Apple Pie

Last month, I went apple picking at a local family farm called Chiles Peach Orchard. I love this place because the prices aren't bad, the fruits are plentiful and delicious, the people are friendly, and I get to eat at Blue Mountain Brewery for lunch every time I go fruit picking. I have picked their cherries, strawberries, and peaches as well and they have all been worth the trip so when I saw that they had Fuji apples available, I wanted to go again before the place closed for the season. It was in the 40s temperature-wise but I had my gloves on so I managed to get myself at least 30 pounds of apples! What do you do with all that?! Make pies, of course.

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe and had to adapt the spices because I am not a fan of allspice and it was a little overpowering. Smitten Kitchen suggested doubling the spices, but I was actually okay with the original amount. I liked letting the flavors of the apple come through instead with just a hint of the spices. I didn't use the crust recipe that she provided in the same post and I decided to change it up in terms of the design as well! I bought a leaf cookie cutter on Amazon, stamped out leaf-shaped pieces from the pie crust, and layered them on top of the pie. It actually turned out better than I thought and people were impressed! I saw the idea on Pinterest while just browsing around and I'm glad I decided to give it a try.

In addition to making four pies (only one was for myself!), I also snacked on the apples every day and shared some with coworkers and friends. But guess what...I still have lots of apples left! They are surprisingly staying in good shape in the fridge so I am still snacking and adding them in my oatmeal in the mornings sometimes. I just got a box of oranges from my school's FFA as well so I think I'm good on fruits for a while!



Drop a scoop of ice cream on this slice of warm apple pie. Mm mm good.

Apple Pie
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

4 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 7 or 8 medium apples)
1 tbsp juice and 1 tsp zest from 1 lemon
3/4 cup (5.25 oz) plus 1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1 egg white, beaten lightly

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat rimmed baking sheet and oven to 425°F. Remove one piece of dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable).

Roll dough on lightly floured work surface or between two large sheets of plastic wrap to 12-inch disk. Transfer dough to pie plate by rolling dough around rolling pin and unrolling over 9 1/2-inch pie plate or by folding dough in quarters, then placing dough point in center of pie plate and unfolding. Working around circumference of pie plate, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough edges with one hand while pressing around pan bottom with other hand. Leave dough that overhangs lip of plate in place; refrigerate dough-lined pie plate.

Peel, core and cut apples in half, and in half again width-wise; cut quarters into 1/4-inch slices and toss with lemon juice and zest. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, flour, salt and spices. Toss dry ingredients with apples. Turn fruit mixture, including juices, into chilled pie shell and mound slightly in center.

Roll out second piece of dough to 12-inch disk and place over filling. Trim top and bottom edges to 1/2-inch beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that folded edge is flush with pan lip. Flute edging or press with fork tines to seal. Cut four slits on dough top. If pie dough is very soft, place in freezer for 10 minutes. Brush egg white onto top of crust and sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Place pie on baking sheet and bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate pie and reduce oven temperature to 375°F; continue baking until juices bubble and crust is deep golden brown, 30-35 minutes longer.

Transfer pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours.

Roast Pork Loin with Apples

The last time I made this dish was a couple Thanksgivings ago. When my family drove six hours to spend Thanksgiving at my little apartment, I decided to do something different. We generally don't eat a lot so we always have so many leftovers when we cook a turkey that we don't even finish later in the week. I thought I could find just a breast but everybody likes the dark meat anyway. I went for pork. I know we are not even close to Thanksgiving right now so why am I sharing this dish? I wanted to eat pork this week and was looking for recipes when I rediscovered this one so I made it again for dinner.



This is a super easy dish that you don't have to save for a special occasion. You can make it on a weekday. It yields a juicy, not-at-all dry piece of pork and yummy apples to go with it. I guess I'm a fan of pork with fruit if you recall the Pork Chops with Whiskied Pears and Thyme that I cooked for Christmas one year.



