No fancy food photography here.

Quite a few years ago I decided that writing offered little in terms of immediate gratification and that I wanted to commit myself to learning a skill with more immediate rewards.

Why not pies?

Pie baking runs in the family so I already had the basics.

I use this recipe for my crust except I use 3 oz. of shortening and 7 oz. of butter. I’ve learned that keeping it in the fridge overnight works better for me.

I use 1 tsp. cinnamon, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour.

I like lots of apples and one of my pie dishes is deep so this fall I’ve been experimenting with adding more apples. I just cram them in with my hands.

It seemed like the center apples still had a bite so I’ve been nuking them for 1-2 minutes and that’s been working well.

I’m still not great at making crust. (Or photographing the results.) My secret is to be fearless. You can see where it got a little goofy. Still tastes amazing.