Apple Pie

Best part: We picked all the apples ourselves! We picked so many that there was enough for apple pie one night, and then apple crisp two nights later (see below)! That was a lot of apples.

Served with: cappuccinos that we made for Dee and Nana.

Apple Crisp

So because we had sooooooo many apples, we decided to make apple crisp when we went over to Zoe and Brian's house for dinner. It turned out really well because we put some secret blueberries in that made the apple crisp sort of pink. 

Ingredients:

• A bunch of apples 

• Secret blueberries 

• 3/4 cup flour

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

• 8 Tbs cold butter

Peel and core some apples; then cut them into chunks and put the apples into a glass baking dish. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a big bowl. Then slice the cold butter into bits and cut into the flour mixture using two knifes to make the topping. (That's the hard part because it needs to end up looking like breadcrumbs.) Before putting the topping over the apples, sneak some blueberries in. Once covered with the topping, put in the oven and bake at 375 degrees until the apples are tender (a little less than an hour). Serve with ice cream.

Zucchini Crescent Pie, a la Jules

Jules: "When are we going to try making Mai Mai's recipe for Zucchini pie? It's been like a hundred million years since she posted it."

Dada: "Good point. I guess tonight may as well be the night!"

Jules: "Okay, then. I'll make it. And I'll save a piece for when Baba comes to visit this weekend."

Magic Banana Bread

Best part: Smashing up the bananas. Definitely.

• 2 cups flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 cup sugar

• 2/3 cup chopped dried fruit (apricots work best, but we sometimes like to use cranberries or pineapple)

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• 2 mashed overly ripe bananas

• dash magic fairy potion

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1 egg

• 1/4 cup melted butter

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, dried fruit and nuts. In a second large bowl, combine banana, milk, egg, butter, and magic fairy potion; stir into dry ingredients just until well blended. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Wave hands over the batter and say: "Banana-o-rama-papana, yummy-de-dummy-de-pummy! Make this some gooooooood bread!" Bake in an oven, preheated to 350 degree, for 1 and 1/4 hours or until magic wand inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Eat half. Wrap up the other half in tin foil with a ribbon and give to your best friend.