pie-making: take one

I’ve always wanted to try making a traditional apple pie from scratch, crust and all, and when I recently purchased an apple peeler/corer/cutter I knew I was ready. The machine is awesome. I swear all I want to do is eat apples, and trust me, that’s a big deal. You’ve got to have the right kind though. The bag of Gala’s I bought for the pie are definitely not the kind you want to use with this machine if you want to eat them afterwards. Most of the Gala’s were too soft so they broke apart rather than were sliced apart, but they were still perfect for pie filling.

My all-time favourite kind of apples are BC’s own Ambrosia variety. They are seriously delicious! Anyways, I got up this morning determined to fulfil my desire to bake a pie. I made the crust, mixed up the filling, and as I was about to make more crust because I didn’t think I had quite enough for the top layer, I realized I didn’t have enough shortening, My amazing husband threw on this shoes and raincoat and ran to pick me up some more. The fact that the pie turned out is actually less surprising than my husband jumping up at the mere mention of my ingredient miscalculation to rectify the problem. He saved the pie – and my sanity.

happy harvest

I spent some time in the gorgeous dusk light this evening taking photos of some of my favourite new – and old – items. We received a beautiful Hudson’s Bay Company wool blanket with the traditional coloured stripes as a wedding gift from some wonderful friends and it inspired me to style a bit of a photo shoot. As it’s also very clearly now autumn in BC, I am now ‘allowed’ to start decorating with pumpkins, another one of my favourite harvest items.  The vintage lantern I picked up at an antique store in Fort Langley a few weeks back and have been itching to make it the star in my fireplace centrepiece. The last and perhaps most useful of these items is my new apple peeler/corer/slicer that somehow makes apples ten times more delicious and desirable. Finally ‘an apple a day’ may actually be achievable.

quick & delicious

So I realize that I’ve been lacking in the blogging department lately, and really my only excuse is that I haven’t done anything interesting enough to write about. I have made a couple new recipes lately that I thought I would share. These recipes are great if you need something to bring to a party quick. Both are super easy to make and in my opinion anyways, delicious!

The first was made for a Super Bowl party I attended last weekend. I found the ‘Chicken Tortilla Cups‘ recipe from Canadian Living online.