Sometimes A Guy Just Wants To Eat Some Pie

I have a friend who stopped eating sugar but enjoys dessert. He mostly does without rather than tripping on it. But he really enjoys dessert so when we come over I try to make some.

Yesterday I was with the mama and bigsis for bigsis' birthday. This involved going to the mama's, helping her get ready for her physical therapist, hanging out, getting her ready to come to my house, reminding her many times that Mother's Day is next week, listening to her complain about all kinds of things (while trying to counter with the "glass is half full" version of whatever she just said). Then hanging out with sis and then doing the other mama stuff in reverse when I took her home. Whew!

While I was at mom's I noticed a handy hoard of apples, some quite wizened. I took them home with me and fed them to my people today. This allowed me to play in the kitchen for the first time in weeks and use favorite implements, all for the greater good.

First, my apple peeler that the big guy (mrguy's dad) bought me. It has officially given up the ghost on this final pie, but after 22 years I'm ok with it. I spent some of the baking time ordering a new peeler online.

In the background you will see the sweetener I used. I do not believe in agave sweetener. I think it's bogus and that creating it is probably a worse use of environmental resources than producing cane sugar, but this pie is about love, and not the environment, so I used it to make our friend happy.

Here are the OXO canisters that I bought recently. If you don't have any...they're the best. The guys at work use them for storing coffee grounds, and they're an extremely satisfying object to use. They're airtight and with a small nudge that circle in the top pops up to become a handle. Having a clear container allows me to admire my flour shovel. It's the little things that make me happy, people!

Yes, you'll notice the prepared pie crust in the background. mrsguy doesn't have time for crust and if you have a problem with that she has a problem with you.

I don't really traffic in cinnamon, so I dug out some coriander from the spice drawer. One of my favorite things about the kitchen. Those big sacks in the photo are smoked paprika. We bought some in Hungary and have been strung out on it and I panicked when we were running low but found the exact same kind on Amazon. There is no smoked paprika in the recipe, but I did plump some green raisins and throw those in.

Eventually there was pie, and it made our hosts and their parents happy. I left the rest of the pie with them, and our host promised to eat some for breakfast which, frankly, is a pretty amazing time for pie (also a great time for cold lasagne, cold pizza and leftover twice-baked potatoes.

Playing in the kitchen. Such a happy girl.