Grandpa French's Famous Apple Pie

I'm naming this after my Grandpa French because it was his recipe and it's amazing in all its simplicity.

Pie Filling
6-7 peeled apples (I prefer Jonathan apples)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon and/or nutmeg (I do mostly cinnamon and a few dashes of nutmeg)
3/4 cup sugar

Wash the apples, then peel them. Slice them into bite-size pieces (you can cut them into ice-cube shapes or, if you have a fancy spiral peeler like my mom, you can cut them into flat pieces. Mix well with sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg and let sit while making the pie crusts. (The flavor will soak into the apples the longer it sits).

Pie Crust Recipe (made twice--first for the bottom crust, then for the top crust. Doubling doesn't seem to work as well for me)
1 stick salted butter (softened--not melted--maybe stick in the microwave for 10 or 15 seconds if it's really solid)
3 Tbsp shortening (I use Crisco)
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3-5 Tbsp cold water (start with 3, add more as needed)

Mix the first three ingredients together--well--before gradually adding in the flour. Mix well until the pieces are blended. Start with 3 Tbsps of cold water and mix (you will want to remove your rings and knead by hand eventually) until blended. You may need a little more water, but try blending everything before you add any.

Once the dough is blended into a ball, remove from the bowl and place on a floured, flexible cutting board (my mom uses saran wrap laid onto the counter). Note: Know that you need to roll it out onto something that bends so that it's easier to flip the first rolled out crust into the pie dish for the bottom of the pie, and the second crust onto the filling for the top. Flatten the dough with your hands the best you can before using a rolling pin. Make sure you flour the rolling pin so the dough doesn't stick.

Note: this is not my picture and the pie crust should NOT have visible chunks of butter. Blend more if that is the case.

This is my picture, excuse the blurriness.

When you have rolled out the dough to a circumference greater than that of the pie dish, carefully (lifting the flexible cutting board or saran wrap) flip the bottom crust into the dish. You'll want to be careful to aim well the first time so that the dough covers the entire inside of the dish or you'll have to start over. My cutting board is very flat and bends like paper so it is really easy for me to maneuver the crust over the dish. If the dough doesn't look perfect, just remember it's the bottom of the pie so no one will see it anyway.

You do not need to grease the dish because the dough already has plenty of butter and shortening in it. Gently smooth the bottom crust out, then, using a knife, cut around the pie dish so that the extra dough hanging over falls off. You don't need that dough.

Add your filling to the pie dish and smooth the top with a spatula so the top pie crust won't be so lumpy.

Make the second pie crust and take your time because the appearance of this one matters a little more than the bottom one did.

Take extra care when you place the rolled out pie crust on the filling this time because it's not as easy to re-do once it has touched the filling. Once in place, cut off the excess dough and pinch around the edge of the dish, sealing the pie shut. There are a number of ways you can do this. I just pinch it all the way around.

Cut some slits in the crust (otherwise your pie crust just might explode while baking ;). Then you bake the pie at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes (check after 30--in my oven, it's done by then). When you're done, it should look something like this!

Let cool for at least five minutes before eating! Enjoy hot (or warm) with vanilla ice cream! Yum!

Let me know if you try this recipe and how it turns out for you!

Baby Shower Party Favors

A few weeks ago (or was it a few months...I've seriously lost track of time since Tenley was born!) my wonderful visiting teaching companion hosted a baby shower for one of the cute girls we visit teach. Our friend is having a baby boy in late September. I wanted to contribute by bringing some kind of treat so I decided to do chocolate-covered strawberries and party favors. It was very fun to do, and also kept me distracted and busy while I was waiting for our baby girl to arrive. I got everything at the Dollar Store, too, so it was super cheap! 

Here are the pieces I included:

 I bought 8 polka dot containers, 8 candy bracelets, a bag of jolly ranchers, a bag of hershey's, and a bag of blow pops, a package of hair elastics, and an 8-pack of bubbles. The little tag on the bubbles I tied on myself with twine after punching them out on scrapbook paper.

I have to say, the final result was much cuter in person! 

The chocolate covered strawberries were a piece of cake. My mom microwaved some hershey's chocolate chips and then dipped in fresh (washed) strawberries. She then sprinkled them with a variety of sprinkles (I have a LOT of types...) and placed them in the fridge to harden before I brought them to the shower. 

