28 September 2008

The apple of my eye.

Today's post brought to you whilst I sip a delicious glass of my Leelenau Cellars Gewurztraminer, which accompanied the proceeding meal...

I decided today was the day. I was going to make my apple pie. I went and checked out the new Whole Foods (...and was happy to discover I can happily stay loyal to Plum. Nothing to necessarily bring me back, except the prepared foods section, which isn't as big as the other WF but is oodles bigger than Plum), on the search for pie crust. Guess what? I didn't find any. But I was still determined, even if it meant making a mess of my kitchen by making one from scratch again. I did a quick search for apple pie recipes and happened upon this: Swedish apple pie. No crust required! I was sold.

As always seems to happen to me, I was short on ingredients. This time, it was sugar. But I googled it, and it turned out I could use half brown sugar to fulfill the sugar requirement (who runs out of sugar? come on!). I also didn't use the full 3/4 cup of butter. I just couldn't do it. I used about 1/2 cup. Otherwise, I kept to the recipe. Even when it looked very strange...


The "crust" mixture on the left, the "pie" is on the right. Again, seemed super odd, but I figured it would still taste good, even if I screwed it up! haha!

The pre-cooked "pie."

It worked! It worked!

Once the pie was done and was cooling, it was time to make dinner. I carried the apple theme over, making a recipe I found in the new Martha Stewart: German sausages with apples, sauerkraut, and onions. The recipe calls for pre-cooked sausages -- oops... I used fresh, turkey bratwursts, and it turned out just fine (I just had to cook them a little longer and wait to slice them until they were mostly cooked). Otherwise, I followed the recipe, and man, did those onions and apples smell deeelish while they were cooking. Once everything was done, I assembled the meal, which was also accompanied by some butternut squash spaetzle from WF.

It looked a lot prettier before I added the sausage.

The verdict: Yum, on all accounts. I loved the apples and onions with the sauerkraut, and the turkey brat was tasty and I didn't feel crazy guilty afterward for eating brats. And the pie? Mmm-hmmm-mmm! It was so easy, and it really tastes like pie. Well, actually a little more like an apple cake. But I was worried it'd just taste like a bunch of baked apples. Who knew crazy sugary goo would turn into a real crust? I might just turn into a baker yet!

3 comments:

Lady Lisa said...

Ha! We both made dishes last night that had some form of sausage in them. Apparently dirty minded individuals DO think alike. ;-)

jesmr said...

Man. I miss Michigan apples! Utah doesn't have apples. Stupid Utah.

Sara said...

Looks delish!