I Wonder if...

Occasionally, I get random thoughts in my head; they always begin with, "I wonder if I can..."

The weekend before last I ended up with 5lb bag of apples. Why? Well, they were cheaper than the 3lb bag and just seemed like a good idea at the time. After a week of apples there were still lots of apples left. Not being one to waste I had to think of something to do with them. And what better thingto do with nutritious fruit than to cook it in lots of sugar. I decided to make an Apple pie. Then my brain went, "I wonder if I can make my own pie crust-from scratch." Then the other half of my brain went, "Why when Pillsbury has you has done the work for you?" But the 'wonder if' side of my brain is very powerful. It's gotten me into loads of trouble. The first thing I did was pull out my handy-dandy cookbook and take a look at what would be involved. Not many ingredients- 4 total. But there wasn't just a recipe- there was a two page spread on how to get it right and side bar to pinpoint what you did wrong- after the fact. My next level of research was to take it to the Internet. I found many ways to make a pastry crust and double the number of ways to screw it up. But armed with plenty of info and a bit a insanity I went for it.First you build your dough with flour and fat. It's taken some time for me to come to terms with the fact, that I am a messy cook. And sometimes, I'm just a freaking disaster.

After Jay & I first moved in together we struck a deal, I'd cook the dinner & he'd clean it up. Then he realized what the hell he'd gotten himself into. And to this day, he will clear the table and prepare most of the dishes for the dishwasher. He and I differ on the cooking pots sometimes- no it really doesn't require "soaking" for three days. But to this day he refuses to clean the stove top, counters, cabinets, floor, walls or ceiling. I think that he's reneging on his deal- he says the deal wasn't to clean the whole room.

Back to the pie. I followed the instructions for a two-crust pie. It seemed dry but you're not supposed to over-water it. Maybe it's like Gremlins. I didn't end up w/ enough dough for a full top- so I cut it in strips & made a lattice. Well a faux- lattice since I attached two pieces before remembering that I shouldn't attach the dough at the side until after I interlace it. It wasn't exactly pretty. But my boys ate it, even crust-phobic WC. After being so worried about the crust the thing I didn't like doing the most was peeling & chopping all those apples.