Grandma's Apple Pie

Carol put together an album that is studded with adorable pictures of her as a child.

Every Christmas dinner there were at least six pies that proudly stretched across the table as soon as the dinner was cleared from the table. There was a pot of coffee brewing as adults bellied up to the table and the kids ran through Grandma's house.  Carol, my grandma, my dad's mom was the most natural homemaker (yes, homemaker)  I have ever came across. Upwards of eight different pies and a cheese cake for dessert were guaranteed and seemed effortless. If someone had a favorite pie, she would make sure it was there Christmas day. It was what we did, it is what I miss.

Pumpkin, apple, cherry, mince meat, sour cream raisin, pecan.

Lemon, key lime, peanut butter.

Each pie was picture perfect, homemade pie is like that, always pretty, welcoming, easy. Crust flaky from fat, filling sweet with love. 

She had a way of puling a fresh pie out of the oven within an hour of me dropping in unexpectedly. Seriously, just baked a pie she chimed as she would whip cream to dollop on top and pour coffee to wash the mess down.  Years later as we grew closer and she grew sicker she would impart small words of wisdom to me. You can freeze a few unbaked pies and put them directly into the oven. She showed me how to make meringue while generally demystifying the kitchen. Putting a slice of bread in the cookie jar keeps the cookies moist. She was as strong as she was confident.

If there was one place I could snap my fingers and go back to it would be her kitchen. The smell, the worn counter tops, the abundance of dessert, the love.

I look at a pie and I am reminded of my Grandma. Warm thoughts fill me, I calmed and I carry on just as she would want.

Several years have passed since I last sat down and shared a cup of coffee with my Grandma but a day does not pass that she does not cross my mind. Life is like that, she has left my life a little sweeter, I am grateful. These days her son, my dad, has baked enough pies that come fall in the Pacific Northwest apples get tossed with some sugar and cinnamon, tucked inside the same crust that carol used and an hour later he has a perfect apple pie effortlessly cooling on the counter.

Grandma's Apple Pie

Grandma put together several cookbooks, this recipe comes from Home Cooking is a Family Affair. When the house burns down I will have this cookbook clutched under my arm. My copy is cherished, slightly falling apart, stained with butter and dusty with flour. The recipes in this book are vague, understanding my Grandma's habits make sifting through the recipes easier. The pie crust recipe has just a few steps and doesn't specify what it yields. I know that Carol would have made enough crust for several pies to tuck into the freezer so of course this recipe for crust will have you prepared for the event that you need to bring a pie.

Don't fret while making pie, it will be harder than it should be. It might bubble over, it might not be uniform, it didn't come from a machine.

Crust

Enough for two pies with tops

4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups butter, cold sliced into small pieces
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon white vinegar
8 tablespoons cold water

Cut butter into flour and salt in a large mixing bowl until it resembles a course meal. In a small bowl beat egg and add vinegar and water. Add liquids to flour mixture and mix until it evenly combined. Divide dough into four equal pieces and shape into disks. Roll out on floured board to fit into a deep dish 9" pie plate. Extra disks of dough keeps well in the fridge for a week or tightly wrapped in the freezer.

Filling

6 cups apples, cored and sliced
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients except butter, pour into an unbaked 9" pastry shell, dab with butter. Moisten edges and cover with top crust. Press and turn edges to seal. Slit top crust in several places. Brush top of pie with a little water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 45 to 60 until crust is golden and apples are tender. Cool before slicing.

Time for a little comfort smothered in gravy & a few tips

I guess that I can take my pleasant little life a little for granted at times, can't we all.

What I have learned: Never stop trying - ever. Even if you are trying - yep, most likely it isn't good enough and we can always do better. Always do your best. Our best is the greatest gift we have.

Feeling like a needed something more for both J and I, some time in the house, and a home cooked meal, I open the fridge, turned on the oven, pulled out the mixer and went to town (actually didn't got to town for a change....sorry...). I even turned down a bike ride in hopes that a good home cooked meal will have healing properties of its own.

One of the fondest dishes that my Grandma ever made was a pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions in the drippings, then smothered in pan gravy.  It is one of those country staples - meat and potatoes. It warms and satisfies from the inside out.

When I was still in school, my parents would often send me to spend a few days with Grandma. I would park it at her house, eating, sewing, doing anything new that she saw while watching Martha Stewart, drinking coffee, watching Golden Girls, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and playing in the gardens. If only I could go back..... snapping my fingers...... clicking my heals.... still here... instead of trying other means of time travel, I decided to roast my own chicken, make some gravy and then bake some scones with both cheese and apple speckles.

These are all things that would tickle Carol and in turn this meal is already healing my heart and I can just hope that it works on J. The say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Today's cooking lesson(s)! To be honest.... there are a few!

