Ultimate Apple Pie

Apple pie is the official food of this mystery writer (well, after steak, green chile, french fries, and macaroni). I make this stuff every year. Enjoy it topped with a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream. It's delicioso...

Filling:
8 apples cut up really small
1/3 cup honey (plus extra to dribble on the crust)
3 TBSP sugar
LOTS AND LOTS OF CINNAMON
2 TBSP of FLOUR or CORNSTARCH

Topping (optional, I only use it sometimes...)
1/4 cup butter
1 pkg graham crackers, crushed...
cinnamon to taste
1/3 cup brown sugar

Crust:
I use the Better Homes and Gardens single crust recipe for a 9" pie. If you want to do a lattice topping, you may want to make enough for two crusts.

METHOD (madness):
1. Make pie crust, roll it out, refrigerate it while you make the filling.
2. Cut up apples, mix in honey, sugar, and cinnamon to taste. Also, add flour to thicken.
3. Sprinkle on topping if you so desire.
4. Bake pie (with tin foil covering it) at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and than at 350 for an additional 30 minutes (both times, please. I don't know why, it's just in the recipe.)

Enjoy!
For those of you with an adventurous personality, try this recipe with GREEN CHILE! Trust me, it's exceptional. Just throw a couple of diced green chiles into the apple mix and follow the reqular instructions...

10 Things That Make Me Happy...and some random things I'm looking forward to.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and in between snatches of school related stress (moments during which I am in the pit of despair, as Anne of Green Gables would say), I find small things to be happy about. Such as:

1. Reaching 45,000 words on my novel (sorry, NaNo, I had a head start).
2. Pie. I love pie, and Pie Day (aka Turkey day [aka Thanksgiving]) is fast approaching!
3. Coffee. It keeps me going...faster and faster until I crash. As long as I can make it to finals week, I will be ok.
4. My family. Because there are people in the world who are as crazy as me.
5. Music. Yours, mine, somebody else's--it doesn't matter as long as it's good. (As a songwriter, though, I am probably biased...)
6. Books. But I reserve the right to hate the ones I have to read for school, just on principle. I will love them again as soon as they are no longer attached to deadlines.
7. Green Chile. There are no words to do it justice, but I may attempt to write a song about it anyway...one day.
8. Steak. Especially free steak, but hey...
9. Being an Adult (aka being able to eat chips and salsa for dinner if I so desire). This one only stands on the days when # 10 is not in effect.
10. Being a kid. Because I'm still unencumbered enough to dodge my responsibilities like the best of 'em...except when #9 kicks in and my guilty conscious gets the best of me.


Also, my personal lights-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel are:

1.The arrival of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows at my local theater.

2. My library's annual book sale (woo!)
3. The -still-quite-a-ways-away arrival of Hunger Games the movie at my local theater
4. Pie Day! Thanksgiving (yes, I also love mashed potatoes and gravy).

Watson, the Game is Afoot...

Today, NaNoWriMo began. I'm already behind, as I haven't had a spare minute (until now) to actually write anything creative. Well, I guess I'm technically still on schedule--I'm shooting for weekly word counts. I am a grad student, after all. I have to prioritize.

Also, if I sound a bit defensive, it's because I've just recovered from the worst bout of writer's block I've ever had. EVER. In my entire seven years of writing, I have never been blocked this badly. I'm sure my film noir professor can attest to this fact--she's probably grimacing over some poorly done reading responses, right about now.

Anyway, here's the game plan: I need to write 20,000 to 30,000 words before the end of November. Real, coherent, part-of-my-novel words. I know, that's not quite 50k. Don't rub it in. I'm crazy enough to be attempting this at all. That divvies out to be 5,000 to 8,000 words a week. Two to three chapters. Should be cake...