 Super easy and really delicious. Everyone loved them!

What do you think of my party favors?

Olivia's Famous (& Favorite) Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Are you looking for the most delicious pie recipe you've ever tried? Congratulations! You've found it! 

But seriously, this is my all-time favorite pie by far. I even make my own pie crust. Back in New Hampshire, my LDS ward used to host an annual pie and cake auction every June or July to raise money for Girls' Camp and Scout Camp. It is our one fundraiser a year, so it's kind of a big deal. My signature dessert was this exact recipe. People would bid somewhere around $100 for a good cake or pie, and since a lot of people had tried my recipe, my pies always did really well. I tell you this not to brag, but to convey how serious I am about this being a sweet recipe (literally, ha ha...).

So when I cook or bake, I'm all about using as few dishes as possible. For this dessert, I usually get out two big bowls, one spatula, measuring cups (which I barely use if truth be told), a rolling pin, and of course a pie plate. 

Pie Filling Ingredients Needed: 

2 cups sliced strawberries (fresh are better!)
2 cups sliced rhubarb (1-2" pieces)
2/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp butter

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl and allow them to sit for a while...the sugar will liquify and create a pinkish glaze on the fruit. Begin making the bottom pie crust. 

Pie Crust Recipe (made twice...once for the bottom crust, once for the top--I prefer not to double the recipe):

1 stick of salted butter (softened)
3 Tbsp shortening
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3-5 Tbsp cold water (start with 3, add more as needed)

Instructions (continued):

I think homemade pie crust is always better. I have never made this pie with store-bought crust, but you may try it if you dare. Otherwise, mix the pie crust ingredients in the order they are listed with a spatula (I usually just rinse the spatula I used to mix the pie filling). It won't look like much until you blend everything thoroughly. I start with 3 Tbsp of cold water and add additional as needed. Be careful not to add too much or you'll just have one soggy crust (which adding additional flour would probably fix). Take off any rings you might be wearing, and blend the dough by hand after mixing the best you can with the spatula. 

Now you have a few options for getting the pie crust to come out successfully in one or two tries. First, you really need a pretty wide space...wider even than the circumference of the pie plate because the dough needs to extend over the sides. A wide counter (cleared off) or a kitchen table should work fine. Next, you need something to roll the dough onto. My mom uses pieces of saran wrap on the counter sprinkled with flour to roll the pie crust out on. I use that method sometimes, but I also have a large plastic cutting board sheet that I can roll the dough onto (lightly floured also) and I tend to use that more often.

I usually flatten the ball of pie crust the best I can with my hands, then flour the rolling pin before beginning to roll out the crust. If the rolling pin begins to get sticky at all, flour it, or it will pull chunks of your crust off the cutting board. Roll the dough out as evenly as possible and as thinly as you can without it tearing. It should look something like the picture below. 

Once you have reached this stage, you will want to place your pie plate nearby. You don't need to treat the pie dish with cooking spray or anything because the pie dough has so much butter and shortening in it that it doesn't stick. 
Carefully (super carefully, or you'll have to start over) flip the cutting board over the pie plate so the crust covers the entire dish. The dough does not move easily, so it's important that you aim well the first time. My cutting board is super flat and bends like paper, so it is really easy for me to maneuver the crust over the dish. It should like something like the picture below. If it doesn't look perfect, just remember it's the bottom of the pie so no one will see it anyway.

Using a knife, carefully cut the excess dough away. I just set my knife against the edge of the dish and saw around it so all the extra falls off, leaving a nice smooth edge. Next, use the spatula to carefully scoop the pie filling into the dish. It should look moist and be spread around as evenly as possible like the picture below. 

Now comes the most challenging part--the top pie crust. This part is mostly hard because you want it to look nice. I sometimes do the top crust over if it doesn't roll out nicely the first time. Use the same steps mentioned above for rolling out the top pie crust. When it is time to place the top pie crust, ask someone to help you if you have unruly dough. Two extra hands can make this much easier. The crust should cover the entire pie dish and run over the edges when placed like in the image below. 

Now you can try different techniques for sealing your top pie crust to the bottom, but I like to cut off the excess (not right to the edge of the dish like the bottom one--it still needs to be a little bit longer) and then fold the sides under all the way around and pinch the dough like the birds do on Snow White. Here is a little video to show you what I'm talking about: 

She makes it look super easy, but I wouldn't pick the pie crust up like she does...it doesn't work. 

