Pie Crust

This crust recipe comes from a close friend of mine who uses this recipe for delicious desserts such as her apple danish. Always a favorite at family reunions, the crust recipe is fairly easy and is generally fail-proof. This is the recipe I will be using for my Thanksgiving pies.

What You Need:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg yolk

How to Do It:

First, mix together flour, shortening, and salt. Next, add in milk and egg yolk. When everything is mixed together and your dough has the right consistency, divide and roll out to fit pie plate. Depending on whether you need to bake the crust before the pie or bake the pie and the crust at the same time, I suggest using a pie crust shield to save your crust from browning too much.

Thanksgiving Menu

This year, I am making my first Thanksgiving dinner for my family! My parents are coming in to town for the holiday and I'm cooking for them. Some of the dishes I'll make are new to me and some are ones I've never made before but are favorites of mine. I'm incredibly nervous about it but I have more confidence in my cooking now so I think everything will turn out well. Here's hoping, anyways! 

So I'll share with you my menu plan and for the next couple days I'll be blogging about the food I'm preparing. I'm making so much food! So I'm going to start fixing a couple things ahead of time to save me some time on Thanksgiving day. We plan on going to the Macy's parade in the Big Apple so I'll need all the spare time I can get! Many of my recipes are easy to freeze or can be refrigerated for a couple days and still come out beautifully.

Le Menu

• Deviled Eggs
• Baked Brie with Apricot Preserves
• Cranberry Sauce
• Mashed Potatoes with Turkey Gravy
• Stuffing
• Green Bean Casserole
• Candied Sweet Potatoes
• Roast Turkey
• Rolls
• Pecan Pie
• Pumpkin Pie

So, as you can see, I will probably have a lot of leftovers! But I can think of a couple people who would be into a Thanksgiving leftovers dinner. I will post tons of pictures of the meal and parade when the day comes. Directly after my family leaves our little town, my husband's family arrives and I will be cooking some for them as well. So expect lots of pictures and recipes over the next two weeks!

Baked Apples

Tonight after dinner I needed something a little sweet. I had apples. I thought, "Baked apples!" And thus, I present to you, baked apples! There are specific types of apples that are preferred for baking and not all apples work well for baking. So, in the case that you don't know which apple to use, click here for a helpful link.

What You Need:

• 5 baking apples (I prefer golden delicious)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar
• 5 tsp. butter, sliced
• 5 regular sized marshmallows

How To Do It:

First, butter the bottom of a baking pan.

Next, core your apples and place them in the buttered pan.

Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and granulated sugar and fill each apple.

Place a teaspoon of butter on each apple.

Bake on 350°F for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Put one marshmallow on top of each apple and return to the oven for 10 minutes.

Serve with a garnish of any remaining sugar mixture and enjoy!

You'll notice that my apples have the skin on them. When I removed the finished product from the oven, the skin came off very easily so if you're not one for apple peel, they are easily removed from the baked apples.