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A La Mood

My favorite time of day is cocktail hour. Not only because of the cocktails, conversation and anticipation of dinner, but because of the lighting mood:

Shadows, shadows everywhere

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This house in particular has excellent shadows come 5PM

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But don’t forget the cocktails!

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Dinner tonight did indeed involve bourbon. And cinnamon. And APPLES!

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Local Pork with an Apple Bourbon Sauce + Hazelberry Green Beans

[Please read the rest of this post in a Southern colonial’s accent!]

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The pork we acquired from the market and it was local, pasture-raised and very tasty.

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Matt pan-seared them in a pan of canola oil so they had an excellent crust.

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I was in charge of the apple “sauce”. I cut up 2 big apples into slices and chunks and put them in water on medium heat. You just keep letting the water evaporate and adding more until the apples are nice and soft

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Pouring in heavy hands of bourbon along the way!

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Plus cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. You’ll know it’s ready when you’re ready to eat it!

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The green beans were local too

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We toasted some whole hazelnuts in a dry pan, removed them and chopped them. The beans were then sautéed in a little olive oil and then stirred with cranberries, hazelnuts, salt and pepper when they were tender enough to eat.

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Delicious!

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I do declare that food is meant to be enjoyed with alcohol. Seriously, the thought of a glass of water with this meal was so very unappealing. So we cracked open a beer. A taste for me, a pour for him.

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If you thought that was the end of the apples, think again…!

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Pie For Two

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Oh my heavens, two of my very favorites at once!

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Matt made an apple pie for two….or one if you’re extra hungry! He sez:

In making this pie, I tested out some Great Harvest recipes, so unfortunately I can’t share the actual recipes with you!  However, as an example, I found this recipe which I have adapted below for a pint size pie. You can make this in just about any dish – ramekins, mini soufflés, basically anything that’s glass or ceramic.

The crust for the mini pie was made from 1 full-size crust, cut in half.  It was more than enough crust for our dishes (which are about 6″ in diameter).  Here’s an adapted recipe:

Pint Size Pie
  • 2 c. whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 c. sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 stick cold butter
  • 1/4 c. water
  • dash o’ lemon juice

Mix the dry ingredients together, and then cut in the butter until it incorporates into pea-sized chunks.  Then begin adding your liquids (it’s not a bad idea to use ice cold water) until the dough just barely clumps up.  It should still be barely crumbly.  Refrigerate for at least an hour before shaping.  The whole point of baked goods like pie crusts and biscuits, which are basically in the same family, is that you want the flour to encase little pieces of butter so that when it bakes, you get flaked layers of buttery dough.  So make everything cool and keep those hot hands off of it!

To make the filling, just combine all these ingredients together:

  • 2 c. thinly sliced apples
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • dash nutmeg
  • 1 tbsp. maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch

Cut the pie crust in half, roll it out, and place in your greased mini-pie container.  To grease mine I took an empty butter wrapper and rubbed it around the inside.  Place your pie crust in the dish, and working quickly make sure it’s evenly distributed.  Pour in the appley mess, and then make your pie topping.  We went with a lattice, but you could do pretty much anything.  I also like the kind that covers the entire top with just a few slits in it.  The internet has lots of videos on how to make a pie top.

Bake at 350* for around 30-40 mins, but don’t be surprised if you have to go much longer.  My thought is you should pretty much bake it just until the crust begins burning, especially if you’re using fresh apples because they’ll need a long bake to break them down.

Happy baking!

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Before we ate pie, we went on a 30 minute walk!! After all, walking  is good for digestion!!

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Wish I could say this was the most delicious pie ever, but sadly, it wasn’t. The crust was a bit tough and the filling a bit flat. But it did taste delicious! And the effort that went in was the best!

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KERF half

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MY GOSH where was the vanilla ice cream!! I almost put my fork down to go buy some on the spot. But I settled for a flute of milk instead.

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When round II of this pie crust makes an appearance later this week, there will be ice cream involved!

G’night!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. Erin says

    Yum! I LOVE autumn and this just sums up the reasons — apples and cinnamon. I’ve been making tons of apple products lately to use up my farm finds and applesauce is next on the list. So far: apple pancakes, apple muffins and stewed apples. 😀

    Reply

  30. Heather says

    aahh! how cute is your pie! love it!
    That is als my favorite time of day. we have big windows in our bedroom and in the late afternoon we get great natural lighting in there and I love it!

    Reply

  42. Lisa @bakebikeblog says

    ooooh how wonderful!
    And we had pork for dinner last night too! I served with a ‘warm cabbage salad’ cooked with seame oil, garlic, ginger, tamari, lemon juice and coriander. A tasty combination!

    Reply

  44. katie says

    did you use regular whole wheat flour, or whole wheat pastry flour? I wonder if using whole wheat pastry flour would result in a lighter crust for you guys.

    Reply

  48. Rosie says

    Try whole wheat pastry flour for your pie crust. It has less gluten so won’t be as tough as your regular ww crust did. Just my 2 cents… 🙂

    Reply

  49. Jasmine @ Eat Move Write says

    Sorry it wasn’t the “best pie ever.” There seemed to be a lot of room in the crust. I’m sure he’ll get it right next time. It doesn’t feel like fall yet to me. I can’t imagine cooking apple for dinner. Not quite yet!

