Tired of being sick

For a couple weeks now, Harold and I have been sick with colds and/or sinus infections.  This is the third time in 3 months.  It's getting old.  When a person is sick with a bad cold, nothing gets done.  No energy.  We are hoping this is the last time this winter that we are sick.  In Harold's case, his immune system is next to zero because of the chemo drugs he has to take.  This time I think I got sick first, then Harold.   The other two times I think he got sick first and then gave the virus to me.  So, if you've been wondering why I haven't written anything on here, it's because of illness.   But we are both doing much better now.
     We are getting a break from the cold weather today and tomorrow.  It's 40 out there now!  The snow is melting, and even the cats are out and about.   We have one last chance to finish some of the winter chores we didn't get done yet - like put tarps over the tractors and lawn mower.  After Monday, things get progressively worse - and the long cold winter starts in earnest.  I was thinking that for some folks in the south, like Alabama or Georgia, a day like 40 degrees would be "bitter cold".  To us folks up here in Minnesota - this is a great day!  Warm!  Beautiful!  Funny how things are all relative.
    

Winter Has Begun

It looks like winter 2014 is here!  We had this about mid morning:

About an hour later, this was the view outside my kitchen window:

An hour later, the same view:

And it's still snowing!  On a positive note, the woods DO look pretty with all the wet snow on the branches - like a winter wonderland:

Not good for Harold, though.  He was trying to finish setting the posts for our high tunnel greenhouse before the ground freezes.   In the early spring when we want to use this, the ground will be frozen.  We can put the plastic on this spring, but the posts have to be set first.  He worked for a while in the snow, then decided to wait until it quit before setting in the last two posts.

Harold sure is a hardy Minnesotan, eh?

Foolproof Apple Pie

Apple pie is our favorite pie and we were fortunate to receive plenty of nice pie apples from our neighbors this year.  Ever since I began baking back in 1971, I have used a foolproof recipe for pie crust from an early  Betty Crocker book.  It is called Stir and Roll pie crust.   My mother also has used this pie crust recipe for about 60 years and told me about it when I was just beginning to bake in the kitchen!  This pie crust is very "forgiving" and so if you don't roll things out quite to fit, or you need to make some patches in the dough, it is easy to take small pieces of dough and repair whatever you need to do. 
For the crust:  In a bowl measure 2 cups of flour and 1 tsp of salt.   I use a wire whisk to stir up the flour and salt.  Then, in a glass measuring cup, measure out 1/2 cup of Wesson or Crisco oil (use only these two brands!  Generic stuff is horrible) and on top of the oil pour 1/4 cup of milk.  Your measuring cup should read 3/4 cup.  See below:

Dry ingredients and wet ingredients ready to be mixed.  The milk will sink to the bottom and the oil will stay on top of the measuring cup.

Pour the oil/milk mix all at once on top of the flour:

Stir up this mix until you have a dough.  You might need to use your hands at the end.

The ball of dough for a 9 inch pie.

Moisten your rolling surface, and roll out 1/2  of the dough between two sheets of wax paper.  Then peel off the top sheet of wax paper, lift up the bottom sheet of wax paper with the dough on it, and turn upside down onto your pie plate:

Carefully peel off the wax paper from your dough.  Ease the dough into the pie plate, and repair any areas that might need a little more dough by using little pieces of dough that hang off the edge of the plate.

You can see that I had to put a few little pieces of dough on the edge here to cover spots that seemed a little thin and ragged:

The crust is ready for the filling.  Roll out the other half of the dough on a moistened surface between two sheets of wax paper for the crust top.   Place on top of filling as above and peel off the wax paper. 

I always use the little scraps leftover dough to cut out some leaves freehand, to put on top of the pie for decoration!

I made four leaves to put on the pie from leftover dough rolled out between two sheets of wax paper.

The decorated pie ready for the oven.   I always sprinkle the pie with a little extra sugar and put the pie on a foil lined cookie sheet to bake.

Don't forget to use a crust protector!  It keeps the pie edges from burning up too much.

The finished baked pie!

Here's what I do for the filling:   For a 9 inch pie, I mix 8 cups of sliced apples with 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (sometimes a little more depending on the variety of apple and how tart it is), 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg.   After I put the filling in the crust, I always drizzle over the apples 2 tablespoons of honey!  Then put on the top crust and bake in a 425 oven for 45 to 50 minutes.
You'll have a great apple pie and you won't be sorry for all the work you did to make it!