Oh, Deer

Having trouble with Deers eating away at your garden click here and see what my sister does to keep them from eating her flowers.

Now about that pie.

I was saving a bowl of apples to make something with when my friend Laurie gave me some pears.
On Sunday morning the pears were finally starting to ripen so I peeled one, tasted and peeled another, and another, then I added apples to the mix. The next thing I had was a mixture of apples and pears but not enough to dry.

What will I make???

I tossed on brown sugar and cinnamon and then remembered the pie recipe from my sister Leslie.
I looked that up and adjusted the filling and then I thought I need a crust.


 V.P.I. Apple Pie
(V.P.I. Home Economic Dept conducted research 1959 - 1960 to find best apple pie- this recipe won.)
5 C fresh apples, sliced thin (recipe calls for York, but I use any tart apple)
2 T flour
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1/8 t nutmeg (I substitute cinnamon for nutmeg...I prefer the flavor of cinnamon)
1/8 t grated lemon rind
2 T margarine (I use butter)
1 (9") double pie crust
Mix all ingredients except butter and heap into lower crust.
Dot with butter and seal with top crust.
Slit crust in several places.
Bake 450 degree oven for 10 minutes
and then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 55 minutes.

This is not the normal way one would make a pie but it is how my brain works early on Sunday.
So I set the apples aside and made a crust.

I having been watching old Julia Child episodes and had just watch the one on pie crust.
I was going rustic.
Crust:
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup raw organic sugar- I used 1 TBS.
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ tsp. salt
½ cold ,cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 buttermilk- or in my case sour cream that needed to be used right that minute and some water.

lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level with knife.
Combine flour, sugar, cornmeal into food processor and pulse to mix.
Add:
Butter- pulse 3-4 times or more in my case.
Add milk to just hold together but not wet.
Chill-
I placed the crust when ready in the freezer to set up and then moved on to something else.

Later- time flies..... I rolled the crust and baked 10 minutes at 400- then turned the oven down to 350
and used the recipe above and added a crumb on top of 1/3 flour,1/3 sugar and 1/3 butter- more cinnamon.
It was fabulous tasting the apples were so good and the pears gave it a crunch.
We called some friends who had both had "stuff' that happens when life is happening and said come eat pie.

There you go.
Pie 101 from the brain of the dysfunctional cook.
Cheers,
M