Category Archives: hobbies

Sep 19 2011

My Mom’s Apple Pie

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I’d say this is the well kept family secret but can’t since we share this recipe with everyone.  This is definitely a family favorite.  I always loved it when I would walk home from school and the aroma of apple pie was in the air.  This is by far my favorite pie.  This recipe is also pretty simple and well worth it.  I made a pie last week with the apples off of our little tree and it was so good.  So good that I’ve made another pie this week.  Anyways here is the recipe and step by step instructions on how to make it.

 

Filling:

6 Apples peeled and cut into slices

3/4 to 1 Cup sugar (depending on tartness of apples)

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

2 Tbs flour

1 Tbs lemon juice (depending on tartness)

Crust:

2 Cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 Cup cooking oil (canola or vegetable)

5 full tablespoons COLD water

step 1

First step is to peel, core, and chop the apples.  I peel all the apples at once and then chop them.  That way it keeps the browning from oxidization to a minimum.  Each apple gets chopped into 8 pieces and then each of those slices gets chopped into quarter inch thick triangles.

step 2

Next step is to add the rest of the filling ingredients to the apples and mix.  My apples were tart so I used 1 cup of sugar and no lemon juice.  Put in a medium sauce pan and heat slowly on the stove (about medium low heat).  Meanwhile start putting the crust together.  Don’t forget about the filling give it a stir every few minutes or so believe me you don’t want the sugar to start to burn on the bottom of the pan.

This crust recipe is one of the most simple recipes I’ve ever come across.  Many people are picky about their crust and I’m one of them.  I love this crust because it is easy, flaky and taste good.  Once you try this you’ll never go back to cutting in butter or shortening and letting it chill.  You can also half this recipe for a one crust pie like pumpkin or pecan

step 3

In a large bowl combine the flour and salt.  In small bowl combine the water and oil.  It’s important to know what is meant by 5 full tablespoons of water.  As you fill the tablespoon up with water continue to fill it until it is so full it makes a dome over the rim.  If this doesn’t make sense let me know.  Hey, by the way, Don’t forget to stir your filling.

step 4

After the dough had formed a ball split into two separate balls one slightly larger than the other. Slightly larger because the bottom crust is bigger than the top. Oh! And don’t forget to stir the filling.

Take the larger dough ball and place it between two pieces of wax paper.  Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it fits into your pie plate with extra over the sides.  Don’t worry if the wax paper starts to wrinkle just lift it up and smooth it out.

Take one side of wax paper off and flip the crust into the pie pan.  Push and position the crust until you have about 1 inch of crust hanging over the side of the pan.  Slowly peal back the wax paper trying not to tear the crust.  Don’t forget to stir the filling.  Roll out the top crust between the wax paper and set it aside.

By now this is what your apple filling should look like.  The sugar should look syrupy and the apples are starting to cook.  When the filling is hot and bubbly that is when it’s time to add it to your crust. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

After adding the filling to your bottom crust dot the top with a tablespoon of butter.  Before adding the top, this is very important, wet your finger with water and go around the rim of the crust.  This will help the top crust adhere better and you won’t have a mess in your oven to clean up. Take one wax paper off the top of the top crust.  Flip over and place over the top of pie.  Press the rim together and peel off the remaining wax paper.  Trim the crust until it is about an inch from the rim of the pie plate.  Fold under the crust to lay on top of the rim.  Using the two finger method crimp the edges.

 

 

 

 

Cut slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.  I like to make a star or flower shape on the top.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden.  Take out of oven and place it on a rack until completely cooled. Serves 6-8 slices.