The recipe says that you can also puree the apples and onions for a gravy-type sauce, but I've always just left them as I like eating the chunks. The Fuji apples I used for this recipe were cooked to a perfect level of sweetness. And since I got a Dutch oven this past Christmas, I had the perfect pot that the pork loin could fit into. It was a small but long piece so it disappeared quick. (As you can tell, I piled up my dish quite a bit.) It's an easy dish for a potluck - give it a try!



Roast Pork Loin with Apples
From Jul's Kitchen

Boneless pork loin, with some trace of fat, about 600 to 700 g
Sea ​​salt
Ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
2 cloves of garlic
3 apples
1 white onion
1/ 2 cup of white wine

Tie the pork loin with a twine (I skipped this step as my pork loin was one big piece and did not need to be held together). Rub the meat with sea salt and ground black pepper to flavour the pork.

Put a few tablespoons of olive oil and a knob of butter on the bottom of a cast iron skillet (I used a Dutch oven) and let melt the butter over high heat. Add two cloves of crushed garlic.

Place the pork loin into the hot olive oil and let it brown on each side, turning the meat with two wooden spoons as soon as it gets golden brown. You are going to use wooden spoons or spatulas not to prick your beautiful piece of pork: you want the meat to be completely sealed by the heath of the olive oil on the outside and all the juices to be kept inside, to have a tasty and juicy roast! It will take about 10 minutes.

Pour in half a glass of white wine over the pork loin and let almost all the wine evaporate. Now reduce the heat and add the peeled apples and onions, all cut into wedges. Stir with a wooden spoon to coat the apples and the onion with the olive oil and cover the pot with a lid, then cook the meat over medium heat for about 25 up to 30 minutes, checking it occasionally.

Remove the meat from the cast iron pot, wrap it with aluminum foil and let it rest.

In the meantime, turn up the heat under the pan with the apples and cook for 5 minutes over high heat to reduce the sauce: you can serve the meat, cut into thin slices, with the apples and the onions just as they are out of the pot, caramelized and soft, or you can purée them to dress the meat with a creamy and sweet gravy.

Caramelized Apple Crepes

Yesterday, the Shakespeare Society had its second annual 'Stravaganza, where we perform select scenes from any Shakespeare play. It went pretty well, though we had a small audience. Things haven't been working out as we would have liked this term, but it's okay. It's over and done with now! It only hit me at dinner yesterday that the 'Stravaganza was my last performance with the Shakespeare Society. It made me so sad, but it's been such a great experience. We didn't have a cast party for the 'Stravaganza, unfortunately, but everybody was so busy that it probably would have ended up being just a couple people at the party.

Usually, though, having people over at our house for a party means that some will end up spending the night. At the hosts, we provide sometimes simple breakfasts like cereal and milk. Other times, I'm in the mood to make pancakes. Pancakes, however, take a while to cook. People wake up hungry and I hate to make them wait. When we had people over for the cast party last semester, I decided to make crepes instead. A thinner version of pancakes, crepes take a lot less time to cook than pancakes. You can also get a lot more out of the batter. After doubling the recipe, I got exactly 24 crepes, which was perfect because there were 12 people eating so each got 2. I had a difficult time coming up with a filling that everyone would enjoy. Fresh fruit is nice, but I guess I wanted something more complicated. Jam or Nutella seemed too sweet, but caramelized apples sounded perfect.

I had never made crepes before, but this was a successful first try. I used a 7- or 8-inch non-stick pan, added enough batter to just cover the whole pan so I would get nice and thin crepes. The recipe's instructions say to cook the crepe for 30 seconds on one side and then for 10 to 20 seconds on the other, but I think it's a bit longer than that. I was also too frazzled to be keeping track of the time so I instead looked at the edges of the crepe. If the edges curl up and the crepe is somewhat cooked around the sides, then it's time to flip.



