I Heart Fall

Nancy's gate is one of my fall favorites,

along with our vine maples

and fall sunshine.

Another fall favorite is apple pie. I have made three in the past few weeks, one for Ben's birthday, one because Peter ate the birthday leftovers and Ben was more than a little annoyed, and one because Winco has local, new crop Jonagold apples for 78 cents a pound and who can resist that? I know, many people (and recipe books) swear that Granny Smith apples make the perfect apple pie, but I disagree. For years I sought to make the perfect apple pie with Granny Smith apples. No luck. The apples were always too hard, no matter how long I baked the pie or pre-cooked the apples, and too dry, no matter how much sugar or apple juice or syrup I added. I finally found a kindred spirit in Dean, who confirmed my suspicions: forgo the Granny Smith . Liberated, I started to experiment and found that Newton Pippin and Jonagold both make excellent pies. I also picked up the perfect pie plate at a garage sale. It's ceramic and the bottom crust browns perfectly.

While I prefer a two crust apple pie, the boys want a streusel topping with lots of brown sugar and cinnamon. No nutmeg. I also tried a new recipe for apple cinnamon ice cream, but I was not impressed. I'll have my apples and cinnamon in a pie, thank you.