Anyway, you can pinch the edges, or you can create ridges (which kind of looks more professional...) as shown in the pic below. 

Once you have sealed the top pie crust, cut some slits in the center--unless you want an explosion in your oven. I like to do five slits evenly around the center like the five legs of a star. You can get crazy like Snow White and add things on top made from the leftover dough (my mom will roll the extra dough out and cut out mini hearts with cookie cutters to place on top) or you can carve patterns like the person did in the picture below.

Pre-baking. In my hand is the recipe card I use when making my favorite pie.

Whatever you choose to do is fine. Now the last step before putting your precious pie in the oven is to stick that 1 Tbsp of butter (mentioned under Pie Filling Ingredients) on the top of the pie to melt into the slits you carved. My mom puts it under the crust, I put it on top. It doesn't matter either way. 

Now just stick the pie in the oven (which you hopefully preheated to 425 degrees) and set a timer for 30-40 minutes. (Start with 3o or 35 and check on it). The edges of the pie should be a light brown when it is ready. You'll be able to tell. The pie crust pictured above is a little too dark for my taste as you can see from the very first image, which is the only one here that is actually mine. 

Note: It may be a good idea to stick a cookie sheet or some foil on the rack below the pie--especially if yours is overflowing with pie filling. The juices in the pie boil and leak out making a messy oven. If your pie crust is flat across or shrunken in, you probably won't have that problem, but it's better to be safe than sorry. 

When your pie is baked to perfection, let it cool for a while and serve with vanilla ice cream if desired. If it isn't delicious, you may have made a mistake. I really hope you love it.

My pie :)

Please let me know if you try this recipe! I would love to hear about how it turned out--good or bad. Chances are, this will become your new favorite pie. 

Spring is Here! Easter Weekend!

So since I work so much, I knew it would be hard to go to the Gifts of the Heart Exchange put on by ladies in the Church this past Saturday. As a result, I asked a few wonderful ladies in the ward to keep an eye out for cute girls' clothes when they went. Dalin and his sister Shaina and her husband Layton ended up being able to go for me, too, so I ended up with a great selection of baby girl clothes.

Yesterday, I finally got some time to sort through everything and try to put them into size piles. Too bad like half of the clothes were completely inaccurate. I wish I could just show you a few of the onesies that are supposed to fit a 3-6 month old. Yeah right! They would barely fit a newborn! Still, everyone found some really adorable onesies, dresses, and pants for me. They are so stinking cute! And the best part (for me) is that they found a surprisingly good variety of colors! (I do not want to overwhelm our baby with pink (especially because it is not really one of my favorite colors) so I was very happy to get lots of purple, green, yellow and blue for our daughter.)

On Easter, we saw that the Easter bunny had come when we woke up. Dalin searched for 13 eggs around the apartment, each filled with a treat. Our baskets were also filled with candy. Dalin gave me a cute sock monkey with bunny ears and some beautiful (and wonderful-smelling) yellow and red striped tulips for Easter. He KNOWS I love getting flowers almost more than anything else. He's the greatest!

Love them.

Little bunny sock monkey is so cute! 

The Easter bunny came! 

Dalin and I wore purple and walked to church like always, finally able to soak up the beautiful weather. It was basically the best weather we've had since living in Provo, which for me has been nearly two years now. After a terrific lesson in Primary on Christ's Atonement, we had a special program in sacrament meeting for Easter. By the time Church ended, Dalin and I (and baby girl I might add) were starving. At home, I cooked hamburger and combined it with taco mix for homemade tacos! My mom always does the best homemade tacos so I decided to take a leaf from her book and make them her way. 

Preparations for Easter lunch...all the Easter Fiestaware colors I could find 

Grandpa French's French Toast. I miss him. 

Why this picture insists on being sideways, I do not know. 

I would say they came out pretty dang good!--at least, Dalin, Layton, Shaina, and I ate until all the tortillas were gone so I would consider that pretty successful! After, we ate pazukis (pictured below) courtesy of Shaina (who is awesome at making them I might add...) on a blanket outside in the sun.

