Old Fashioned Apple Pie

 
"After Apple-Picking"
By Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Cook's Notes: This year's apple picking couldn't have been easier. My neighbor picked from her tree and all I had to do was come and pick up a bag.  An Old Fashioned Apple Pie was the perfect way to celebrate a lovely fall afternoon. Rejoice in the small things in life.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie 

Ingredients:

• 5 large tart apples peeled and chopped into chunks.
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon Saigon cinnamon or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon butter
• Refrigerated pie crusts or prepare your own pie crust dough

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon and apple pie spice.
• Add in apple chunks and mix well. 
• Roll out one crust on a floured wax paper sheet and line the bottom of a pie pan with the dough.
• Place apple mixture in pie pan and top with butter.
• Add a top crust and crimp edges.
• Using a pastry brush lightly brush top of the crust with milk.
• Mix a little cinnamon with sugar and sprinkle on top of the crust.
• With a sharp knife cut 4 vents (a V) in the center of the dough top.
• Add foil strips around edges of pie pan to prevent over browning. 
• Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 and cook 25-30 minutes longer. or until juices are bubbling inside the open vents.  
• Cool before cutting.