 

Sep 16 2011

Apples

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Honey Crisp Apples

Apple season is finally here.  We planted this honey crisp apple tree about 5 years ago. This is the first year that we have had a good crop of apples.  We bought the tree bare root.  It was practically a little stick with roots.  After planting it in the fall we didn’t expect blossoms on the tree in the spring but there were.  No apples developed that year.  The next year there were no blossoms at all.  The third time a few blossoms and a couple of wormy apples.  The fourth year we were optimistic but because of a late frost that killed all the blossoms there were no apples.  This year has been good to us.  The tree blossomed and we had an abundance of fruit growth.  My husband was continually out there thinning them.  We have had to put braces up to keep the trees branches from falling and breaking with the weight.   I’ve sprayed it twice to try and keep the worms down.  Although we now see that I needed to either do it earlier or more often.  There are a number of apples with little worm holes in them.  Other than that there haven’t been to many things I’ve had to worry about.  Well that’s not true there is one pest that is causing my apples to disappear. They’re about 15 years old and one of them lives next door.  Yep that’s right it’s the pesky teenager.  For a couple of weeks we have been getting after our kids for eating the apples and leaving the cores in the road.  They denied ever doing it but we knew the apples weren’t eating themselves.  Well today I was cleaning my kitchen and heard a ruckus outside.  I turned around just in time to see three teenage boys eating apples and throwing the core into the street.  That’s right MY APPLES.  This pest wouldn’t be so bad had they come and got my permission but no they just take.  Well I guess I can’t blame them the apples look delicious and if I don’t say so myself are delicious.  It’s hard to pass by without wanting a taste.  I do like to make applesauce and pie filling every year.  Maybe this year I won’t have to beg my neighbors for apples.  I’ve made two apple pies so far and they have been the best apple pies.  Next time I’ll share with you a step by step apple pie recipe.

our little apple tree

 

 

Sep 4 2011

Tomatoes

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Early Girl Tomato

Tomatoes are an essential part of my garden.  I can whole tomatoes, tomato sauce, salsa, and spaghetti sauce.  So I have to have tomatoes growing in my garden.  We planted  8 tomato plants.  Two of the plants are a cherry tomato.  So far my favorite has been the early girl variety.  It’s a smaller tomato but ripens pretty early which is necessary for this climate.  Every year I’m on the search for a new favorite variety.  I would like the tomato to be a little bigger.  I planted 5 varieties.  There are 4 early girls, 1 super fantastic, 1 Sophie’s choice (heirloom), 1 currant cherry tomato, and 1 sungold cherry tomato.

Currant Cherry Tomato

First I’ll discuss the cherry tomatoes.  I plant at least one cherry every year because I like these in salads.   This way I don’t have to use my bigger tomatoes for my salads.  They also produce a lot sooner and you are able to have them during the summer.  I usually plant a sweet 100 cherry tomato.  I thought I would try something different this year.  Wrong idea.  I got the currant cherry tomato.  These are super small and don’t have a lot of flavor.  They are also difficult to pick.  They grow like a currant in big clusters and really close to the center of the plant.  The tomatoes on the bottom of the plant were the first to ripen.  In order to get to them I had to crawl on my hands and knees and stick my hand all the way in the plant to pick.  Even then you couldn’t tell if you were getting the right tomato because they were so closely clumped together.  Many times I would end up picking a green tomato instead of the red one.  So frustrating.  I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even care if they get picked or not.

The other cherry tomato that I picked is called Sungold. This is a small orange cherry

Sungold Cherry Tomato

tomato.  We love this one.  It is so sweet.  This is the variety that we got a few years ago when we first started gardening and it single handedly convinced my husband that tomatoes aren’t gross. Sophia, my three year old, loves this one and we have to act quickly if we want any before she picks them all.  Definitely one we’ll do again.

The Super Fantastic variety was a mothers day gift from church.  I actually like this one.  It produces a lot of large tomatoes and taste terrific.  The only problem I have with this one is that it splits easily.  I think all the tomatoes that I’ve pulled off of there so far have split.  That’s okay if you’re using it for salsa but not okay for whole tomatoes.  This might be a variety I’ll try again since I do like salsa.

Sophie’s Choice variety I got on a whim.  I was looking for just one more tomato to plant and one that produces early and is larger than the early girl.  Saw this one and got it.  It was a little more expensive because it’s an heirloom tomato but so far it has done great.  The tomatoes are larger and don’t seem to have any splits but they are taking longer to ripen then my other tomatoes.  I just hope they ripen before the first frost in a couple of weeks.

Tomatoes are pretty easy to plant.  They are very frost tender so if you live in a cooler climate like I do you’ll need to have your tarp ready to cover them.  Tomatoes are also very easy to can and great to have in the pantry.  We use our whole tomatoes in soups, stews, casseroles, and even chili.  The key is to find the right variety that works for you.

