Apples, Friends, and Thrift Store Habits!

Hi, Friends!  Remember all of those Georgia mountain apples I showed you recently?  Well, here's what I did with some of them!

Here's the first apple pie I've made, and it was super easy.  I think I've got the hang of peeling, coring and slicing apples now without taking three days to do it!  I used Paula Deen's apple pie filling recipe, you can click on the picture to get it, and I did use a frozen double deep dish crust for this one.  I could have actually added more apples.  Now I know!  Next time, I will also sift the cinnamon and sugar onto the top instead of globbing cinnamon on it; however, it did not hurt a thing!

It was delicious, if I do say so myself, and I got to share it with a friend, Marc, who was visiting, and his mother, Jan, and my Cousin Debra, who just had neck surgery, and her boyfriend, Ray, even though he is a Gators fan.  Sis loved it, too.  If you ask me why I developed a love of cooking, I would say it's because I love how good food makes people happy, and how it brings friends and families together!

In addition to the frozen pie crust I bought refrigerated pie crust.  I have never used either one and a lot of them are used in recipes so I wanted to see what they are like.  The frozen pie crust was very successful, in my opinion, but I wasn't crazy about the refrigerated one, it was bland to me.  It's a good thing the mini apple pie filling was very flavorful!  You can click on the picture for that recipe, too!  I have a great vodka pie dough recipe from school that I'm going to make that we used in school.  Of course, I will share it with you!

FYI, we also learned to make laminated doughs in school, such as puff pastry, and let me tell you if you don't know it already, frozen puff pastry is your best deal for your money.  The results of homemade puff pastry are, of course, delicious, but making it is very laborious and time consuming.

Most of my week was spent with these friends, Willie (who is a girl), and Marley and Bo.  The days were cold and windy and sometimes raining at the end of October so Willie spent more time indoors than usual, and I really enjoyed her being around!  These are not my favorite pictures of Marley and Bo, but they're the only pictures I could get of them being still!  They were a lot of fun, too!  These are the best pets to sit with!  They belong to my friends, Jeff and Carrie.  I hope you saw them in a previous blog!

I have Gruyere cheese leftover from a popover recipe (in a previous blog), and ham.  What to do??  I also have many mini muffin pans that I love to use, so what else?  Ham and Gruyere Cheese Mini Muffins!  These were very good served with apple butter, too!  Click on the picture for the recipe!

Stuff!  In this section (called Stuff!), let me show you my thrift store find, these three beautiful, red, stackable bowls!  The crystal gravy bowl on the top shelf also came from an online thrift store that I'm addicted to, 2 Broke Girls Thriftique Online Action Group.  I hesitate to share because I don't want the competition!  The peace lily is from my friend, Patricia.  It won't be long before it's too big for that shelf!

Here are three of my lovely friends, Amy, Lindsay (Sawyer's mother), and Tiffany (Avery's mother).  That's Avery on the left, and then of course, Sawyer, and this is her first Halloween. 

Amy reminded me today of our girls' trip to Florida eight years ago.  If it weren't for the fact that now we have precious Avery and Sawyer, I would be begging for time to slow down, please! 

That's it for now, Friends!  In addition to the homemade pie dough, I'm also going to try a fried apple pie recipe my Cousin Amy sent to me.  I was planning to ride back up to the mountains this weekend while the leaves are still changing but the weather is not cooperating.  Right now it's supposed to rain all weekend.  If you get a chance, make sure you check out the apple farms in Ellijay.  There's still a few good weeks of apple season left!

'Til next time!  Denise, Dished With Love!