Easy As Pie

Well, I did it folks.  I actually made a pie from scratch.  I had been wanting to do this for quite some time, but was burdened by a crippling lack of confidence in my previously untested crust making abilities.  For some reason, I was under the impression that one had to be a Paris-trained pastry chef (or Nan) to produce a successful crust.  By some miracle, however, mine DID turn out!!!  (I was just as surprised as you are, trust me).  Perhaps the situation was helped by the fact that my kitchen used to belong to Nan (and is thus filled with good pie making vibes and such).  Alas, I never could convince Nan to officially teach me how to make pie, which could partly explain why mine did not taste quite as good as hers.  Instead, I turned to the internet for guidelines, borrowing recipes for filling and crust from here and here, respectively.  Both are excellent and easy to follow.

As it so happened, I was also very camera happy during the pie making process.  Let me share with you the fruits of my labours (pun intended).

Here's the crust.  I was still somewhat skeptical at this point, but thought it looked alright.

Here it is with the apple filling, sans top crust.

My pathetic attempt at cutting pretty designs on the top part of the crust.  Oh well, it's not about looks.

The finished product.  If you decide to try the recipe, bear in mind it may take less time than the recommended 50-60 minutes.  In my oven it took about 35.