The best Apple Pie I've ever had

Hubby and I were browsing through Whole Foods yesterday afternoon. He fully admitted that he tagged along only to snag a pie of some kind. Looking through the pie isle, I kept thinking, "I can make a better pie than that." So with a 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream added to our list, I looked for an apple pie recipe - not at all satisfied with the ones I've used before.

The recipe I found and used was the weirdest Apple Pie Recipe I've seen. Most AP recipes have you slice the apples, mix them with some sugar, corn starch and spices, place in crust, and then bake. This little recipe had me place the sliced apples in the crust by themselves. I then made a praline base (boiling sugar and butter together until about soft ball stage), and finally pour the praline base over the sliced apples. It baked up nicely with a lattice crust.

Even though I used Red Delicious instead of Granny Smith, it was very, very good. Especially with the vanilla ice cream. It was like pralines and apples and a crispy golden crust.

The pie recipe I used: Grandma Ople's Apple Pie from All Recipe
My crust recipe: Classic Crisco Pie Crust, using Butter Flavored Crisco rather than regular

Pie Baking tip: place pie dish on a cookie sheet or pizza pan when baking. It keeps the heat from directly touching the pan.

Crust tip: Wrap the edge in tin foil. Remove the wrapping the last 10 to 15 minutes you are baking. This keeps the edge of pie crust from burning or getting overly crispy.

A note on Crisco: Yeah, I hate using Crisco too, but it makes the best pie crust. If you buy a pre-made crust, they've used something like Crisco. I reserve it for the occasions when only it will do. You can sub butter for it, but it never comes out quite the same. Using 1/2 butter and 1/2 Crisco isn't too bad. Use your judgment.

Enjoy!!

Raising Megalomanics

I'm in charge of reading bedtime stories at night, which with 2 active boys isn't as easy and peaceful as it sounds. At story time it looks more like the Federation of Wrestling than the typical kids cuddled up in bed listening attentively to a story.

Out of desperation to get the attention of my wild animals, a few nights ago in the middle of a story "Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One," I changed the name of a main character to that of the most rambunctious boy. Prince BooBoy was then saved by the Princess.

Little did I know what I was starting. Now every book is about them. Sure, they've settled down and now listen to the story, but after having to read "Where the Wild Things Are" twice every night (once for "The night when E. wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind . . ." and once for "The night Booboy wore his wolf suit and . . ." - complete with them saying "I'll eat you up" and "Let the wild rumpus start") one starts to wonder.

Some stories aren't so bad. We have "Booboy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." But when we get to "Farmer E Sheers His Sheep," and his older brother insists that the sheep are his sisters, it starts to loose something.