It All Started with an Apple Pie

Most teenage girls start their baking escapades with cookies, but I think many bakers first moving onto "bigger recipes" recipe is apple pie. I remember making it for the first time...

 This was my first baking frenzy in Durango, CO. Two of my three creations were a hit, one of them being the apple pie. 

And it stuck! From then one, I was known amongst my friends as the apple pie maker. I would try other things here and there, but the apple pie came easily and highly requested.

"Remember, remember the 5th of November" pie - I had just watched "V for Vendetta" and was a little excited for the actual 11/5.

Thanksgiving Pies

I had made hand turkeys in a class (a college class, mind you), and it inspired me to put it on the pies.

I even made mini pies! I was so stoked!!

In my Sociology classes in college, began feeling like I had to have at least an average job in order to be a real woman - since we have equal rights, I should do it! But the truth was that I liked (and still like) being a girly woman who enjoys cooking and cleaning. I'm pretty sure I wrote at least 2 college papers on apple pie, and I made it a handful of times for class (hooray for potlucks)! Each time I would try to reiterate the need and goodness of the "household wife" in our world today. Thank you, apple pie!!

I soon came to the realization that baking was not only fun, but relaxing as well. Almost like therapy...

 

My first holiday not with family was a very emotional week, and ended up "baking my feelings". I'm pretty sure the above picture was just a portion of what I made for a Thanksgiving meal with friends.

After a year or two of baking only apple pie, I expanded

But the baking of pies developed into baking other delicious goodies, like thumbprint cookies, cobblers, and homemade cake.  

Rhubarb pie I made for girl's bible study.

Do you guys know how easy homemade cake it? I thought for the longest time that sense they have box mixes for cake that it meant cake was difficult. Not the case! I also thought that sense frosting is sold in the stores that it was difficult to make as well. Also not the case!

One of the first homemade cakes I ever made for Ashlie's 1st spiritual birthday

All the lies I believed for so long... to think I thought I had to be special, magnificent, and extraordinary in order to make anything amazing for the taste buds! I thought I had to be a cooking/baking "rock star" in order to be worth listening to, when, in reality, if I like it and took the time to learn it, it was possible. 

I thought this whole lattice thing on top of pie was suppose to be hard... and maybe it is. But if you really want the lattice, then a make-shift, non-pro one will do!

I'm starting to realize more and more that this whole baking journey is a lot like my journey with God showing me more of who I really am. I thought that I had to preform well, be good enough, prove my existence in order to prove I was a Christ-follower. But the reality is that I don't have to prove myself to God. He knows exactly who I am and what I was created for - which is to give glory to Him in everything I do! AND I have the Holy Spirit living in me to give me the ability to do what God has called me to do. 

I'm a big fan of aprons! I'm so messy when I cook and bake that my clothes wouldn't last long with out them. I also am a fan of cleaning my hands, and my aprons help double as a towel.

So when Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", that's the truth and a promise! You can do all things through Christ, and you can be who Christ has made you can called you to be. In those truths there is so much freedom, and so much fun in store!

 So this blog isn't anything out of the ordinary, or suppose to be to show off my skills, and it probably won't be anything revolutionary or new cooking/baking recipe. It's just to share with you what I'm baking, share what God teaches me through it all, and to show you that, if you want to bake something, it's really possible to do it! (Golly, that sounded so cheesy, but I do mean it.) AND if you have any recipes to try, I would love this to also be a place of exchange - cause I LOVE new recipes!!

NOW (without further rambling on my part) my apple pie recipe! (This started off of recipes I found on cooks.com, and has morphed into my own thing since I kept forgetting which exact recipe I used the first time.)

I put the pumpkin next to the pie to make it look more festive/ Fall-ish, but this really is an apple pie. Look! I made a leaf out of pie crust!!

 Basic Crust Recipe (which I use for every pie pretty much):

2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

Mix together. Roll out and place in pie plate. Makes enough for 1 pie.

(I sometimes make the crust and then put it in the fridge while I'm making the filling, and take it out and roll it right before I put the filling in.)

Filling:

6 to 9 Apples (cut them however you'd like)

2/3 cups sugar

3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter, softened

Mix together (use your hands, makes you feel good) and put in pie crust.

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

 1 cup flour

 Mush together and crumble on top of pie filling. (I don't usually cut the extra pie crust off if it comes out of the pie pan. I crumble the topping on top, then fold the extra on top if I have any.)

Bake pie at 375º until the crust is a golden brown color and the filling is bubbling. It would be a wise decision to bake it with a cookie sheet underneath it. Sometimes it "runneth over" and burns to the bottom of your oven - doesn't smell too good later. Once it's done, allow a little time for the pie to rest from it's baking journey so you it cuts a bit more nice like, and you don't scald your mouth.