Dutch Apple Pie, I surrender to you.

So in this particular instance, I suppose last night my kitchen was my Mama’s kitchen. Or at least it smelled like it. One thing I’ve been basically terrified to try is the wonderful, spicy, crumbly sweet-ness that is Dutch Apple Pie. My mother makes a mean apple pie. Seriously, it’s amazing. For holiday’s she even makes one of my cousin’s a whole pie just for himself, because it’s all he’ll eat (frankly, I don’t blame him). So obviously although I’ve helped make this recipe 1500 times, it’s a bit daunting for me because I’m more then a little afraid I won’t measure up.

Then came the challenge. This last weekend, the Boy and I went to a friends for dinner, and since I had about 10 minutes notice, I just ran to the store and grabbed one of their bakery pies. They didn’t have a ton of choices, so I just grabbed a lemon meringue because it’s fairly generic so usually most every one likes it. Sad day for me,because in this case, that wasn’t so. Our host (or one of two I should say) not only doesn’t like meringue, also not a fan of citrus custard pies. In case you’re keeping track, that makes my store bought pie 0-2.

Now, I basically feel like an a-hole. I know that may not make sense, but I like to feed people. When people don’t eat, it upsets me. So I promised to make him a pie, any pie. Peach? Cherry? Apple? Bam, he wants apple. Alright, what about Dutch Apple? That’s his favorite! Sweet, good I know what to make! And I even have apples from the local orchard!

Tuesday I sat down to make the pie and the little voice in my head started to have a panic attack. I’ve never made a Dutch Apple by myself, let alone using only my memory to (try to) recreate my Mama’s specialty. I may or may not have stopped several times purely to spew a string of obscenities, gather myself back together and continue. Happily for me, Luck was with me and everything came out great. The dough was perfect, the apples were spiced just perfect and the crumble was sweet and buttery.

Lemon Bars

Now I'm not a big lemon custard/curd girl because I'm not a huge tart person. But a friend of mine made lemon bars for the Memorial Day BBQ, and I've been craving them insanely ever since. I was stumbling around the other day and came across Bumbleberry Cakes and was drooling pretty much instantly. And lo and behold, a lemon bar recipe!

I tried to stick to the recipe, I really did. But I accidentally (wear to God) added about 1 1/3 cups of white sugar to the "dough". It didn't seem to affect it too much, but it did seem to make it a bit more of a crumble and less of a dough. However, I liked it and no one else has complained.


BAKE SALE LEMON BARS
Submitted by: Elaine, modified by GOURMETMOMMY (and screwed up by me)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar (this is the part I mussed up so totally optional)

6 eggs
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. Combine the flour, 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 cup white sugar and butter. Pat dough into prepared pan.

3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until slightly golden. While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, white sugar, flour, and lemon juice until frothy. Add 3 drops yellow food coloring. Pour this lemon mixture over the hot crust.

4. Return to the preheated oven for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar. Cut into squares.

On the Prowl: Kid Friendly Eater Treats

I was recently invited to a friend's families annual Good Friday celebration. This involves a lot of different things, but I'm basically planning to spend an entire day at their home. The Boy will probably be in heaven, he loves playing with other kids so an entire day of playing is going to be surreal for him. Lots of things are planned, including an Easter Egg hunt, so it should be fun.

My dilemma is this: it's a potluck style lunch. Normally this would be easy, I have a bazillion potluck-style ideas, and a bunch more I'd like to try. But this one has to be uber kid-friendly, and Easter themed. I have a feeling I'm going to end up being asked to bring "cookies or something". In case you don't remember, I'm not a baker. I'm not that good at it. Period. I can make basic cookies, but when it's time to impress I'm at a loss.

I asked my sister, the "Baker" of our family and she told me to take pita and hummus. I'm sorry, sister say what? Hummus? This is little kids. I need child-proof finger food, preferably dessert-ish. Where did you get hummus?

My mom was also little to no help. Gracie gave me a couple ideas, and so did Lila but I'm generally drawing a blank. I want to do something more creative then sugar cookies, but still simple as I have to perfect it in one night only.

I'm currently obsessed (No, really) with Cake Pops from Bakerella. The possibilities are endless, and Bakerella made some adorable Easter bunny pops that I might be able to handle if I simplify the faces a bit. I'm very aware of what I can and cannot handle, and teeny tiny bunny faces I'm pretty sure falls into the latter. I've been browsing for the pastel candy corn, and have yet to find it so I think I might have to expand the search area.

I also consider making some meringue cookies like these Easter Story Cookies. Having the boy pound pecans and explain that Jesus was beaten is a little further then I'm willing to travel per say, but meringue cookies are my favorite. We have a mint chocolate version my family makes every year at Christmas, so I'm pretty sure I could hack it.

Other then that, I'm pretty well out of ideas. Anyone have any suggestions?