So! This weekend, I made my first apple pie of the season. I made Lucinda Scala Quinn’s basic pie crust, which is amaaaaazing, but I overworked the dough a bit. It was still delightfully flakey, but it was a touch on the tough side. I don’t think it was a “pie fail” because over all it was still super mega delicious, but it could have and should have been better.
The good news is I still have ten thousand pounds of Haralson apples and can try again. And THIS time, I will quadruple my efforts to Not. Overwork. The Pie Dough. The filling, as usual was spot on, though I may reduce the sugar a bit for a more prominent sweet & sour balance. I usually mix in some granny smiths, but I blew my entire apple budget at the orchard with these beauties, so adjusting the sugar will have to do.
I’ll post the exact filling stuff after I get it down to a science, but it’s pretty similar to this recipe from the Minute Tapioca box, I just use part brown sugar and fancy spices from Penzeys.
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Ok! Meal plan time. I am in a serious budget crunch at the end of this month, so I’m doing as little grocery shopping as possible. Here’s what’s on the menu.
- Monday Our schedule is all funky this week, so Monday is my kid free day. I’m going to make chicken & black bean taco bowls. All I need to get for this about $2 worth of produce from my local Asian grocery- cilantro, limes and a tomato. The rest I have on hand. (PS, I’ll be defrosting my beef and making a batch of bread dough tonight)
- Tuesday Shredded beef sandwiches on homemade buns from last night’s dough, corn and salad. I have all the ingredients friends, it’s just a matter of throwing it all together.
- Wednesday Teriyaki chicken, broccoli, stir fried rice noodles with cabbage and carrots. Because the family loves it and I won’t need to buy anything for it.
- Thursday This is Darian’s kindergarten potluck, I’ll be bringing two batches of his favorite garlic/onion wheat dinner buns to share. Plus this is a bonus overnight! I have the day off on Friday because the boys have no school, so I get to keep them both.
- Friday Daaaaaaaaay offfff!!!! It’s Halloween. We’re getting together with friends, and it’s going to be a crockpot-a-palooza. I’ll be bringing my modified version of this tortellini soup, adding shredded chicken, roasted red peppers, and Parmesan cheese. I’ll also make some kinda crusty bread to bring with. I have nearly all the ingredients for this, but I’ll need to pick up two packs of tortellini from Trader Joe’s for about $4, and spinach for $1.29.
- Weekend With my grocery budget renewed, I’ll take stock of my existing foods and replenish as needed. Insert more pie making here. And also cookies.
Welp, that’s all folks! Because I was able to get some extra meat on sale earlier this month and freeze it, and take advantage of all the goodness in my fridge, I’ll make it through the work week spending about $10 on new groceries. Including the cost of the ingredients I already have, the total would be more like $75, but to me that still has success written all over it.
CrustyBeth 