Yoyos and apple pie

Got Tammat's Yoyos made this afternoon.....mine do not look as pretty as hers, that's for sure! I don't think I used as much frosting as you did, Tammat. I tinted my frosting green for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, since I'm taking the leftovers into work. Of course, Rick was circling the table as the cookies were cooling. He sat with me long enough for me to sandwich three pairs of cookies with frosting, then put the cookies on a plate and took them into the living room to munch on while he read the paper. He likes them.

Thanks for the recipe, Tammat!


And apple pie. I actually made this pie back around the end of October when we went apple-picking and made apple sauce, apple dumplings, apple pie, apple cookies, apple BBQ sauce, apple everything. I par-baked it, then cooled it down, wrapped it well and threw it into the freezer. Finished baking it and it's ready for munching. It doesn't look the best (I have a terrible time with pie dough sometimes), but it was really tasty. 

That apple pie looks wonderful. Add some vanilla ice cream. Nobody will care what the crust looks like. :lol3:

I usually give in to temptation and have vanilla ice cream with apple pie.  I never really got the thing with having cheddar with apple pie.  I have always been hit or miss with pie pastry too.  I feel better knowing that someone who does a lot of baking has the same issues.  My mother and grandmother seemed to be able to just throw it together and it always turned out right.  My grandmother was the same way with biscuits.  They were both of a generation that cooked almost every meal from scratch.  They both also came from a very humble background and lived through the depression, they were used to turning out good meals with whatever they had on hand.

I do like having cheddar with apple pie, as long as it's a good cheddar. Nothing grainy. And yeah, I have pastry issues. You would think that I'd get rolling out pie dough, but nope. Can't do it. My pies always look like they've been hit by disaster. They taste good, but they don't look the best. I just do the best I can and get them over with. Apple dumplings, Cornish pasties, anything with a crust. Makes me spastic.

Grandmas are like that. I know my Grandma was the same way. She didn't know the meaning of the words "convenience mix". It was all from scratch. And she didn't do recipes much either. It was all in her head. Nobody will ever bake a sugar cookie that was as good as Grandma's sugar cookies. Apple dumplings and peach dumplings. Pies. You name it, she made it. And it was delicious.

My poor MIL tried and tried to help me with pastry dough. I will never get it right. And I finally decided that life is too short to worry about it. That's what refrigerated pastry dough is for. When I make a pie for dinner and company is coming, I use refrigerated dough. If it's just Rick and me, I slog away with the flour and shortening....and the cussing.  Rick says what Barbara says......vanilla ice cream and nobody cares about the crust!