Jul 7 2011

Lettuce and Spinach

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Lettuce and Spinach earliest planting in back to new planting in front

I love love love having lettuce and Spinach in the garden.  I’m a big salad person and it is great to be able make one anytime you want.  My husband and I have found that when planting lettuce and spinach it’s better to stagger the planting rather than plant a whole row.  We never eat a whole row of lettuce and spinach before it starts to flower.  Once they flower the leaves start to turn bitter.  By staggering the planting I can continually have lettuce and spinach throughout the season.

Spring mix variety

 

Lettuce is a pretty easy plant to grow.  It is tolerant to cold weather, which is great around here.  I usually get two different varieties.  One is a spring mix and the other a buttercrisp. The spring mix is a mix of different lettuce varieties put together.  I like those because you get a colorful and different tasting variety.  Some leaves are purple others have a different leave shape.  Some taste a little bitter or more salty, and some are sweeter.  I also plant a buttercrisp variety which is your usual green leaf lettuce.  I happen to like the taste of this variety so if I were you just pick a variety that is your favorite.  I don’t usually have any problems with the lettuce I guess the only issue I have is sometimes when I pick them there are earwigs on them.  I absolutely can’t stand earwigs.  So before bringing the heads in the house to wash I just give them a good shake.  The lettuce when I pick it sometimes feels a little wilted but that isn’t a problem.  All you need to do is bring it in and wash it really good and put it in a container and then put it in the fridge.  It crisps right up after it chills for a while.

Spinach

Spinach is nice to have but takes a little more work to grow.  I haven’t been very successful with growing spinach.  This year has been better than most.  Spinach loves sandy soil and we just don’t have that.  Our soil has a lot of clay and makes it really tough for spinach to thrive.  The best solution would be for us to amend our soil with some sand but we just have not done that yet.  Another problem I have discovered is that something is eating my spinach.  The leaves were turning a weird almost opaque color.  At first glance I thought it might have some kind of fungus.  Then I picked a leave and noticed some kind of grub eating between the outer layers of the leaf.  Yuck! I don’t want that in my salad.  I don’t usually like to use pesticides or harsh fertilizers on my garden.  This time I decided if I wanted spinach I had to do something.  So I removed all the infected leaves and spayed on Fungicide 3.  It’s a product from garden safe.  It is supposed to be a fungicide, insecticide, and miticide all in one.  I’m not sure what I’m trying to kill so I’m not sure if this will work.  You’re supposed to spray it on every 7 to 10 days until all leaves are uninfected.  I sprayed it on last week and again today.  Each time I remove the infected leaves.  Hopefully the spinach starts to look better soon.  Do you have any ideas?

Infected Spinach Leaf

Jul 5 2011

Chives

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Chives

Chives are another easy plant to grow in the garden.  They can over take the garden if planted right into it.  It’s best to plant in a container so that it won’t spread.  We planted our chives about 5 years ago and haven’t had to plant them again.  That’s right these are perennials which means they come back every year.  We weren’t sure if they would come back since we have really cold winters but they did, and have ever since.  I love having these on hand.  When ever I need them I just go out and snip a few off and chop them up to use.  They also have a very pretty purple flower.  The flower smells like onions but at least it looks good.  At the end of the season, right before we have a hard frost, Corey will go out and cut the rest of the chives and freeze them.  Then I use them in some Asian dishes like Mobodofu.  After they have been frozen they aren’t great to use as a garnish but you could put them in soups or breads for just a little onion flavor.  You could also dry them instead of freezing and use them the same.  So easy and very low maintenance.  I really don’t have to do anything to them, they just sprout up every year, it’s great.

Jul 3 2011

Garlic

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Garlic

I find garlic to be one of the easiest things to grow.  My husband and I started growing garlic a few years ago and we have kept doing it since.  We use garlic for so many things and it’s nice to always have fresh garlic around.

