My First Pie

I have been doing an apple unit with my day care kids and we read "The Apple Pie Tree" by Zoe Hall which goes through the yearly changes of an apple tree and how the family makes apple pie after the harvest. My 2 and 1/2 year olds don't have enough prior knowledge to know what making a pie is like so I decided to make one with them. So became my first pie. I made the crust in the food processor last night and refrigerated it for today. I rolled the bottom crust out while the kids were arriving and let them watch. When my one year old went down for his nap the bigger kids sat at the island while I cut apples and gave them some to try.
Here's the inside!

They helped dump the ingredients in and tried the dough. The crusts were the hardest parts as I thought they might be. I'm sure it takes practice. I may not have put enough ice water in since they kept cracking when I tried to roll them out. I had to pinch and push the bottom crust a little to get it to cover and the top ended up with some patches. Oh well. You need vents right? Once it was cooked you couldn't tell as much. It tasted good though, nice flaky crust and sweet, not too mushy apples.
My first pie cooling on the window sill, how old fashioned.

Between the kids all having some and my parents coming over for dinner and dessert there was only one slice left. Thank goodness there wasn't extra for me to eat and eat and eat. I'll definitely do a pie again. Hopefully I'll get my own deep dish for Christmas and won't have to run over to my mom's at 6:45 in the morning to borrow hers.

Pork Chops alla Pizzaiola

So, the pork chops turned out really well. Definitely cooked, but not dry or overdone. It was easier than I had expected since my mom came over and fed the baby and my husband took the toddler with him to Costco. My husband isn't big on tomatoes so it isn't his favorite, but hey, it's a home cooked meal, right?

What's for dinner?

This is something I struggle with nightly. I've tried planning ahead. Use some time on the weekend to plan the whole week. This is actually very effective and helpful, but I let the weekend time slip away from me, not that it even takes that long. So why don't I do it then? I'm a procrastinator to be sure.

Okay, so dinner tonight. Pork chops because they are already out of the freezer. What to do with them? I scour foodnetwork.com, racaelray.com, and marthastewart.com looking for my answer, an easy recipe with ingredients I actually own. This routine happens at least once a week. For tonight I choose a Giada De Laurentiis recipe from The Food Network, Pork Chops alla Pizzaiola, which I have actually made once before and I think they were good.

Now if I can only get my toddler watching mindless TV and the baby eating some finger foods stuck in the high chair long enough to have the chance to get dinner on the table before 10pm.