Adventures in Baking

I took a huge leap yesterday -- I baked. Yup, she who can screw up cut and bake cookies decided to bring the aromas and tastes of the holiday season to our abode. My lack of baking has also taken a toll on my husband, who grew up in a southern home full of baked breads, pies, cakes, cookies, etc. So while wandering around the grocery store last night, I decided to take a risk. I pulled out my handy dandy iPhone, went to my Whole Foods Recipes application, ,and found a recipe for Pie. Note: the Whole Foods recipe app is AMAZING - I've made many a "crud- it's-6:30pm-and-I-have-no-idea-what-to-make-for-dinner" last minute recipes using this app. If you have an iPhone and a healthy cooking/baking addiction, this app is worth the 20 seconds it takes to dowload it (because its free!!) Now, I LOVE Apple Pie - its really the only kind of pie I like and it reminds me of my grandmother and her amazing apple pies made from scratch. But last time i made an apple pie, it tasted like undercooked apple cinnamon soup (ick). But to be adventurous, I picked the Pumpkin Apple Pie recipe - my favorite pie mixed with a Thanksgiving favorite.

So off i went -- I had to go to three (yes three) different stores to get everything. But I eventually arrived home with my pie-making goodness and then off I went!

50 minutes later, My pie was done. I was a little nervous because at times when the directions would say "spoon the mix into the pie crust," I just poured it in because it was so liquid-y. Also, i wasnt sure if me using a pre-made pie crust instead of one from scratch would affect anything (me make a crust from scratch? let's not get ahead of ourselves now). However - this is the final result:

You can see the bits of apple peeking out above the pumpkin pie mix. Yes - i burnt the crust a little. Yes, i got impatient and started cutting the pie before it was cool and had set. But all in all, the pie was actually pretty good -- and my husband liked it. I dont know if he actually liked the pie or if he was just happy to be eating a baked good of some sort. Me - i was just happy it didnt tasted like pumpkin-apple soup and it gave me a reason to eat one of my grad school guilty pleasures: Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream, made 40 miles from Aggieland, in Brenham TX.

so Baking attempt number one as a married woman was a success! Lets hope the luck continues into the holiday season. And as for now, the apt smells like a field of spiced cinnamon spiked with apples and pumpkin. Joy!!