Recycle Pie...?

I'm just going to say that the pie that I baked today wasn't exactly recycled (that'd be disgusting). I'm not quite sure what the word is for it, but there was a 3lb bag of apples in the second refrigerator in the rec room, and I knew no one would ever eat them. So I decided that since I'm not doing anything today, why not bake an apple pie?! I ran into a few problems along the way, but I like to think that obstacles only make things better. GET TO IT!

(Also, really sorry about the picture quality again. I'm trying to get this job, and if everything goes well, I'll have a lot more money. One of the first thing I plan to do is get a real camera so I don't have to take crazy pictures with my iPhone and put them up here :P)

So, these are the apples (why I feel the need to introduce them, I'll never know) and I must say, this picture makes them look very large. However, I will have you know that they were not. These had to be the smallest variety next to crab apples, probably not the best kind for baking a pie out of. The recipe didn't specify what kind of apple, and I had a few large granny smith apples in the fridge, but I didn't think sour apples would be so great in a pie. So I decided just to go ahead and peel, core, and slice 50 (<-dramatic) baby apples for this pie. Frankly, it was a hassle.

Let me tell you all how I had to fight the damn squirrels for my pie pan. I was looking for one of them, under the island in the cabinet where the rest of my bake ware is, and I couldn't find them. So I looked all over, only to be told that someone moved most of my things into a plastic bin in the shed. I hate going in the shed period, but more so in the winter because that's when the squirrels move in. I made sure to bang on the door to let them know I was there, but they still decided to continue their party on the roof. So, I walked over as they scurried away to the bin to get my pie pan, when one jumps inside. So I quickly got the pan, slammed the container shut, and walked out...and now in a week I get the pleasure of fishing a dead rodent out of the bin.

Skipping right through the crust, filling, and topping making, I bring you to a disgusting picture of an unbaked pie. The filling was a cooked one (do they have a recipe for non cooked apple filling?), so I spent a little time on that. Before I made the crust early this morning because I knew it had to retard for at least four hours.425°F and 35 minutes later...

THIS came out of the oven! I was very pleased with they way it came out, mostly because sometimes my oven in crazy and it burns things for no reason. This time I was prepared and reduced the temperature by about 15°F. That way, my pie wouldn't come out looking like a volcano. I would like to try the same recipe again, with a few changes that I've noted, one being less butter in the crumb topping. That with the caramelized sugar reminded me of palmier cookies, my nemesis.

Yeah, this has been a pretty lame post, but I honestly didn't do much else today, and I wanted to put something up because I'm not going to be posting tomorrow. I'm going to be away from my desktop and the little laptop frustrates me to use sometimes, especially typing large paragraphs. Anyway, I better get going, I have a bag to pack.