot with butter.  

Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until apples are tender.

Detail: Special Fall Dinner