Apple Picking!

Apple Picking!
Visiting my sister Kyle in Charlotte was awesome for many reasons (see yesterday's post) but another great thing about getting out of the city is that you can do fun country stuff... like apple picking!  On
Saturday, Kyle and Jamie (her husband) and I went over the border to York, SC to the Windy Hill Orchard & Cider Mill apple festival.

It was really fun.  Besides the apples and pumpkins, there was also hay rides, a bbq stand shaped like a gun, apple butter and cider making demonstrations, and a blacksmith.  Jamie and I headed straight for the hard cider (yum!).  I bought a handmade iron candlestick from the blacksmith. We all shared a pulled pork sammie and listened to some banjo music from a live band. And of course, we picked apples.  We bought hard cider and apples to take home....but the highlight?  WASSAIL!!!  While Kyle and I were cooking dinner (and dessert, more on that in a minute) we heated the wassail on the stove. Jamie and I drank it with spiced rum. OMG.

For the record, wassail is a spiced cider meant to be consumed hot. If you don't have the good fortune of having an apple orchard nearby, there is a recipe (and brief wassail history) at Kate Hopkins charming blog, Accidental Hedonist.

When we got home, we had to figure out what to do with 10 lbs of apples.  So one thing we did was make a very tasty apple crumble pie (recipe at the end of the post).

We didn't have time to make our own crust, so we just got the pre-made refrigerated kind, which worked out great.  Two crusts come in the package, and we just needed one for the pie, so we used a small cookie cutter and cut pieces of the other crust to put on the top for decoration.  Isn't it pretty?

This is the season to enjoy apple orchards, pumpkins, cooking yummy autumnal food, and drinking wassail... you may be lucky enough to not even have to travel to do this!

Recipe

• 1 (9 inch) pie shell
• 6 cups thinly sliced apples
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice if desired. In a small bowl, mix together white sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Toss until apples are evenly coated.  Spoon mixture into crust.
3. In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apple filling. Cover top loosely with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until top is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.