So in order to "get to a man's heart" he need not be poisoned! So if you are advert to cooking meat as much as I am you probably need a refresher on when meat is done. Do a little research before you start cooking. I would rather not eat meat that is dry and chewy but I kind of want to puke at the sight of raw chicken on the table.
When is a chicken fully cooked you might ask......

OK, you have gone through roasting the darn bird, basting, making sure it is up to the proper temperature, and the whole nine yards, it is on the table.... how the heck do you cut into the limp bird? Yeah - I really don't eat a lot of meat.... 

Gravy......hmmm..... I know I like it if it is done well. This will take practice.

I plan on sticking to things I understand better such as vegetable dishes and.....

On to something that I know a little better - BAKING!

Over at my favorite cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen, she just let the cat out of the bag about apple cheddar scones. Since I live in the midst of apple heaven and it is harvest season, I found myself with a box of apples. I can eat nearly my weight in fresh apples every couple of days, the box I got were not that inspiring for eating. I made a batch of ginger apple sauce and saved a few for scones.

At the time I made these I had a block of chili cheddar cheese and finely grated it. I think it worked out just fine, although white cheddar is more pleasing to the eyes and the palate. I also suggest cutting the apples into smaller pieces than what I have show, possibly the size of dice.

Since I am on a roll thinking that I know how to tweak recipes, I would make one final change! I would skip the scone wedge idea and go for a round biscuit shape instead. Next time I will once again plop the dough onto a very well floured surface pat the dough to about an inch and a half thick then tearing off three inch or so diameter pieces and form into disks.

There you have it! Take it or leave it. I will take baked goods, savory or sweet, over meat any day of the week!


Apple and Cheddar Scones

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Barely tweaked from The Perfect Finish

Makes 6 generous scones

2 firm tart apples (1 pound or 2 454 grams)
1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces or 195 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar plus 1 1/2 tablespoons for sprinkling (total of 2.2 ounces or 63 grams)
1/2 tablespoon (7 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (3 grams) plus additional for egg wash
6 tablespoons (3 ounces or 85 grams)unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes plus additional for baking sheet if not lining it with parchment
1/2 cup (2.25 ounces or 65 grams) sharp cheddar, shredded (white is recommended, I assume for aesthetics)
1/4 cup (2 ounces) heavy cream
2 large eggs

Position a rack at the center of oven and preheat oven to 375 °F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Peel and core apples, then cut them into one-sixteenths. (chunks, not slivers.) Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake them until they take on a little color and feel dry to the touch, about 20 minutes. They will be about half-baked. Let them cool completely. (You can speed this up in the fridge, as I did.) Leave oven on.

overmix.

Generously flour your counter top and place the scone dough on top of it. Sprinkle with flour. Use a rolling pin to gently roll (or use your hands to pat) the dough into a 1 1/4-inch thick, 6-inch circle. Cut circle into 6 wedges. Transfer them to a baking sheet that has either been buttered or lined with a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Leave at least 2 inches between each scone.

Beat remaining egg in a small bowl with a pinch of salt. Brush the scones with egg wash and sprinkle them with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake until firm and golden, about 30 minutes. With a spatula, lift them to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Before you eat one, make sure you realize how addictive they might be. Once you’ve got that down, go for it anyway.

Do ahead: Scones are best the day they are baked. However, they can be made ahead of time and stored unbaked in the freezer until you need them. Simply brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle them with sugar, and bake them still frozen for just a couple extra minutes. This way they are always freshly baked when you want them. These scones were passable on day two and terrible on day three.