    Reply

  51. Katie @ peacebeme says

    Cocktail hour is my favorite time of day too! It’s the only time I can relax (and not just because of the cocktail! 😉 ). I usually skip through a lot of the food pics, but my boyfriend would love this recipe – he loves his bourbon!

    Reply

  54. Danielle says

    Hi Kath, I love your blog…I was wondering if you had any idea when the 2011 date and location for Healthy Living Summit would be posted? Keep blogging! I check it relgiously : )

    Reply

  58. Mimi says

    I love that shadowy time, but I’m sad to think it will come at 3 p.m., not 5 p.m. in a few weeks! Urg. If you get time, check out my Bondi Band giveaway tomorrow!

    Reply

  59. Elise says

    that pie is so adorable that i’m almost not sure i’d be able to eat it. emphasis on the almost, because i’m pretty sure it’d be gone in the blink of an eye!

    Reply

  64. Kori says

    Your dinner looks AWESOME, and your apple pie looks so adorable! I also love the shadows. 🙂 I hope you have a fantastic Wednesday!

    Reply

  65. Gree says

    What a great looking meal, I love the addition of the bourbon to the applesauce, I bet it adds a deeper flavor. And that pie was adorable!

    Reply

  66. Lauren says

    This lovely meal makes me crave fall weather! Everything about it just screams autumn to me. I especially love the apple pie for two. I just posted a recipe for individual peanut butter cheesecakes, and there’s just something about a mini pie or cake that makes me happy :).

    Reply

  69. Kelly says

    Did Matt put bourbon in the pie crust? Brad made apple pie once from a Alton Brown recipe that called for apple brandy. I agree with you about the vanilla ice cream. Apple pie a la mode is the absolute best!

    Reply

  72. Astrid says

    The little pies just zoomed up to the top of my weekend baking list. I’ve been looking for more 100% wheat recipes for the family and this fits the bill. I use my Vitamix to quickly process wheat kernels into flour and continue on with a recipe – it doesn’t get much fresher. Does Matt grind his own wheat at home?

    Reply

      • Astrid says

        You’ll need to use the speical dry grinding container for wheat and oat kernels, not the t regular smoothie container…we bought the whole shebang a few weeks ago and I’ve used both containers almost daily for wet and dry purposes.

        Reply

  75. RhodeyGirl Tests says

    I was about to say that ice cream would definitely make the pie better, but you beat me to it!

    I DID read all of this post with the accent you suggested, and it was just LOVELY, dahling!

    Reply

  78. Rachel S says

    Looks like an amazing meal! I love any kind of cooked apples, so that sauce looks delicious. The mini apple pie is so cute! It’s too bad it didn’t quite live up to expectations. But now you’ve inspired me to start baking with apples again!

    Reply

  79. Cathy Breit says

    Dinner looks amazing..(as usual:)) Just wanted to say that I have a small artisan baking and pastry business…so if you have any questions about pastry don’t be afraid to shoot me an email! 🙂

    Reply

  84. Janna L says

    Hi Kath, I am a new(er) reader from Dillon, MT and I was wondering about how you infuse milk into your food routine. I haven’t noticed (at least in the last month) too many milk additions with the exception of the above mention of ice cream and a glass of milk with your pie.
    My husband and I drink A LOT of skim milk (sometimes almost 2 gallons a week). He likes his with chocolate syrup – mine goes down the shoot plain and white.

    Just wondering your opinion on milk and the benifits of drinking it versus soy or rice (or almond?) milk.

    Reply

    • Kath says

      Dillon MT!! Are you related to Great Harvest at all? We came to Dillon last fall for our discovery day and we will be back for 3 weeks sometime next year!

      I don’t DRINK a lot of milk, but I do cook my oats with it everyday and use it in smoothies or sometimes for cereal. I don’t really drink it because I don’t find it that filling – I’d rather chew my food (just had some milk with a granola bar mashed in for a snack!)

      I highly recommend organic/grass-fed milk. I don’t like rice / almond milk because there isn’t much protein in them so they’re more like water to me, but I like their taste OK. Soy is the best comparable to cows milk and I get it on occasion because I like the taste of the vanilla kind. But ultimately cow’s milk (organic) is my choice.

      Reply

      • Janna says

        Hi Kath (just getting back to you after a mini-vacation) –
        I am not “related” to the corporate office for Great Harvest, but I did work at the Great Harvest in Billings, MT for 20 of the best months of my life. I call those the “full” months in my life since we got a free loaf of bread each week and all the left over scones. My favorite breads: Dakota and Cheesy Potato. 🙂 My husband is student teaching in Dillon and I am working with at-risk youth at Youth Challenge Academy. I read your blog every morning after sorting emails in the morning; I appreciate your candor about food and your honesty with portions. As a “once bitten” member of Weight Watchers I know how important portion control is.
        Thanks for the info on milk. I know it’s important but I am trying to figure out how to infuse it without just drinking it! you gave me some great ideas!

        Reply

  85. whitney says

    this post is indescribable.

    Honestly I say this all the time your food is amazing. I would eat at your restaurant every night.

    I’m jealous of your lifestyle’s!!

    Reply

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