Get 20 Pounds of Apples for Christmas?

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Make pie!

20 Pounds of Apples

Got apples?

The box arrived yesterday via UPS. The labeling all over the box said, “Washington State Apples,” but I couldn’t believe it. Surely this big box couldn’t be full of apples! But when I checked the return address to see the sender, I knew it was: they’d been sent by one of my cherry drying clients from this past summer. Like most cherry growers, he probably has apple trees, too.

Fuji apples, to be exact.

The last time I had this many apples in my home was years and years ago, when I still lived in New Jersey. In those days, we’d go apple picking in New York State, just over the border. We’d make a day of it and pick too many apples to eat. I remember making apple pie, apple sauce, and apple butter. I remember being sick of apples. The year that we let a bag of apples go bad in the basement was the last year we went apple picking.

My husband’s comment when he realized that we’d just received 20 pounds of apples: “What are we going to do with them all?”

Make pie, of course.

Making apple pie isn’t difficult — if you cheat. Cheating means buying prepared pie crusts. Making pie dough, rolling it out, and lining the pie pan is 75% of the work in making fresh apple pie. If you get someone else to do it for you — like Mr. Pillsbury or Marie Callender — all you have to do is peel and cut up the apples, mix them with sugar and spice, pour them into the pie pans, and cover them up with another piece of prepared pie crust.

And if you’re like me, you probably can’t make a decent tasting pie crust anyway. It’s better to let the experts do it.

Here’s my recipe for the filling:

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons flour
  • 5-6 large, firm apples (they’re supposed to be “tart” but I always use whatever I have handy, especially when I have 20 pounds to use up)
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Pie under constructionInstructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
  2. Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry dough.
  3. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
  4. Peel, core, and slice the apples.
  5. Toss the apples in the sugar mixture until well coated.
  6. Pile the apples in the pie pan.
  7. Dot with butter.
  8. Cover the pieCover the pie with another sheet of pastry dough. Crimp the edges and cut vents in the top. (I usually cut in a pattern or design; I did cherries this time in honor of the apple sender.)
  9. Bake 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake about 30-40 minutes longer or until the apples are tender when pierced with a skewer and the crust is browned.

If you’re using a “deep dish” pie crust/pan, you’ll probably need more apples.

Apple Pie

It smells way better than it looks.

Here’s what the finished product looks like. I’m not sure about this Pillsbury pie crust — it almost looks as if it melted over the apples. I’ll try Marie Callender next. And maybe some phyllo dough after that for a more strudel-like result.

After all, there are a lot of apples in my fridge and garage. I figured I’d just make apple pie every time we ran out it, until we ran out of apples.

Why (and How) I’m Thinning Out My Library

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And how you can help.

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to start downsizing and simplifying my life. I want to spend more of the year traveling, experiencing more of what this whole country has to offer — rather than what’s around me in Wickenburg or Phoenix. I’m hoping that my travels will help me find the place I want to retire to. I know that neither Wickenburg nor Phoenix is that place.

As George Carlin says, “Your house is a pile stuff with a cover on it.”

I’ve been in my Wickenburg home for 12 years and have accumulated at least 12 years worth of “stuff.” Since I’m addicted to books, a lot of that stuff is books. I have a library of about 500 books spread out over three rooms and lots of shelves. I’ve read many — but sadly, not all — of these books. They cover many of the topics that interest me now — and have interested me over the past 20 or more years. Not much of it is fiction — I tend to use libraries for that these days, since I usually don’t read a novel more than once.

A lot of my library consists of reference books: books I consult — or think I need to consult — for my work or hobbies. For example, I have at least 75 books about writing and at least 40 about flying helicopters. I have books about horses and parrots and aquarium fish — the pets I’ve owned over the years. (We don’t need a book about dogs; we’ve learned through experience.) I have books about Web design and software programs and operating systems. I have books about business and philosophy. I have travel books about places all over the U.S., South America, Europe, and even Australia.

And, of course, I have the coffee table books I’ve gotten as gifts, most of which are beautiful but poor matches for my interests.

Thinning out my library seemed a good place to start thinning out my stuff. So I did what I usually do when I want to sell a book — I listed a bunch of them on Amazon.com.

Listing a book for sale on Amazon.com is very easy — as long as you have the ISBN. Just enter the ISBN in a form field and Amazon displays the book. You indicate the book’s condition, set a price, and choose shipping options. Amazon then lists it as another “Buying Choice” in the right column of the page where the book is listed and described.

