apple pie pie pie

"What is your favorite part about the holidays?" I asked Jetta. "All the presents.....and the Pie!" she exclaimed. So I made an internal promise to myself that I would make as many pies with my kids this season as possible. It allows them to get their hands into creating something that everyone can enjoy. This is our 4th pie of the year and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving or Christmas yet. I think I am doing pretty good. As far as the presents go, she will have to be satisfied with our new family tradition. One present from Santa and one other present from another family member. I will write more about this new present limiting gratitude focused plan next week. Now, back to the pie. My sweet neighbor gave us a whole bag of apples she brought back from PA last week. So, naturally I thought of apple pie.

 At and early age I taught my daughter to use a knife in the proper way (I learned that from top chef years ago as I myself did not grow up in a house where I was ever allowed to cook anything.) and now she is quite handy in the kitchen. She thinly slices all 6 apples for the pie on her own while my son and I added all the seasoning to them. He worked so hard squeezing that lemon. He had to literally climb on the table to get at a better angle and then only a few drops came out. Jetta had made a pie crust the other day, so we used that. I think the only thing I did for the whole pie was to turn the oven on and help Pilot get the last bit of juice out of his lemon.

We spiced and sweetened the pie with Cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and coconut crystal sugar and scooped it into the pie pan.

They decided that they really wanted to do the criss-cross pattern (or as Pilot said "I want to make one that has little squares on top") so they cut strips out and made a very nice pattern on top.

We added some pats of butter to the top to make it just that much more rich.

And here comes my part........ putting the pie into the oven to bake while the kids cleaned up and then went out to play returning about every 5 minutes to see if it  is ready. With all the cooking they do, they have become very good at watching and waiting. Especially my 6 year old daughter. My 3 year is starting to understand that no matter how much you want something to be done, it needs to take the time it needs to be ready. This is a great thing to remember for teaching children as well. They must be allowed to take the time they need to grow and mature into themselves before. If rushed we never get to see all the beauty that lies in waiting. But when they are ready...........they are soooooo good! I can't remember if I am talking about Pies or kids. Well, I think both.