A Way to a Man's Heart

The other day I picked all the apples that were on our little apple tree.

They weren't perfect specimens, as you can see, but they were sweet and begging to be put in a pie.

See the 'J' in the middle of the pie? That's for my husband, who planted the apple tree. Apple pie is one of his favorites, and though I don't like apple pie, I am happy to make it for him. The kids enjoyed it too, of course.

Here's the recipe:

6 or 7 apples, cored and sliced thin. No need to peel.

1 cup sugar (I used a combination of Sucanat, stevia, sugar and xylitol, but use what you have)

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

dash each of cloves and nutmeg

5 pats of butter

Mix the apples with the other ingredients except the butter. Pour into a pie crust and place the butter on top. Top with a second pie crust, and poke holes or make a pattern in the top crust.

Bake at 400 for 45 minutes or so. You can brush the top crust with egg white before baking, if you wish, but it's not necessary.

If you want to make your own crusts, just mix 2 cups of flour, 2/3 cup of shortening (I use palm oil but if Crisco is all you have, just use that), a dash of salt and enough ice cold water to get the dough to stick together into a ball that you can roll out on the counter. The less you handle the dough with your hands, the more flaky it will be, so do as much mixing with a metal fork as possible. Your crust won't be beautifully perfect, but it will taste great.

You may call this an Apple Pie recipe, but I call it a recipe for a happy husband (and kids).