A Pear Pie

This is a delicious pear pie recipe I found on the amazing site, Allrecipes.com.  

I used pears from our own pear tree, which made it all the more fun.  :)  

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

1/2 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

a pinch of lemon zest

5 cups peeled and sliced pears

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1.  Combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon rind in mixing bowl.

2.  Arrange pears in layers in a 9 inch pastry lined pan, sprinkling sugar mixture over each layer. Dot with butter. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Roll out remaining dough; cut slits for escape of steam. Moisten rim of bottom crust. Place top crust over filling. Fold edge under bottom crust, pressing to seal. Flute edge.

3.  Bake at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes.

A few pictures from the holidays thus far.

Now if that isn't a boring title, I don't know what is...

Thanksgiving dinner

The pies!
pumpkin, chocolate, lemon meringue, cheesecake, and apple

White stuff that sparkles in the sun!  Sadly not snow...

Getting the Christmas tree is just not the same
without Jen and Jonathan.

Walking back to the truck...

So beautiful both inside and out!

Starting the decoration process!

We visited the Grotto...I'd love to see it in the summer

Such a beautiful manger scene!

Dad opening a present from his mama...

Mom opening hers from Dad and me

What a great Santa! 

Mei Mei enjoyed herself.  She went from this box to one piece of
wrapping paper, then another...

Opening a present from Jenny and Bub!

A little impatient are we?

Notice the snazzy cap?  :)

A birthday rose for Mama...

My first loaf!

A little while ago, at the end of October, I made my first loaf of bread.  It was a lab I "had" (read "was thrilled") to do for a home economics class.  I think I'm hooked.  :)

Cooling on the rack

Making bread is such a satisfying task.

...Ta-Da!

Cutting the bread...

"A" is for Applesauce

Jenny, you would be pleased to know that yes, we did make a pot of applesauce!  :)  

By far the cutest apple from the bunch we picked.  :)

First we picked a few of the apples off of our trees...

...and placed them into this box.

Ta-da!  Hey, it's that cute apple again!

Next we washed, cored, and cut them into eighths

Here they are in the pot, starting to warm up...

Mommy working on slicing up the apples

It's slowly filling up!

After the apples cooked long enough and became soft enough,
we scooped them into the above strainer,
and mashed the saucey goodness through the strainer and into the yellow bowl...

Go, Dad, Go!  Squish those apples!

Mommy and me and our finished applesauce...  :)
Photo credit: Dad