Recipes - a call for help

I vividly remember sitting down with my Grandma Cronk one afternoon and thumbed through her collection of cookbooks. We are talking COLLECTION! At the time I had no idea the wealth of knowledge - concerning nothing but cooking - that occupied shelves and shelves in her house. This one particular afternoon, she guided me through some of them, I wasn't that impressed at the time - until now. If I could snap my fingers right now, I would be in my Grandma's kitchen, sitting at the table, reading random old cookbooks right now. It was a history lesson, a lesson on the real roles that we embark on everyday - how to feed ourselves and the ones we love.
The single cookbook that I wish I could get my hands on was one that was from The Great Depression - I think - or was it just a really SIMPLE cookbook. I am talking how to cook anything and use it all. I won't  go into the bits and pieces that are slipping my mind, I just would love to get my hands on it. Grandma - that afternoon left a big warm spot in my heart for cookbooks.
I have my very own shelve devoted to cookbooks. I do pour over the Internet daily to find new recipes, ideas and inspiration but it will never - EVER - replace a hard bound cookbook in my house. I am one of those geeks that might be know to read cookbooks before I go to bed..... 
I am running into a fatal flaw in my cooking adventures in the kitchen. I love to have dinner parties, I am saying that people come over ever weekend for food and drinks. I want to keep it this way and have a life outside my kitchen and potlucks get kind of old after a while. So, I try recipes here and there, new exciting things, out of cookbooks (I seem to trust my blogs more because they usually are a bit more honest when critiquing a recipe and it is such a community that no one that I follow would throw out for everyone to see *gasp* something that tastes really really... lame!) and they are horrible. Guests have been faced to "enjoy" a new baked chicken recipe and really bland appetizers. BLAH! I don't waste my time, money and energy making something that tastes like nothing or something that needs a cup of ketchup or any condiment to hide the flavor and I want people to come back.
I want quick time tested recipes that I know are crowd pleasers. Is this too much to ask?
So - what do I do? I need some way of archiving my recipes - a recipe box! If I could just get my hands on my Carol's (my fault for never being there as her last belongings were being divided up among family and friends - but if someone has a few cookbooks of hers that they  have no interest in, I know of a great home for them!) recipe box - that would save me all the work.
I am making my own recipe box. A collection of my favorite recipes, handwritten on paper, in the kitchen and the go-to for mid week dinners and the BBQ that needs a few sides, not to mention the perfect chocolate chop cookie and toffee recipe for the moments of weakness.
What do you do to keep up on all your favorite recipes? I need some ideas!

no need to knead

I have done it.

My house smels exactly as my Grandma's did.

J and I came home from watching the Super Bowl and there was a very particular aroma to the house. He thinks it smells musty, it took me awhile to put my finger to it but I know exactly what it smells like, my Dad's mother, my grandma. Her house smelt of bread rising, that yeasty, fermenting smell, almost too pungent to stand. Now my house smells of the same aroma, it is odd but I just want to take it in, I don't want to go to bed, I don't want this memory to escape me.

The memory of her may com and go from day to day but the lasting impression that she has had on my life will forever be part of me. Like the fact that I can take the time to enjoy baking bread. I remember when she got one of those automatic bread machines, it was probably like when the first vacuum was introduced to the house wife. The women no longer had to drag those heavy wool carpets outside and beat them with a stick, they just ran this machine over the fibers and removed the dirt. The bread machine took the kneading, the raising and the guess work out of bread making but still produced the perfect loaf every time. Grandma always had fresh baked bread. 
We had better get used to it because as soon as I made a "no knead bread" **yes, it is true** I don't think that buying a $4 - $6 loaf is worth it. I am talking about four of the most basic of ingredients that are mixed together and sit in the fridge over night. whal - la! Bread! Baguette to be exact. I didn't even lay a finger, nor once ounce of kneading effort on this loaf. Thank God! Over at Bakers Banter, the brainchild of King Authors Flour, they have a whole slew of no knead recipes, and even more recipes for the astute bread maker, which I aspire to be.Yes I made a perfect baguette for the first time and will never turn back, we all can make bread. Really, if I can do this you can too! With some high quality flour, warm water, salt, and yeast.... some time (little effort) I folded together a bread that will rival any bread that I can find in Bellingham (mind you we live in a small town with one artisan bakery). No chemicals, no additives, four ingredients, some time and some love.

There is always some more room in my life for some carbohydrates. Really!?! Why deprive ourselves of fresh homemade bread. My Grandma was on to something, she was so damn happy for a reason. So here is to making my own bread at the fraction of the cost of what it costs to buy, far less "stuff" in the ingredients and for doing what makes us happy. I will eat fresh baked bread by goll!
SSSSSSoon I will mow down of fresh bread after a long bike ride! Today I lost the ugly brace that has wrapped my leg for seven weeks. I will break bread to that!

mama's day

I just had a wonderful lunch with my Grandma, and my cousins, Heather and Hillary and newest wee one, Asher. It was just lovely and reminded me how much my family means to me and how desperately I need to spend more time with them. My Grandma, bless her heart, has been the one person in my life that has consistently never given up on me, never stopped calling, always has an open ear, and is can cheer me up no matter what. I am sure that my brother and cousins can agree, she has done so much to make sure that we all keep in touch. She has done great things to keep us all close as we can be. For years she took care of us, summers would go by and we would spend days with her and our cousins. Heather and I can't help but giggle at the stories of our childhood and they are usually all set at Grandma's. We are so fortunate to have been raised by family and not in a random day care. No that Heather has a new one, I am sure that she the same strong influence of family around. Now I get to be a part of raising her little one, and we get to now be the ones to take care of Grandma (****A huge amount of love goes to Hillary for stepping up and showing so much compassion****)

For Mother's Day last weekend I went to my parent's new house and spent the night. What a treat! I could imagine that there is something restorative about waking up on the ocean everyday.

Walking on the beach every morning.....

I think that they are fairing just fine....