It was one of the best Easter Sundays I've ever had. I love celebrating holidays with Dalin! He makes everything so much better. Well in three days, I will be at five months! That is five months pregnant! Meaning only four months left! I can't believe how fast it's going. It's exciting (because in just a short while, we will have a little person living in our apartment with us and she'll be ours!!) and sad at the same time because I really like being pregnant. The first few weeks in the beginning weren't too fun when I felt sick all day, but other than some aches and pains at night, being pregnant is awesome. Also, there's the small matter of not having that one thing that only a girl can relate to...yeah that part is great, too. 

Looking tired but cute

Just had to show my mom how clean our apartment finally is...for the first time since moving in a month ago...

A few little Easter decorations (chicks on eggs spelling out "Spring," two lovebirds in a nest (obviously representing Dalin and me ;), and a wind-up chick toy. This is pretty much all I had time for.

Anyhow, life is terrific. Work is hard, but I keep reminding myself of Doctrine & Covenants 121:7-8:

"My son [or daughter], peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes." 

Plus, after I have this baby, I will most likely be taking a break for a while. I can't wait until she is here!!!!! It's going to be the best birthday present ever!!!!!! 

Food Blog (if only I had the time...)

I am seriously thinking about beginning a food blog. I do not profess to be an amazing chef--or even a "chef" at all, but thanks to Chopped, Cupcake Wars, Iron Chef, and Ratatouille, I think I am well on my way.

My cooking has improved significantly over this past year and no one is more surprised than me. I have always wanted to be a great cook like my Nana French and my mother, but I never quite got an opportunity to learn. For example, in high school, they shut down the cooking class the semester before I was going to take it. Despite this, the advice of my grandmother and mother (as well as the Food Network) has proved extremely useful in teaching me to cook. I must say, though, that what I've learned most from Chopped is basically that anything can be mixed with anything and somehow make a good meal. Don't quote me on that, but seriously, that's what they pretty much do every episode. 

So my thoughts are that I ought to create a little cookbook for married couples with very little cooking experience. It won't include anything too complex or too grand, just basic recipes that are really delicious and super easy to follow. Who knows? Maybe someday it will benefit our future kids when they (like us) have no idea what to make on any given weeknight.

If anyone has some good and easy recipes to share, I would really appreciate it.

The ones I have are mostly dishes like how to make meat and veggies, spaghetti with special sauce, a variety of breakfast dishes, and desserts. I'll compile them and eventually (one day...) put something together to help newly married (or newly on their own) students have a semi-decent dinner. 

What are your thoughts? 

Our Happy Heart Day

I am pretty spoiled. And I am so lucky to have met Dalin. This is our second Valentine's Day together. It is our second one married and our first one with a little son or daughter on the way. (It's so cool to think that this time next year we'll be spending the day with our little 6-month old!)

A heart for our little orange-sized baby ;)

Despite a long day of work and school, Dalin still had the energy to buy me a dozen yellow roses (my absolute favorites as anyone who came to my wedding should know), cinnamon hearts, chocolate bears,  and write me a poem. It was perfect because, as he knows, I love nothing more than getting flowers. He played a mean (or "funny," in his words) trick on me first though. He told me that there were no good flowers left. So I was kind of bummed but we went out to the car and there, on the passenger seat, were some beautiful roses and treats. I was so happy and so excited but I went over to Dalin and gently smacked him for pranking me then gave him a great big kiss.
























For Dalin, we had gone to Kohl's over the weekend and picked out some extremely spiffy new clothes for him. And we got some sweet deals, too! We got a nice, purple dress shirt for $9! High-quality, gray dress pants for $18! And for $27, some shiny and sleek new dress shoes! I surprised Dalin with home-cooked lobster tails, rolls, and celery with cream cheese for dinner. (Our baby is going to be so spoiled...we had lobster last weekend, too!) He certainly seemed to enjoy it (as did the baby ;). There is nothing better than plain lobster and butter--the way we had it tonight tasted just the way my parents cook it (which I'll admit, is probably because I had my mom give me instructions on the phone). The lobster meat was so freaking good, I was thinking about it for hours after. I have been longing for the ocean...six months is incredibly long to go without the soft gray Atlantic sand...sigh...I'm just missing home so bad lately.

For dessert, we ate fresh raspberries and homemade chocolate covered strawberries (really romantic, eh??). And we watched the new episode of The Office, which was hilarious.

Time for some snuggling ;)

<3 <3 <3