Easy to See and Not So Easy to See

Fall in America = American grown apples for APPLE PIE of course! I always mix two kinds of apples in my pies. One is ALWAYS Granny Smith. I like for my apples to have some "bite" in them. This pie also had Honeycrisp, a delicious eating apple. Thank goodness I had my Grannies in this. The Honeycrisp cooked down to applesauce! But added a delicious sweetness. The Grannies are still sharp crisp slices. Just right!

The fog was really dense one morning this past week. Those are old tree stumps, normally covered but due to this year's drought, most of our area ponds are either very low or totally dried up. Many ranchers have taken the opportunity to either dig new ponds in low lying areas or clean out their existing ponds. We have had some rain, but not enough for us or any of the surrounding counties to live the summer long burn ban.

Gorgeous color showing up in pockets.How would you like to drive under this tree twice a day? I always slow down coming up to it to make as certain as possible that nothing was already cracking before I drive under it.

Every limb on the pasture side has died and fallen off. The limbs hanging over the road were green this spring, but as the summer drought and horrid heat tarried, the leaves started curling up and turning brown.

I'm hoping the owner will cut the tree down this winter. It's right beside "my" tree stump. I would love to have a better ending to this "story" than...this...

I put the first two photos on the county's brochure I put together.
http://www.co.morris.tx.us/ips/export/sites/morris/downloads/2011_Brochure_County_Government.pdf
The property owner's son stopped by to visit and the judge gave him a brochure to show his dad. I asked him to ask his dad to cut the other tree and leave it for Spring and Summer shots. I've heard nothing...

(I also took the courthouse photo. Look at those clouds!)

Arkansas Apple Pie

When Carol and I were on our way back home after picking up the sewing machine in Mena and after the delicious homemade coconut pie - oh, and lunch. ;o) , we stopped at a roadside stand and purchased some locally grown Arkansas apples: Jonathans and Arkansas Blacks. Jonathans can be eaten 'out-of-hand' and baked. We were assured that the Arkansas Blacks would make a good apple pie.

The flavor of these two varieties was extremely similar. Sam said he couldn't taste a difference, but there was a difference in texture. They cooked down a bit more than I like, but still had a little tiny bit of 'bite'...just not much.

I always use at least two different varieties of apples using Granny Smiths as one of them. I don't like a smushy apple pie...that's like pouring a jar of applesauce into a crust, baking it, and calling it an apple pie. That's not an apple pie, that's an applesauce pie.

I had found a new recipe for apple pie and decided to try it with these apples.

First, start with a good crust: My Recipe Here

Pie Recipe
Peel, core, slice your apples...I use one of these to simplify things. Some slices I cut in half, some I don't...varies the amount of cooking and some of the apple slices will have a bit of a 'bite' to them. The recipe called for 6 cups...I used 8. Pour the apples into the bottom crust. Make a lattice top and cover the apples...crimp the edge of the crust.

Now, combine 1 stick butter, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup sugar. Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer stirring until sugars are dissolved. Add a bit of cinnamon here if desired. Pour this over the lattice top completely covering the pie.

Put the pie in the oven on a rack below halfway down. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 and bake for 25-35 minutes. If the edges are not overly browned, cook another 10 or so minutes...you want that bottom crust completely baked and not doughy.

(The two smaller apples are the Arkansas blacks.)