It really feels and smells like fall at my house.

Well, this morning we had to run outside to move the wood patio furniture and all the cushions and pillows because it was RAINING.   It was the first rain of the year and I have to admit... I loved the smell and the feel of the rain.  I watched and took it in for a bit, and then it stopped, just like it came.... but luckily enough it came back.  after reveling in the change of season, I came into the house and there on my kitchen island sat a big box of beautiful green organic apples that my dear friend Laura gave me.. I knew I wasn't going to be home long enough to make pies which was my first idea, so I pulled out one of my most favorite recipe books and found a easy recipe to make APPLE CRISP.   It is soooo very easy.  Being the scrapbooker, family historian and scrapbooker that I am.... I had to take photos and thought I would post the recipe and photos to share.  

Out come the Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

Probably one of my most favorite tool in the kitchen.

Then place the apples in a  glass baking dish. Like this...

8 Cups of Sliced Apples

Sprinkle apples with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 2 Tbl cinnamon

then sprinkle with 1/4Cup Water.

Mix with hands in medium bowl:

1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour

1 Cupgranulated sugar

1 stick butter *not margarine

sprinkle evenly over apples

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes

cool and enjoy with vanilla ice cream or whip cream

guaranteed to be delicious

and fill your home with the warm smells of FALL

Is it Fall Yet?

Well, here it is September 24th and its finally feeling like fall may be setting in.  It was actually 96 degrees earlier in the day and now at 7:30 pm... it is 68 degrees and breezy.. we are hoping that we are saying hello to fall, we are looking foward to our first fire in our fireplace, snuggeling under quilts and hot chocolate....   And I love doing my stitching work when its cold outside.   I lay the quilts on my lap and lovingly do the binding or the handmade stitching for the quilt.    Don't get me wrong... we love summer and all that goes with it.  BBQ's, camping, beaches... but its been too hot for to long.  Please don't tease us Fall, and stay for a while.  

Here is one of 24  Fall Harvest ATC card that I made 24 of for a Farmgirl sisterhood swap. I will get 24 different ATC cards from all over the country.. cant wait to see what they look like.

Pie Crust lessons from the Kitchen

Today was a amazing day that I got to share with my Dear Friend Laura Bevilacqua.  I don't get to spend much time with Laura.. both our lives are so crazy busy.  She has two tiny kids one with special needs and a little preschooler both whom take a lot of time, energy, love, patience and tenacity.  She also has a husband that is fighting Lymphoma... and doing well at it while being a active honoree for Team In Training Marathon runners to raise money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society... Today however was all about reconnecting and what better way to do that than to Bake PEACH pies.   We attacked 3 cases of peaches dillegently... and learned that pie crust works best with butter that is of salted sweet cream... not of the Trader joes Unsalted variety.. you know the pure healthy butter.  The crust was impossible to roll out and we had to piece one pie together.. we baked it and it still tastes great..It did however fall apart.  We were able to put the Unsalted healthy butter aside and save it for cooking other dishes and brought out the Salted sweet cream butter for my pie cruse recipe.   Its a recipe from Virginia from a friends great grandmother.  I use this recipe instead of the older recipe that uses crisco shortening.. The rich butter flavor is so wonderful.   To follow are pictures of our day. We laughed our guts out and had a wonderful day and enjoyed a piece of pie together after cleaning up our horrible mess. 

Pie Crust
4 Cups Flour
3 1/2 Sticks Butter
1Tblsp White Binegar
2 tsp Salt
1Tblsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1egg white to coat the pie top crust before baking

raw sugar  as desired  sprinkled on the pie before baking.