Growing garlic started with a trip to the grocery store.  While buying some garlic at the store we were curious about growing it in our own garden.  So we bought a couple of heads of garlic and separated the cloves and planted them in the garden just to see what would happen.  You plant garlic in the fall just like you would any type of bulb (ie tulips).  In the spring we were surprised to see garlic sprouting up.  It was great.  The garlic we bought from the store worked but the bulbs when harvested were smaller than what you bought at the store.  The next year we kept some of our bulbs that we had harvested and planted them again.  We also went to our local food co-op and bought some garlic that someone had grown on their farm locally.  It was amazing the difference in size each variety had.  The locally grown garlic was much larger than the grocery store.  This year we just planted some of our bulbs from last and it’s doing great.  I suggest buying the garlic from your local farmers market or co-op if you want to plant.  I tried buying from the local garden store and it was expensive ($4 dollars a bulb)  The co-op was only selling it for $1.00 a bulb.  Now we have an unlimited supply of garlic.  I planted about 6 bulbs of garlic which for us yields about 24 bulbs in the spring.  So that leaves us with 18 bulbs to use during the year.  The garlic when stored correctly last until your next harvest or until you consume it all.

Garlic is known to have many medicinal properties.  Garlic is great for your heart and helps regulate blood sugar levels.  There are a lot of reasons you should grow garlic.  Not only is it good for your health but it taste good too.  We use it in sauces, salsas, Asian foods, mix it with olive oil and use as a dip.  The possibilities are unlimited.  One down fall of garlic is that it can cause some really bad halitosis.  Also if you eat a lot of garlic your sweat could have a garlic odor.  I happen to like the smell of garlic but most people don’t.  Garlic is hard to smell on other people when you yourself have been eating garlic so if you’re worried about the smell just make sure everyone else is eating it too.

Garlic growing in our garden

Jul 1 2011

Gardening

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my garden

I love gardens.  I don’t claim to be an expert on gardening although I would like to be one someday.  I think gardening is a life long project.  You are always learning more.  Everyone has their own opinion on how gardening should be done.  I think it doesn’t matter if you are a patio gardener, square foot gardener, or a row gardener as long as you love what you’re doing and are somewhat successful at it than you’re on the right path to becoming an expert. Every year we try something different in our garden.  Some things work and somethings don’t it is always a learning experience. I love the feeling you get when you walk out into your garden and can see the results of your hard work.  I’m hoping to share with you information about my garden and what I’ve planted this year.  Not only what I’ve planted but how these things can be used when harvested.  Of course I expect you to do the same.  Tell me what works for you and what doesn’t.  Tell me what you’ve done with the produce you get. I think this will be a fun learning experience.  Here are the things we have planted in the garden  so far this year.  I’ll hopefully blog about each one.

 

Vegetables: garlic, peas, lettuce, spinach, radishes, green peppers, hot peppers, green beans, carrots, corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, onions

Fruits: tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, apples

Herbs: chives, Italian parsley

 

Jun 30 2011

Tennis anyone

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Okay so about 6 months ago I found out that Idaho Falls has an adult tennis league.  I had a friend call me up and ask if I wanted to join her team.  I was totally psyched about joining their team.  However found out that I couldn’t join because I’m ranked a 1/2 a point higher than their team.  The reason I’m ranked that  way is because I played in high school.  That was 14 years ago and I really haven’t played since.  So I’m really rusty and it doesn’t seem fair.  I ended up joining another team. It was a real hassle. Game play started at the beginning of June.  We have played about 6 or 7 games and I’ve only won a couple of those.  That’s okay because I remember the real reason I like to play.  It’s fun.  It really doesn’t matter if I win as long as I’m having fun with the people we play.  We only have a couple more games left in the season.  I’m a little relieved that it will be over soon because we have had issues with rescheduling rained out games. Also having problems with scheduling issues within my own family.    It is also a little tough on the budget.  We have a membership fee, a league fee, you have to buy your own balls (new can for every home game),  gas (my team is in Rexburg 30 min drive), and recently I’ve had to pay a babysitter.  I’ve easily spent over 100 dollars for playing for only 1 and 1/2 months.  So I’m hopeful that my husband will be willing to take me to the courts on Saturday mornings or afternoons.  That way I can still keep up a level of skill and also still have fun doing something I love.

In the ready position

 

Get that ball!