Easy As Apple Pie?

I love being in my kitchen. Well not actually being IN my kitchen, since it usually looks the spaghetti tornado from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has been through, but I LOVE cooking, and baking. Oddly enough, I rarely seem to have time to do what I love, as there is always something else that seems to be screaming louder for my attention.

Let me share with you a recent adventure in baking...

This weekend, thanks to Bountiful Baskets, I had a counter overflowing with apples. Time to make a pie. I had promised my little brother I'd keep his kids for the weekend, so he and his sweetheart could have a child free get away. This means I was home from work about 3 hours early Friday afternoon, YAY ME!!! Excess apples, "extra time", perfect time to make a pie, right?? In addition to 2 extra children for the night, we were having a family gathering on Saturday for a belated Easter Egg Hunt, which happened to fall on my other brother's birthday. My brother who LOVES my Dutch Apple Pie. Even more reason to get baking....

So at 4:00 I had my dinner menu in mind, White Chili Chicken Soup, and homemade corn bread, with apple pie for desert. Just for fun, I sent a note to some friends, to invite them over for desert - what can be better than sharing delicious food with friends? I text ed Donovan to bring home some vanilla ice cream to go with the pie. So far, so good....

I started the preparations for dinner, cornbread first, so it could begin baking while I mixed up the soup, and while it simmered, I'd start peeling apples. Yes, I am an awesome planner. Then the fun began. I discovered after mixing all the wet ingredients for my cornbread, I had no corn meal. WHAT? I was sure I had some in my pantry somewhere! This lead to an impromptu cleaning and re-organization mission of the pantry. An hour an a half later, my pantry was torn apart, Donovan was now ready to head home from work and I really had NO corn meal. A quick text to Donovan to grab some cornmeal in addition to the ice cream. "Cornbread mix?" he responds - NO! Just the corn meal! I have everything already mixed, except the corn meal.

By the time Donovan got home with my ice cream and corn meal, I had the pantry, mostly put back together, and dinner no where near started. Change gears quick! Get the food going, the natives are getting restless!

Finally the cornbread is in the oven, the soup is starting to simmer, and the apples are being peeled. Now the timer is going off & the cornbread is done, almost. As I'm trying to slice apples, I'm being interrupted about every 2 minutes by a different child, asking for a snack, or letting me know they are hungry. I think some days I need to be an octopus, 2 arms are not enough.

Dinner on the table, apples sliced & seasoned, kids eating... Solace for a minute or two.

At 7:15 my friend responded to the desert text - "sorry just saw your text". Which I didn't see for another hour. No worries - come on over - the pie will be done about 9:30. I even have ice cream. :)

Time to get 5 little monkeys into bed. Who gets to sleep where? What pillow do I get to use? But I want to sleep by ....... Now it's 9:00 and I'm just making pie crust. (In case you're interested, Paula Dean has an AWESOME pie crust recipe, which has become my favorite). I now realize that along the way I peeled enough apples for 2 pies. CRAP! Roll out another pie crust. Pie #1 goes in the oven, at 9:15. Now do the math with me - bake with edges covered in tin foil for 25 - 30 minutes, remove foil & bake another 20 - 25 minutes. Somehow I don't think the pie is going to be ready by 9:30.

9:35ish - friends show up - pie still not done. Kids still not asleep, kitchen still looking like a spaghetti twister has come through town.

The delay in the pie baking allowed for some great visiting time, with some great friends. The kids DID eventually fall asleep, including Aubree who was being rocked. And the pie was DEEE-LICIOUS!!!

And this my friends is why I don't bake more...