The first time I made these, I didn't get to have a bite, but that's okay. I was just glad there was enough for others. I made these as soon as I got home a couple weeks ago for Spring Break so that my sister and I could enjoy them together. The only pictures I have are terrible ones, unfortunately. For some reason, my camera was being very uncooperative that day.

Caramelized Apple Crepes
From Not Derby Pie

- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 to 3 apples, cored, peeled, and thinly sliced

- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 3 tbsp melted butter
- Butter, for coating the pan

1. Preheat oven to 200F and put a rimmed baking sheet on an oven rack.
2. Heat pan over medium heat and add 2 tbsp butter. When it starts to bubble, add apples and cook until softened. Add maple syrup and cook 3 to 5 minutes, until fully soft and coated in butter and syrup.
3. Meanwhile, blend eggs, milk, water, flour, and 3 tbsp melted butter in blender until well mixed. Heat small non-stick pan (or crepe pan, if you have one) and add just enough butter to coat. Using a small ladle, spoon about 1 oz or 1/4 cup of batter into pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook about 30 seconds or until the edges of crepe curl up, then flip and cook about 10 to 20 seconds more. Transfer finished crepes to baking sheet in oven. Continue until batter has been used up.
4. To serve layer crepes with apples and top with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Curry Apple Fried Rice

Our university gives us a week off in February probably because of Washington's birthday, so this week all I have is student-teaching from 7:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. I am so glad to have this break because I have the evenings free! Now I seriously have time to cook as much as I want. I might have stuff to work on such as memorizing my lines for two plays (though one is significantly shorter time-wise) and making lesson plans. I will be teaching full-time in the classroom soon enough and I feel like I should prepare now and go over my notes with my cooperating teacher to make sure it'll work. But I don't have commitments to be somewhere other than my own home, so this week will be relaxing.

I've been wanting curry or anything with curry powder this week. This fried rice seemed interesting, especially with the apple. I think because I used a Golden Delicious apple, it wasn't such a prominent taste, but I liked that. I used chicken stock and it definitely is better than using water when you cook the rice. Still, season the dish with salt before serving because bland rice mixed with apple isn't great. I had a bunch of celery in the fridge so that and onions were the only vegetables I added into this dish, but next time, I'd like to add more color. Maybe I'll use a red apple.



Curry Apple Fried Rice
From Meatless Monday

- 1 cup rice
- 2 1/4 cups of vegetable stock
- 2 eggs, scrambled
- 1 cup frozen vegetables
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 apple, chopped with the skin on
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin

1. Cook rice according to package directions, using vegetable broth instead of water.
2. Preheat a wok over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the wok.
3. Add onions and frozen vegetables and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add apples and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until garlic begins to color.
5. Add rice, eggs, curry powder and cumin. Cook for 2 minutes more, serve and enjoy!

Apple Pie

I'm sure you've noticed by now that this blog has a new layout. I finally got the motivation to draw something of my own to put on here. I was never good at drawing faces, so after a bit of googling and lots of drafts, I ended up with the two at the top of this page. It's not much, but I think it adds a personal touch to the layout.

This is part of my "resolutions" for the New Year. I didn't see the New Year as such a big deal because I guess I'm in denial. I don't usually make resolutions because I'm definitely not the type of person to keep any of them. But there are some areas of my life that I want to focus on.

Of course, there's my student-teaching coming up. I want to come out of that experience knowing if I want teaching to be my future or not. I keep having second thoughts, so I'm sure spending a whole term in the classroom will let me know. Secondly, I have just 6 months left in Lexington and I want to explore the place as much as possible. Do as much as I can in this town before I have to leave. Even if I visit sometime in the future, it will not be the same as being a resident of the town. Third, I want to cook and bake more. I want to become a better blogger and a better food photographer. This seems like a big goal for me, but I just want to make some progress. No matter how busy I get, I always tried to make time for the kitchen and I want to keep that up. And lastly, I want to be a better sister and a better daughter. I've felt that my parents and I have become a bit distant because our interests are obviously so different, but they're even more different than before. I don't call my parents as often as I should and we know we're all busy sometimes, but I need to make time to let them know what's going on in my life.

