What have I started? It's a world of blogs and now I'm a blogger, who would have thought? Not me! But over the years I have met many people that thought it would be a good idea for me to write down the recipes that I have come up with and share them.

I'm not a techy, I'm a foodie, so this blogging thing will be a new learning curve for me, please be patient. I plan to post regularly, but not daily unless I'm on a roll and get really good at this. If you are wondering how the name came about, I live in sunny Alberta, where big blue skies stretch out as far as the eye can see. The apple pie part is there because I make a mean apple pie. Now some people are cooks, other bakers, some are blessed to be both but most people have a preference. I like to cook, I find that I can be more creative when it comes to cooking. Baking seems more of a science to me. Many times I have "played" around with a baking recipe and it flops, but pie is another story. Yes, you first need to make pie dough and that can be tricky, but the trick is to have everything cold and to work quickly so the ingredients do not warm up to room temperature. The filling is the fun part, you can be creative with the ingredients. Because it's apple season and I just bought 2 bags of apples I'll share my favorite Apple Pie recipe. Pie Dough 2 cups flour plus extra for dusting 1/2 tsp salt 2/3 cup cold shortening cut into 1/2 inch cubes 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp vinegar 1-3 tbsp. water (or more depending on how dry your flour is) Place 2 cups flour in large bowl, add salt and mix, add pieces of shortening. Using a pastry blender, fork or your cold hands (I rinse mine under very cold water) cut shortening into flour until it resembles course meal. In a small bowl combine egg, vinegar and 2 tablespoon cold water. Pour into flour and mix quickly but gently with a fork until it just starts to stick together, use more water if necessary and knead very gently about 5-10 times until ingredients just hold together. Dough should not be too dry and crumbly. (Because I live in Alberta where the weather is quite dry my pie dough might need more water than yours.) Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in fridge until filling is made. Apple Pie Filling 1/3 cup white sugar 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1 1/2 tbsp. flour 1/2 tsp.cinnamon 1/4 tsp. nutmeg pinch of ground cloves 1/4 tsp. salt 2 tbsp. butter cut into small dice 6-7 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples Preheat oven to 375F. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, add sliced apples, toss to coat, add butter pieces. Roll out half of the dough to fit into a 8-9 inch pie plate leaving a little excess to hang over the edge. Add Apple filling. Brush edges of dough with a little water. Roll out remaining dough to fit on top of apples. Press together dough at edges then trim and flute as desired. Cut a couple of slits on the top of pie for steam to escape. Glaze with either beaten egg or cream and then sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar. Bake until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbly. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream.