Homemade Apple Pie

The first of Jeff's birthdays we spent together, I made him a homemade apple pie as his gift (I didn't know him very well and figured baked goods were a safe and delicious option). I used my mom's recipe and wooed him with my baking skills. It's probably why he kept calling. Lesson learned - when you need a gift for a man, cook.

His birthday is tomorrow. This year I kept the tradition alive and made him another apple pie.

Ingredients:

Crust

1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (because I don't have a rolling pin)

Filling

8 medium Jonathan apples

1 C sugar

3 heaping T flour

1 t cinnamon

1/8 t nutmeg

1 T vanilla

1) Preheat oven to 340 degrees.

2) Peel, core, and slice apples (don't put the peelings down your garbage disposal*).

3) Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.

4) The easiest way to quickly and evenly coat the apples in the sugar mixture is to put all the apples in a (hole-free, doubled-up**) plastic grocery bag, add the sugar mixture, blow air in the bag, twist the top with lots of air left in it, and shake!

5) Lay the crust in your pie pan.

6) Fill with coated apples.

7) Sprinkle the vanilla evenly over the apples.

8) Lay the top crust over apples, and pinch together with the bottom crust (my mom makes a much prettier "pinch" than I do).

9) Using a fork, poke a few air holes in the top crust (my mom always made them in the shape of an apple or our initials).

10) Sprinkle sugar over the top of the pie crust.

11) Bake at 340 degrees for 80 minutes (cooking it slow works best for perfect crust). It's not a bad idea to put a foil-lined cookie sheet underneath it to catch the drips.

12) Enjoy! It's best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

* I clogged the drain with the apple peelings and Jeff had to take the whole thing apart. Happy birthday to him right? At least he was rewarded with pie.

** I didn't check my bag very well - there was a hole. Cinnamon and sugar exploded in my kitchen. My floor is still sticky ...

Now that you're super impressed with how well I did – you should know the pie turned out great, and the drain clog and sugar clean-up was well worth it.