Summery Blackberry Pie

I remember sitting at the computer in my room when I was in high school, using dial-up internet, and- totally on a whim- typing in cookierecipe.com to my browser (Netscape, of course).

It was a real site!  Holy cow!

I decided to try another one- cakerecipe.com.  And then another- pierecipe.com.

They were there too!  Will the wonders of the internet never cease!

I kept going down the list.  There were sites for all kinds of food.

Allrecipes you might even say *winkwink*.

It wasn't until many, many years later when I was sitting in the Seattle headquarters of Allrecipes.com  for an Allstars trip to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Allrecipes.com, that I even connected those old sites to the current iteration of the site I do so much work with.  All of those individual little domains were bundled up into the neat package that has been known for a very long time now as Allrecipes.com

Freezer Caramel Drizzle Pie

Picture this:

It's hot.  It's humid.  You have company coming and you have zero desire to fire up that oven and heat up your house.

Oh, that day is coming soon, my friends.

Summer is coming.

Cookies, cakes, cobblers, traditional pies, and most of your standard desserts are obviously out unless you want to go the store-bought route, right?

So, what's a girl (or guy) to do?

Freezer pie is what you're going to do.

Ok, I won't be presumptuous- freezer pie is what I think you should do.  :-)

The Best Apple Pie You'll Ever Eat

When I was a kid I absolutely hated pie.

(Except lemon meringue, that is.)

In general I just didn't like any cooked fruits- no cobblers or pies or fruit-filled pastries for me.

Crazy, I know.  I had a back yard absolutely loaded with fruit trees (apricot, peach, plum, cherry, pear, apple...) but my mom had no luck getting the loads of leftover fruit we always had to deal with into me in the form of dessert.

My tastes have certainly matured over the years!

In fact- while generally speaking I don't have much of a sweet tooth- pie is my favorite dessert by far.

Cherry pie.  Berry Pies.  Apple Pie.  Pretty much any pie or cobbler or whatever you put in front of me is going to be difficult to turn down!

Lets just say that at this point I have plenty of experience with pie baking.

Let's Talk Pie Crust

This is one of those posts that I have been wanting to share for a long time- a very long time.

There have been a couple of things getting in the way of that- first of all, when I make pie crust for desserts I am generally serving it to a crowd.  While some of my close family know I'm a crazy picture-taker that doesn't mean that I want to stop the festivities and make people wait for their pie while I get that perfect shot.

The second problem is that when I make pie crust for savory pies, like Chicken Pot Pie, I generally serve it for dinner- which might sound irrelevant but for a large portion of the year that means the sun has already gone down...which means the lighting isn't great for picture-taking either.

Ah, the problems of a crazy photo-taking blogger. :-)

Anyway, when my husband asked me to make an apple pie for a family gathering this past weekend I decided to go ahead and snap some pictures before we brought it.

I might have even cut out a slice of pie for picture taking purposes and replaced it before we left.

It's family...I'm sure they don't mind.

Grandma Simpson's Apple Dumplings

Large chunks of most of my childhood summers were spent visiting my mom's side of the family throughout Wisconsin.  My Grandma Simpson lived in Wausau, which is where we spent the bulk of our time, however we also drove all over the state visiting assorted family members.  I have memories of stops at a restaurant with goats on the roof, a restaurant with a giant Paul Bunyan statue in the parking lot, dipping my toes in the great lakes, exploring the resort where my parents met, and a general sense of amazement- as the California child that I was- by basements, summer rainstorms, and green trees.

 Also, I remember the Killer Apples.

Super Snacks for the Super Bowl: Copycat PCP Pie

I have a very old friend, with whom I lost contact for many years.  We got back in touch a few months ago, only to find that we're both foodies.

:-) I LOVE my foodie friends- people who understand the weird excitement of quality, interesting food.

People who don't waste their tastebuds on bland, generic food.

People who love to cook and EAT.

I love to eat.  

I love to cook.

I love FOOD.

Anyway, my family's recent road trip took me from one side of Arkansas to the other, straight through a town called Benton- this was pretty awesome, since my friend had recently sung the praises of "PCP Pie," a pineapple-coconut-pecan concoction sold by a restaurant named "Ed and Kay's" right off of Interstate 30 in Benton.

I spent two weeks looking forward to my stop.  My pie.  My break from my diet.  My splurge :-)

Apple Pie For a Crowd

A couple of months ago my daughter had her bridging ceremony, moving from Daisies to Brownies in Girl Scouts.  Personally, I was in Camp Fire as a kid and hadn't experienced this ceremony before- very neat!

Click to see the recipe at Allrecipes.com

After the ceremony there was plenty of food for everyone to enjoy.  This was when I was in the middle of trying to get rid of a ton of apples and was baking up a storm, so of course I didn't pass up an opportunity to get rid of a few more of them!

My go-to pie recipe (with a few seasoning changes) is Apple Pie by Grandma Ople from Allrecipes.com- always a winner!  It's absolutely delightful, every time.

I Take Way Too Many Pictures

I haven't just been baking lately, I've been doing plenty of cooking for my family too.  I've tried out some really delicious recipes and (of course) taken pictures.

I'll be honest…I love to cook, but I might love taking pictures of food even more.

Sometimes I'll make a recipe just to take a picture of it.

lol I'm not normal

Anyway, I just posted about all of the Christmas fun I've been having so I don't have much new to say, but I did want to share these pictures and recipes with you!  

My husband loves chili dogs.  Though he is quite a sport about putting up with a never-ending barage of new recipes, there are two things he consistently asks for- chili dogs and tacos.  I'd yet to find the perfect chili recipe for hot dogs, so I decided to try a new one.  This one came pretty close to perfect and is going to be my go-to recipe when he requests chili dogs in the future!

New Laptops and Wonderful Husbands

I'll admit it- I'm far more attached to my laptop than it's rational for me to be.

I use it all. the. time.

I use it for recipes.  I use it to stay connected to friends and family back home.  I use it to waste time.  I use it for my many, many pictures of food.

I use it a lot- and receive a great deal of chiding from my husband because of it.

So, when my laptop broke (died, went kaput, went into the great laptop beyond) and was beyond saving I was a little...upset (freaked out, panicked, eek!)

After about a week of withdrawals, my husband came home from work WITH A NEW MACBOOK FOR ME!

Mommy Time and Yummy Pie

Well, I've done it again- sucked at actually blogging on my blog.  Sorry about that.  It's been a busy summer, what can I say?  I was too busy doing stuff to write about doing stuff!

What a summer it has been, though!  Trips to the park, crafts, making friends with our neighbor, swimsuit fun,