I made a pie with a homemade crust...once...back in college. I know for a fact that it was a butter crust because that was the only shortening I had on hand. It must not have turned out that bad, because I ate it. My mom and my aunt always bake the pies for holiday celebrations, and they have 100+ years of combined experience. This year, Mom said she's bringing a cherry pie, my FAVORITE, but only ONE. So I offered to bake an apple pie, in the hope that some of the family who could try to eat the cherry before I can get a piece, might choose apple instead. Last night, I baked a practice pie. I used Mike's mom's crust recipe with pie spices added in with the flour, sugar and salt - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch each of nutmeg and freshly ground pepper. Then I cooked up a batch of the "Deep-dish Apple Pie" filling from last month's issue of Cook's Country (sans the cinnamon since I put it in with the crust.) But when it was time to drain the juice and discard most of it, I couldn't bring myself to lose all that beautiful, sweet flavor that I wanted in my pie! So I whisked in a few tablespoons of flour and tried to drizzle most of the juice mixture back over the apple filling. Oh, dear. I ended up with an "overstuffed" apple pie and had all KINDS of trouble trying to seal and crimp the dough, so I finally just settled for trying to get the thing mostly closed so it wouldn't leak and shoved in the oven without turning my kitchen into a complete disaster. When it was done, I let it cool on the counter overnight. This pie is as ugly as sin, but hubby and I tried it this morning and the flavor is delicious! However, I found a couple of recipes using coconut oil for pie crust and I would like to see if I can make them work. I'm going to need more practice pies before Thanksgiving! (My kids will be thrilled.) I may need help, will KAF Hotline experts be checking this Blog through at least Tuesday or so? Please?

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