Enough blabbing. Last week, my sister requested I make Apple Pie. She gave me a recipe and I got to work right away. For some reason, I find making apple pie relaxing. Not that I feel pressured when I'm making other foods, but it was such a calming experience. Maybe this will inspire me to make more pies and I'll be on my way to meet at least one of my resolutions!

For the crust, I used a recipe from Donna Hay. While it is a great-tasting crust, it didn't work as an apple pie crust for us, so I'm still on a search for the perfect pie crust. I do have to say, though, the crust tasted better a few days later. I also, for some strange reason, thought the apples in Apple Pie had to be wedges and not slices. My sister liked this filling recipe because the filling isn't syrupy. The original recipe calls for 6 apples, but I used only 5, but I might consider using even less next time. Maybe 4, or 4 1/2. And a mix of Fuji and Granny Smith.





Sunday's Apple Pie
From Allrecipes

- 2 prepared pie crusts (recipe below)
- 6 tart (Granny Smith) apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C).
2. Place sliced apples in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Stir well and pour mixture over apples. Cut half of butter or margarine into small pieces and add to apples. Toss apples until thoroughly coated.
3. Pour apples into pastry-lined pie pan. Dot apples with the rest of butter or margarine. Place second pastry on top. Seal edges and cut steam vents in top crust.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until crust is golden brown.



Sweet Shortcut Pastry [Makes 1 crust - double for a top crust also]
From Modern Classics Book 2 by Donna Hay

- 2 cups flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 5 oz cold butter, chopped
- 2 to 3 tbsp ice water

1. Process the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add enough iced water to form a smooth dough and process until just combined. Knead the dough lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface or between sheets of non-stick bakin paper until 1/8 inches thick, or whatever thickness required, and line the tart tin or pie dish.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place a piece of non-stick baking paper over the pastry and fill with baking weights or uncooked rice or beans. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the weights and bake for 10 more minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Turkey Apple Sausage Patties

A few weeks ago, I made some sausage patties to eat for breakfast. I noticed I was running low so I went looking for a new recipe to try. It was actually pretty difficult to find one that had different flavors from the last recipe I used. After browsing and browsing and more browsing, I found one by Rachael Ray in which she has an apple as an ingredient. I thought to myself, "Hey, I love apples, so why not," and kept searching for similar ones and found this very simple recipe.

These patties have a totally different flavor from the last one I made. The recipe calls for dried apples, but I used a whole fresh one instead. A new kind of apple, actually, that I had never tasted before. It's called Jonagold. It's a tart and crispy apple and I love it! I love all apples and I hope I run into more different types so I can try them all. My everyday apple is Gala, but my all-time favorites have to be Honeycrisp and Fuji. I grew up eating Fuji every night as dessert. It's very refreshing to eat, especially if dinner that night was spicy or a bit on the heavy side.

The recipe also calls for honey or maple syrup, but I used agave nectar. I could tell just from adding and mixing the agave into the meat mixture that it would be a bit softer than the previous patties I made and it certainly was. A couple other changes I made were adding more veggies and replacing sage with parsley because I am not a big fan of sage and I couldn't even find it at the market. I really love these patties and I would definitely make these again!



Turkey Apple Sausage Patties [Makes 33 small patties]
Adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet

- 1.3 lb ground turkey
- 1 small apple, diced
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 1/2 bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup diced zucchini
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1 tbsp agave nectar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp dried parsley flakes

1. Pulse the apple, onion, bell pepper, and zucchini in a food processor until finely chopped and squeeze out excess juice. Add to bowl.
2. Add turkey, allspice, sea salt, black pepper, parsley, and agave into the bowl with veggies. Mix well.
3. Take a little less than 2 tbsp of meat mixture. Form into a ball and then flatten with palms. Cook each patty for about 3 minutes or until center is cooked through.