Easy as Pie

I had taken Dad and Bunny to Wegmans yesterday for lunch, and after we had eaten we browsed in the kitchen department, all three of us sighing over the displays of Calphalon and Le Creuset cookware. As a kind of consolation prize, Dad and Bunny bought me a set of pie rim covers. For years I've twisted small bits of aluminum foil around my pie crust rims to prevent them from overbrowning; inevitably, a few of the little pieces would fall off when I transferred the pie to the oven. I've always hoped that someone would invent something that would work better than my system, and finally someone has. The covers are actually a set of five flat, slightly curved aluminum pieces, each about an inch wide and six inches long, that are placed on top of the pie rim to keep the crust from burning.

I tried them out today when I made an apple pie for tonight's dessert. Sometimes I make my own pie crusts, but usually I take the easy way out by using a Pillsbury refrigerated crust. Since learning how to use a pastry cutter, I'm not as apprehensive about making pie crust as I used to be, but I think the Pillsbury crusts are pretty good and certainly far quicker.

Apple pies are even easier since I found a little hand-cranked gadget that peels, cores, and slices an apple in a matter of seconds. Stephen and Matthew love to watch the peel falling away from the revolving apple as I turn the handle. They each beg for an apple ring, eat them, then come back to the counter, licking their fingers and asking for more.

Here is my favorite recipe for apple pie, adapted a bit from the Joy of Cooking (1974 edition):

Apple Pie

5 to 6 cups peeled, sliced, and cored apples
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 450 deg. Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and spices together and sprinkle over the apple slices, stirring to coat evenly. Place the apples in the bottom (unbaked) pie crust, mounding them in the center. Dot the top of the apples with butter and cover with top crust. Crimp the edges of the crusts and prick the top with a fork. Dust the top crust with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Bake at 450 deg. for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 deg. and bake for another 35 to 45 minutes until done.

 

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Wednesday
March 22, 2000

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Reading: Pears on a Willow Tree by Leslie Pietrzyk, which I finished today. Four generations of Polish-American women alternately reject and embrace their heritage...and each other. It is a wonderful exploration of the mother-daughter relationship and a promising debut from a new writer. Although termed a novel, the book is actually a series of interwoven stories, each from the point of view of one of the women. I think the device worked far better in this book than it did in the Alice Mattison book I gave up on a few weeks ago.

Blossoms: A few early magnolia trees are in bloom. Most of the pear trees look to be less than a week away from blooming.

One year ago: I can't believe how long the Oscars ran last night. Even more unbelievable: I watched it until the bitter end.


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