Caramel Apple Pie

Well, my best friend Rachel recently brought a fantastically funny blog to my attention. The same woman also has a cooking blog full of home cooked food. See side tab for both of these additions. Needless to say I am now a fan of the Pioneer Woman, who is a city-bred girl transplanted to a ranch in the MidWest. Before you start feeling sorry for her, have a look at her cooking pictures and her beautiful kitchen! And her photog shots of the ranch and her four kids. She calls her husband Marlboro Man (he's a rancher, hello!) and has given me plenty of laughs since I've started keeping track of her blog. More than laughs, I have appropriated an apple pie recipe that uses a crisp topping, chopped pecans and caramel.....Everyone together, Mmmmmm. I only had a few hiccups trying this recipe. First of all, our local grocery store, Harp's, did not carry the deep dish frozen pie crust. So I mistakenly got two shallow crusts (I was too lazy/impatient/whatever to clean the kitchen up enough to make my own crust and probably wouldn't have finished it in either case and pie would still have been a figment of my salivating imagination). So by the time I got the ingredients ready to stick in the pie crust, my crust was overflowing with apples and I still had to add the topping without it all sliding off into the bottom of the oven. I would like to note at this point that I DID clean the oven and have kept that part of my New Year's resolution. Notice that the cleaning the oven part was singular. I now assume that I will not have to do this unpleasant chore again unless forced. Now as soon as I dust the fans, I will be done. I didn't even bother to add the "Lose Ten Pounds" line on there. I am hoping (naively) that they will melt away on their own, especially after I make and consume this pie. Anyway, back to the part where I have apples exploding out of this short pie crust. I decided to get the other frozen pie crust out and fill it with the excess. Okay, done.

Now we can get back to the part where I was interrupted when I was making the crisp topping and the butter melted into the flour and I didn't have the right oats and instead of ending up with the crisp topping, I had a doughy substance that didn't look anything like Pioneer Woman's picture (she has pictures of everything...it's truly phenomenal and helpful). I debated over using it anyway and hoping for a miracle, then gritted my teeth and dumped the offending mass into the trash can. Since I used my favorite mixing bowl, I had to wash it (ugh!!) and use it again. I blame it all on the fact that I don't have a pastry cutter, not that I got interrupted ten or fifteen times to fix whatever was ailing Ian and clean up baby vomit. Oops, you're not supposed to think of apple pie and baby vomit in the same time frame, are you?? So I made the topping again and it turned out much much better. I also found some correct oats under the cabinet. I will never again confuse Quick Oats with Instant Oats. There IS a difference. So if anyone wants the bad kind (I'm too lazy to go look at the label, but they are in a Red canister. I had to get some for Ian's Halloween costume for his train's smokestack and I am stuck with too many oats), I have plenty. So I halved the mixture and dumped it over both pies (mistake number two, I think). They baked beautifully and the crusts were only slightly too brown. Then I forgot to add the chopped pecans on there in the last five minutes to brown, so there was that. Then I think I added too much caramel (even though there are those who deny the existence of such a state) for such a shallow pie. It would have been perfect with the correct amount of topping and caramel on a deep dish pie, but alas, it was too much for my stunted one. The result was yummy all the same, but I think all that sugar and goo aggravated my Hot Cop's sore tooth and he had a toothache for most of the night. Our friend, TowMayor (he's the mayor and owns and operates a Wrecker and Recovery business), who is of the mind that there can never be too much caramel on anything, heartily enjoyed his piece(s) and plans to return to help with the second pie. Which, remarkably enough, tasted just as good at breakfast.....

But the downside to all of this (besides the toothache) was that I was so busy making this pie that I neglected to remember that I needed the oven for the pork tenderloin I had planned for supper, so we had to make due with hot dogs (for the guys) and grilled chicken salad for me (see? I was good before I had all that pie...). So if you are interested in this pie (which you will be if you go to this blog and scroll down to look at the pictures), then go to the website. You will not be sorry unless you do not cook and then you can torture yourself by looking at the pictures and contenting yourself with a Lean Cuisine or McDonald's. Sorry.

Since I did not get a picture of myself and the infamous pie with Chris's cell phone camera, I'll post a picture that Chris took while I was peeling apples of Ian giving the baby some diluted infant juice. We are battling the constipation that inevitably comes with the addition of baby food. If the juice doesn't work, we are back to prunes and that produces emergency bathing of the baby and lots of extra laundry due to blowouts. Use your imagination if you don't catch my drift. Imagine lots of wipes and messy shirts, pants, carpets and baby clothes. :)