Dutch Apple Pie

 

 We had seven Granny Smith apples left over and when I took a nap this afternoon I was thinking about what to do with them. Apple pie! I know mom made one with a crumbly top which both Bob and I loved. Could I find a recipe that reminded me of it?

 I think I did. Allrecipes had a Dutch Apple Pie that looked just like Mom's.

 It's really a simple recipe and it turned out beautifully. The only instruction I didn't follow was for the parchment paper enclosure. That just seemed extra work. So I left the pie in the open but I cut the baking time to 45 minutes.

 The Granny Smiths are a bit tart and I found they weren't much good for snacking. I bought a bag of them for $5 at Kroger. They seem perfect for this pie. I peeled, cored and sliced each apple into eight sections. I think they look prettier in a pie when they are left as large slices.

 Here's the first mixture of sugar, flour and cinnamon applied. I added the two tablespoons of lemon juice after I took the picture.

 This is the crumble topping applied. It's just sugar, flour and butter cut in to make it crumbly. I remember mom adding bits of butter to her topping.

 The end result is a pie any bakery would be proud to offer. What would this cost? A quick search says the average cost of a whole apple pie now runs $25 to $47! This one cost next to nothing.

 So how is it? It's really wonderful. Tom isn't a fan of cinnamon and this uses just half a teaspoon for the entire pie. It's really an excellent apple pie and one I'll return to whenever I find a deal on apples.

Chasing a Comet

  Every time I hear of a new  comet, my friend, Jim, and I, get on the hunt. This one - C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) - has been particularly elusive. Neither I nor Jim (who lives in Florida) had caught even a glimpse of it.

 Until last night.

 It's been far too dim for us to see with our eyes and neither my camera nor my cell phone had shown it in any of the pictures I began taking on 09/02. That represents about six weeks of trying.

 The comet neared the Earth on 10/21. It'll round the sun on 11/08. It's about as close - and as bright - as it's likely to get. So where was it?

 People have been posting gorgeous shots of it. But they have expensive cameras and high-end telescopes. Jim and I were working with eyes, binoculars, cameras and cell phones.

 Finally, last night at 8:10 pm, I got this shot:

 The comet is at the center top, slightly right. I knew it as soon as I saw it. The first photo in this blog is cropped from this shot.

 I've seen better comets through the years. Comet Hale-Bopp was simply incredible and will likely be the best comet I'll see in my lifetime. I saw Comet PanSTARRS in 2023. In 2020, NEOWISE, In 2021 Leonard. And just last year I saw Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). I've also had plenty of near-misses through the years.

 Lemmon is one of the worst of the bunch. I was beginning to think it was a ghost. But last evening I was convinced it was real.

 I found it by using Staellarium so I could see the constellation it would be in and also nearby stars. Both Alphecca (sometimes Alphekka) and Izar were my guides. I didn't see the comet even when I knew where it should be. I relied on the light-gathering power of my camera and cell phone to bring it up out of the light pollution.

 I also used SkyMap, an Android program on my phone, to locate the guide star (the first noted above).

 And  I used commercial material to help locate it. But most helpful was my planetarium program, Stellarium.

 All of the nights I've stood outside peering at the sky have been enjoyable, although disappointing. I'd see views such as this:

 But the final reward after so much time and effort was to finally find this shot on my cell phone:

 So, one more captured ...

 

 

Fall Clean-up

 Tom bought a new wet/dry vacuum yesterday and today he put it to good use, thoroughly cleaning both my car  and his truck.

 Though Tom admits I keep the outside of my car almost spotless, I spend less time with the inside. So today the Chevy Cruze got the most thorough vacuuming ever. While he was doing that, I removed all the floormats, washed them with soap,  rinsed them off with a hose and laid them out to dry in the autumn sunshine.

 We had a 69° high and endless sunshine for our afternoon cleaning. There was only the slightest breeze and the humidity was pleasantly low. Tom even vacuumed out my trunk.

 Then he turned to his Chevy Silverado and attacked the carpets just as thoroughly as my car.

 I took a wet cloth and washed up spots on the seat covers and the door frames. Tom did likewise.

 We had supervision. Miss Parker watched from the garage.

 How much longer can this weather last?

Black Walnut Time

  This is the time of year when walking paths are littered with black walnuts which create a walking risk and actually stain concrete. Millie's lane is a good example. I have to watch my step when I make my rounds or I could easily have a turned ankle.

 I noticed the first substantial fall after our recent heavy rain (10/07 - 08). Dead limbs follow the same schedule. It does not take wind to bring them down, merely a steady rain.

 The Eastern  Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) are one of those native trees that require no care. They produce a bountiful crop whether in a cared-for lawn or an abandoned field.

 I remember carrying pocketful's of these home and drying them on a sheet of newspaper placed on a bench in our garage. Mom was then the one that picked out the meat. She saved us a lot of money through the years volunteering for this task. The nut is dense and convoluted and the meats are not easy to remove.

 Tom found that occasionally Ollie's carries bags of these shelled nuts at a very attractive prices. Consequently he bought many bags years ago and I'm still use them (they seem to stay fresh). 

 This is a strong-tasting nut, one I've found people either love or hate. I like to use them in chocolate chip cookies.

 Nature has produced a bounty this year. I've noticed great quantities of acorns, too. Do they follow the same schedule?

Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings

  I don't usually post recipes when I don't plan on making them again. But I figured I'd make a few notes and avoid the same mistakes next time.

 For example  these Old-Fashioned Apple Dumplings.

 They looked pretty good coming out of the oven!  The sauce is boiling beside each dumpling and the scent of apples and cinnamon is heavenly.

 After assembly, the apples are wrapped in a commercial dough ... but it can't easily cover the entire  apple. Plus the sheets, once cut, are not square on one side. It's a bit of a mess trying to get the dough wrapped around the apple.

 Plus, once the butter is plugged into the hole left from coring the apple, where is there room for brown sugar? And the cinnamon and nutmeg must simply be sprinkled atop. It's not an easy procedure all around.

 The baked dumplings are a bit of a mess. The dough simply does not bake well in all the sauce. And there's way too much sauce for this recipe.

 They're pretty enough in the late-day sunshine streaming in the kitchen door. I served Tom and I each one during the early evening and found they don't remove from the pan very easily ... and certainly not in on piece. Tom had his with a dip of vanilla ice cream. He pronounced then "good".

 In my opinion the taste is OK but they're far too much work for the result.

 Note: I've made this recipe before and with better results. But I think I need to avoid it in the future.