My New Favorite Pie

Caramelized Apple and Pecan Pie
This dessert is a pecan pie-apple pie hybrid.
Ingredients
crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 tablespoons (about) chilled orange juice, divided
1 large egg white, beaten to blend
apples
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, diced
3 Granny Smith apples or Fuji apples (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds), peeled, sliced, cored
filling
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
Preparation
crust
Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor 5 seconds. Add butter. Using on/off turns, blend until butter is reduced to small pea-size pieces. Add 4 tablespoons orange juice. Blend, using on/off turns, until moist clumps form, adding more juice by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.
Roll out dough on floured surface to 14-inch round. Transfer to 10-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Cut off all but 1/2 inch of dough overhang. Fold dough edge under and crimp decoratively, forming high-standing rim. Freeze 10 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate crust.
Brush inside of crust with enough beaten egg white to coat.
apples
Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk brown sugar and butter in large ovenproof skillet over medium heat until butter melts, sugar dissolves, and mixture comes to boil. Boil 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat. Arrange apples, rounded side down, in syrup. Bake 15 minutes; turn over. Bake until just tender, about 20 minutes longer. Transfer apples to paper towels to cool slightly. Whisk syrup in skillet until smooth. Cool slightly and reserve. Maintain oven temperature.
filling
Mix sugar, flour, and salt in small bowl. Place eggs in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in reserved syrup from apples. Add corn syrup, vanilla, and sugar mixture; whisk until smooth. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into crust. Arrange apples, rounded side up, atop filling.
Bake pie until filling is set in center, covering edges with foil if browning too quickly, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely with foil and let stand at room temperature.

Apple Hill

So we had a great week planned , we had lots of fun day trips and activities to fill up our week! On Monday we headed off to Apple Hill, we have never gone there before it was wonderful. We first stopped to walk around a small lake were the kids could fish; we didn't just watched. Then off to the fudge shop "yummy", we had fudge and carmel apples! Then we headed to the next stop while driving through the beautiful foothills we saw all the Christmas tree farms getting ready for the season. We had lunch at a great little place and bought some very juicey Granny Smith's. Thayne had 3 cores in the car when we returned home. We went to a great museums about the Larson's who have been farming apples for many generations. We took some great pictures of the kids in a perfect tree. The day was going just perfect. When do you get over 2 pictures to choose from for the Christmas card? We had about an hour left so we headed over to "Grandpa's Cellar" for the best apple pie and hot cider ...which we did have but that was after we were waiting for the tow truck to come get our car; oh yes a tow truck this was the first tow! We had another and two trips to Enterprise. We did get home about 8:00pm and now our Subruran will be running like new after a week at "Family Chevy" in Shingle Springs California. And the kids think its great because did you know?... rental cars and hotel rooms are #1 on funnest things to do on vacation. Oh and Thayne learned how to work ALL the levers on a Tow truck from Dick the tow Truck driver "very nice Guy"! He reminded him three times "Thayne remember when you grow up you DON"T want to be a tow truck diver!" I love these kind of days.

Red Won!

Just a few words GO UTES!

No school for the kids!

I always look forward to these days but then half way through the day I can't wait for school to start! So I sent the kids out to get ready so I could take their pictures...you know how this went everyone poking each other and someone in tears, and then some wanted the dog and others didn't. I also needed to take individual shots because the school pictures this year were terrible, this was the first year I was not happy. We got the girls done! It was so much Fun. I'm sure the neighbors had a great time listening to all the lovely noise from our backyard!

Halloween pictures

Carissa made a sugar skull for "Day of the Dead" in Spanish. These are the wonderul things an 8th grader gets to make to enhance her education!

Pumpkin Bread

It's fall and we have fallen' in love with this new recipe! I love making it into 6 little loaves but you can do 2 big ones.
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 cups canned Pumpkin
1 tsp. nutmeg
2/3 cup water
1/2 to 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans or choco.chips
3 1/2 cup Flour
Grease pans and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. mix sugar& oil, add eggs and blend. Add pumpkin & water blend. Combine dry ing. then add slowly. blend all together and bake.Bake at 350 for 1 hour or till a knife comes out clean.

Enjoy and happy fall baking! This is really my favorite part of the season

Halloween etc.

We had a ton of fun these past weeks but the computer is giving me grief so pictures will follow. As soon as I get them to the other computer! But for now I wish i had a picture of Thayne he is running in the down pour of the wonderful rain!