A little late...but as promised...

....What exactly I did with all those apples we picked a few weeks ago...

I made pie....

and apple butter...

As a child, I grew up alongside some of the best cooks in Cherokee county...the ladies I'm referring to were known throughout the small town that I grew up in as "the source" for great food--Beth and Mary Anne. You could smell the deliciousness brewing in their homes before you even walked in the door. Your mouth watered every time someone mentioned their name. These ladies are legends. Beth is best known for her light, flaky, melt-your-mouth pie crust, and the mere utterance of the name "Mary Anne" has me dreaming of creamy, sweet apple butter. I have Beth's pie crust recipe, so naturally when we came home with a FULL peck of apples, I knew exactly which pie crust I would make. But I don't have Mary Anne's apple butter recipe. So I called my momma...and she told me to go directly to the source and promptly gave me Mary Anne's phone number. I pulled out my pen and pencil, dialed the phone, and when she picked up the other end of the line, I introduced myself by my maiden name. I wasn't sure she would remember who I was if I used my married name. But she did know my married name and was more than happy to share her "recipe" for apple butter with me. As it turns out she doesn't really use standard measurements or even recipes. It's a "little of this" and a "little of that"...or "add Cinnamon to your tastes, but don't add too much cause it can overpower the apple butter"...oh, my! Can you imagine the toll this took on little ol' OCD me?? But after about 45 minutes on the phone with Mary Anne and many extensive questions on my part, I found myself smack dab in the middle of making apple butter. Which turns out to be quite easy and fun...albeit a lesson in patience, but I'm sure I'm due up for a lesson in patience. Did you know it takes 3 days to make apple butter?? 3 days! That's right. You leave it on the stove and let it simmer for about 1-2 hours each day, then after it simmers, you turn the burner off and let it sit...just sit...I had a bit of a problem with the germ factor considering that food was sitting on the stove for days on end. But Mary Anne assured me (more than once) that I was in the clear and that my apple butter would not turn into apple beer. So in 6 days...I made two batches...5 jars of delicious creamy apple butter...LOVE it!

But let's go back to the pie for a bit, shall we??

I borrowed this nifty little contraption from my friend Bryna. It peels, slices, and cores an apple in a little under 3 minutes. Seriously. I want to kiss the person who invented it.

See look it takes the peel off in one loooooong string...absolutely amazing...ah-ma-zing.

Here are the "guts" of my apple pie.

And here is the finished product right before I put it in the oven.

And 35 minutes later...ding...the pie was done. Boy did it smell delicious!

And it tasted fantastic! I even ran a couple of pieces over to my neighbor's house...even though it was 10pm! Had to share the bounty!!!

I was pleasantly surprised with the results of my apple en devours. I totally appreciate the cooking gurus of my past even more...and look upon them with the greatest respect! Thanks to Mary Anne and Beth for passing down your timeless recipes so that I might share them with my family. But if I see another apple in the next month or two, I might just throw it at someone...one peck of apples is enough for this girl.