Apparently it takes me a whole week to post recipes for a single dinner. How do people post everything before or on the actual day? How? Do you test everything in advance? Or maybe it's pictures from previous years? Or perhaps you are superwoman/man? Whatever the method...color me impressed. But I will be content with bringing up the rear. Bring up the rear with pies, even! At our turkey day dinner...there is always pie. Pies. Plural. The dinner is NOT complete without at least a Pumpkin pie and a Pecan pie. At. Least. There is usually at least one more pie...and occasionally even another type of dessert thrown in. This year we ended up with 4 pies. Grandma already said she was bringing the pumpkin and pecan...so I was left coming up with the alternate. Many years that ends up being a Bourbon Sweet Potato pie...which is a favorite or Apple w/ a Cheddar crust, a favorite as well...but this year, when I was blog surfing, I happened upon a scrumptious looking beauty from Ingrid over at 3 B's! I knew the minute I saw it that this would be the one to try this year. Ingrid's pie called for a store-bought Pillsbury pie crust. While I usually like to make my own pie crust, I'm not averse to using store-bought ones. Sometimes convenience is key. And as fate would have it, I was recently contacted by Pillsbury...concerning their pie crust. Coinkeydink? I think not. And in tracing back the origins of Ingrid's pie, I found the original...of all places...on the Pillsbury website. It was definitely meant to be. More about Pillsbury (and a giveaway) at the end of this post.
Upside Down Apple Pie
adapted from a recipe originally seen at 3 B's...which she saw and adapted from Tidy Mom and Noble Pig...which came from Pillsbury
1 c. nuts I used pecans and chopped hazelnuts
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
6 Tbs. butter, melted
1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (double crust)
4 large Granny Smith apples, peel, core & slice
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
zest and juice of 1 lemon
couple pinches ginger
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place nuts in bottom of a 9" pie plate. Combine butter and brown sugar and add to pie plate...spread well over bottom. 
Cover with one pie crust.
Prepare your apples then toss with remaining ingredients. Let sit for 15 minutes. Pour into bottom crust. 
Place 2nd pie crust over the filling and tuck edges of top crust under bottom. Crimp as you wish. Cut a couple of slits in top for venting. 
Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and continue cooking for about 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it fresh out of the oven because friends showed up at the door right at this point and I lost my head for a bit. Place a serving plate w/ a slight rim upside down over the pie and quickly flip the whole pie over. 
Once the pie was completely cool, I covered it and kept it on the counter overnight (made it a day in advance). And this is what it looked like once sliced. 
It was good...everybody liked it. I don't think it's going to beat out the cheddar-crusted apple...but it'll probably show up again sometime. I also told you I'd share the rest of the pie recipes. By now you've seen that our dinner on that day is pretty traditional...and when grandma makes the pies, she uses the traditional recipes...in other words, Libby's and Karo. I usually change them up a little, but some people tend to gripe, so. Fine. Whatever. Of course, when I make the RumRunner Pecan Pies, people seem to be just fine with those. And now I'm realizing that I'm going to have 3 pie recipes to enter in the future.
Pumpkin Pie
Libby's recipe
Upside Down Apple Pie
adapted from a recipe originally seen at 3 B's...which she saw and adapted from Tidy Mom and Noble Pig...which came from Pillsbury
1 c. nuts I used pecans and chopped hazelnuts
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
6 Tbs. butter, melted
1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (double crust)
4 large Granny Smith apples, peel, core & slice
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
zest and juice of 1 lemon
couple pinches ginger
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place nuts in bottom of a 9" pie plate. Combine butter and brown sugar and add to pie plate...spread well over bottom. 
Cover with one pie crust.
Prepare your apples then toss with remaining ingredients. Let sit for 15 minutes. Pour into bottom crust. 
Place 2nd pie crust over the filling and tuck edges of top crust under bottom. Crimp as you wish. Cut a couple of slits in top for venting. 
Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and continue cooking for about 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it fresh out of the oven because friends showed up at the door right at this point and I lost my head for a bit. Place a serving plate w/ a slight rim upside down over the pie and quickly flip the whole pie over. 
Once the pie was completely cool, I covered it and kept it on the counter overnight (made it a day in advance). And this is what it looked like once sliced. 
It was good...everybody liked it. I don't think it's going to beat out the cheddar-crusted apple...but it'll probably show up again sometime. I also told you I'd share the rest of the pie recipes. By now you've seen that our dinner on that day is pretty traditional...and when grandma makes the pies, she uses the traditional recipes...in other words, Libby's and Karo. I usually change them up a little, but some people tend to gripe, so. Fine. Whatever. Of course, when I make the RumRunner Pecan Pies, people seem to be just fine with those. And now I'm realizing that I'm going to have 3 pie recipes to enter in the future.
Pumpkin Pie
Libby's recipe
Pecan Pie
Karo syrup recipe
Kentucky Pecan Pie (Chocolate Pecan)
grandma got this recipe from one of her sisters...pretty sure it was just the "regular" pumpkin pie recipe with chocolate chips (~4 oz) thrown into the filling.
So...pie. I love my pie. That sounds kinda dirty. Since I love my pie, when Pillsbury contacted me and asked if I'd like to join them in getting the word out about their refrigerated pie crust...I was more than happy to oblige. As I said, I actually really enjoy making my own crust, but I know that that is not the case for everybody. And sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly lazy or just rushed, I actually like to find a ready made crust in my fridge or freezer. Pillsbury has lots of great ideas and recipes here! So, what am I doing to spread the pie love? I am having a giveaway! Yup, Pillsbury sent me 4 great Love the Pie! t-shirts. One to keep and 3 to share. My daughter quickly claimed the small one, but I have 2 Large and 1 Medium all ready to send to 3 readers! Cute, huh?
If you'd like to win one of the t-shirts, simply:
-Leave me a comment telling me which pie from the Pillsbury site you'd be most likely to try (and which size you'd like M or L).
For additional entries, simply:
-Follow or subscribe to my blog and leave a separate comment letting me know (with preferred size).
-Follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway by linking to this post and referencing @girlichef and #giveaway in the text. Come back and leave a separate comment (with preferred size).
Yup, that's 3 chances for you to be sporting one of these cute t-shirts. Please remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. Deadline for entering will be Thursday, December 10 at 11:59 Eastern time. Winners will be announced over the next day or so.
Love the Pie!
.jpg)
