Apple Pie & Thanksgiving Preparations

Today was a totally crazy day! I choose to torture myself the day before Thanksgiving in hopes of having a less stressful Thanksgiving day. I am kind of OCD when it comes to having everything ready ahead of time and doing all the prep work as far in advance as possible. Here's to hoping that tomorrow will be stress free!

One of my first jobs of the day was to bake an apple pie. I have been making it the same way for so many years and decided I better take out the cookbook so I knew how to source it on here. When I looked at it I realized that I am really only using their measurements for the flour and spices....all the rest is different but I will tell you that this is where my recipe originated. I love my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I've had it since Bryan and I got married almost ten years ago and I still cook from it.

Apple Pie

• 2 pie crusts (refrigerated or homemade)
  
• 7 cups of peeled/sliced Cortland apples (1 apple usually yields approximately 1 cup of apple slices)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
  
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider (or apple juice)
• 2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place the bottom pie crust in the pie plate and set aside.

In a large bowl mix the sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and flour.

Peel all the apples. I have made so many of these pies over the years that now I play games while I make them. I always try to peel the entire apple in one long strip....most of the time it works! I am pretty sure that I am an expert "peeler" too. I was so bored that I decided to time myself (I know, I am unusually lame). Do you know that I can peel an entire apple in about 20 seconds? You will all eventually get to know my inner dork and hopefully will accept me and love me for it anyways ;)


Once all the apples are peeled I simply cut around the core and get 4 nice size wedges of apple.

Cut these down into small slices.

As you cut them, place the slices into the bowl with the spices and spoon the sugar over them. This will help prevent the oxidation that turns the apples brown. I am sure my sheer speed helps with this too (ha ha ha).


After all the apples have made their way into the sugar mixture, spoon half of the apples into the pie plate. Place pieces of the butter cubes evenly on top of the apple slices. Spoon the rest of the apples in the pie plate and the remainder of the butter. I almost *always* use apple cider in my pie, but I only buy apple cider when it is fresh from the apple orchard. If I don't have cider I just use apple juice. Drizzle the tablespoon of apple juice over the top of the apples. I'm not really sure why I started adding apple cider to my pies, but I think it adds moisture and I love it!

Top the pie with the second crust and place on a baking sheet.


Cut slits in the top to vent the pie. I was feeling the love today, so I made a heart lol

Protect the crust with aluminum foil before placing in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes and then remove the foil from the crust. Return the pie to the oven and continue to cook for an additional 20 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack for a few hours and then serve or refrigerate.

Once the pie was done I still had a ton of work ahead of me. In order to make tomorrow as easy as possible...I cleaned, cut and measured all of my produce for my recipes. They were then placed in Ziplock bags, labeled and put in the fridge for tomorrow :) See the OCD coming out again? ;)

I even cleaned and trimmed my green beans :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Celebrate and give thanks for all of our many blessings. Enjoy the time with your family and stay safe! If you need to drink a few glasses of wine to make the day easier...I won't judge you ;)

There will be photos from tomorrow. Not sure if they will all make sense because I will be very busy, but I will do my best!