Wow, we are crawling with apples. Well it is that time of year, when apples are everywhere, so I shouldn’t be so shocked, but it is a little overwhelming. Our neighbors here in the city just went on a road trip and when they got back from visiting family in Idaho they brought back a box of beautiful little green apples for us.

But those apples didn’t end there, we went on our own road trip to the little red house and sure enough there were apples everywhere up there also, plus they were ready to pick. I can’t believe the elk hadn’t gotten to them yet, or maybe there were so many, even the elk couldn’t keep up. We still had those crazy huge store bought apples at home but the little organic homegrown apples are always our top picks.

On the drive up north the forest was filled with a lot of yellow. There are yellow and purple wildflowers everywhere along with apples welcoming the Fall season in.

Driving into town we noticed several signs out that said free apples… enjoy. We didn’t need to be asked twice. We headed to the nearest apple trees and started picking. I am not sure the brand of apples we picked because I forgot to ask but they looked like Fuji apples to me. We now had a nice variety for our pies and homemade apple cider when we got back home.

We ended up with a giant bag full of apples. We told everyone we received apples from to expect hand pies and cider soon. We had some new kitchen gadgets to try out that we had purchased on dollar days at Goodwill for a dollar each. A baby cakes pie maker and an apple peeler…all for the bargain price of $2.

Ingredients you will need for Hand pies

Apples peeled and chopped

• Cinnamon
• Sugar
• Brown sugar
• Confectioners sugar

Pie crust

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• ½ cup butter, chilled and dice
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup of ice water.

In large bowl add flour and salt together. Then cut in butter until mixture looks like crumbs. Stir in ice water a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight. Peel your apples and soak in lemon juice with water for later when you are ready to fill your pies.

Roll out dough and place in pie plate and fill up with apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Don’t forget to poke a couple of holes in the tops of your pies.

When you are done baking your pies sprinkle a little confectioners sugar on top. We used our Baby cakes pie maker, which worked out great, plus our apple peeler was a ton of fun to use and saved us a lot of time.

If you don’t have a little pie maker oven you can fold over your pie crust after filling them with apples and pinch down sides with a fork to seal and bake on a baking dish or in a muffin pan at 350F for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Hope you all get a chance to pick apples from a tree, it should be something every man, woman and child gets a chance to experience in their lifetime. Have fun making some yummy mini pies with your love ones, even if you have to go to the store and buy apples. Don’t forget to share, we all need to pass on some kindness to our neighbors and strangers. The world seems a little tense right now. It doesn’t hurt to spread a little love…so be kind. Thank you to everyone who shared apples with us all, apple cider and hand pies will be headed your way in the near future.

Hope you liked this repost from the past. I got so busy this month with projects that I never found any time to make mini pies from muffin pans. I still want to make them but now I have a Gingerbread house to make. We used to buy the kits but no one ate them, now I make them fresh. Mostly what I have been busy with is trying to update my bedroom and master bath. That was put off for too long. It would be nice to have a new bedroom for Christmas. My budget for this remake is under $100.