A long time ago, I bought a used book on Amazon.com through a “marketplace” seller. The book was described as used in “Used – Very Good” condition. But when the book arrived, I found it full of underlining. I wigged out and contacted the seller. They refunded the payment; I returned the book. The whole experience left a sour taste in my mouth that took several years to wear off.

Since then, however, I’ve bought other books through marketplace sellers. The first after that bad experience was Drood, a novel. The book is enormous — 784 pages — and Amazon was selling it for well over $20 at the time. But someone else was selling it for $8 in “Used – Like New” condition. I took a gamble. The book, when it arrived, was indeed like new. I’ve since bought a few other books this way.

The drawback to buying from Amazon.com Marketplace sellers is that the books never qualify for “Free Super Saver Shipping.” You have to pay shipping for each book you buy. But if you’re saving $10 on a book, you’re still ahead if you spend another $3.99 for shipping.

Anyway, I currently have 57 books listed on Amazon.com’s Marketplace for sale. All of the books are in new or excellent condition — I treat my books very kindly. (The idea of writing in a book appalls me, although I know it’s common.) I’ve priced them to sell, meaning they’re usually the lowest price for a new or used book. The main goal is to unload them without cost — not to make a fortune selling books.

I’ve only gone though about 10% of my library, so many more will be listed over the coming weeks. I expect to list at least 400 books between now and March month-end.

Help me reduce my stuff — check out the list of books and if you want one, buy it from Flying M Productions.

R44 Helicopters Featured in Movie Poster

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Low budget production?

We attempted to see Avatar in 3D yesterday at the local AMC movie theater. There weren’t 2 seats together in the entire theater, so we got a refund and left. I’m not paying $25 to watch a 2-1/2 hour movie sitting in crap seats halfway across the theater from my husband.

Movie Poster for The Spy Next DoorAnyway, outside the theater were movie posters for coming attractions, including this one for an upcoming Jackie Chan movie called The Spy Next Door. And it doesn’t take a helicopter expert to recognize all three helicopters in the poster are R44s.

This is the first time I can remember seeing a Robinson helicopter in a movie poster.

Eventually, we’ll see the movie. I don’t think we’ll see it in theaters. Frankly, it doesn’t look very good — just the usual family farce. We like Jackie Chan — his comic style of martial arts fighting was showcased perfectly in the first Rush Hour movie — but goofy slapstick turns me off and I have a hunch this flick will be full of it. (Gotta keep the kids entertained, after all.) We’ll see it when it hits Netflix.

R44s in Poster

Detail from poster. With a tag line like this, I’m not likely to rush out and see the movie.

Mike and I were wondering why R44s are featured in the poster (and likely, the movie). Let’s face it: they don’t look nearly as slick as some of the turbine helicopters that usually appear in movies. Mike thinks they needed several helicopters for the movie and R44s were a good low budget alternative.

I’m thinking that depending on how the helicopters are used — or abused — it might be good exposure for Robinson products.

I’m pleased to see R44s so prominently displayed on the poster. I’m just hoping they belong to the good guys and don’t end up as fireballs — as so many movie helicopters do.

Helicopter Sugar Cookies

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Bake your own fleet. They’re good to eat.

Helicopter CookiesToday, I made sugar cookies in the shape of helicopters for my cherry drying clients. It was a lot of work, but worth it. The cookies came out great and I think my clients will get a chuckle when they see them.

The recipe is my grandfather’s recipe for sugar cookies. He owned a bakery in New Jersey when I was growing up. My mother got the recipe from him and passed it on to me years ago. You can make the cookies in any shape you like.

Here’s the recipe. It may be doubled.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 lb (1 stick) butter or margarine
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • white of 1 egg, beaten (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Cream butter and sugar in mixer.
  3. Add egg, vanilla, and milk. Beat well.
  4. Sift together dry ingredients and add gradually to butter mixture.
  5. Knead in extra flour if necessary to produce a firm batter.
  6. Roll out the DoughRoll batter out to 1/4 inch thickness on floured board.
  7. Cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet.
  8. If desired, brush tops with egg white.
  9. Bake until golden brown (not more than 10 minutes).
  10. Cool on wire rack.

Yields 2 dozen cookies or fewer (depending on shape and size of cutter).

I added sprinkles before baking. My helicopter is red and I wanted to make the connection.

Natural Food Hypocrites

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People who make a show of buying “organic” and “natural” but still eat junk.

My husband Mike and I eat very well. We buy a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and eat relatively little processed foods. We don’t eat much fast food at all. When we cook, our foods are usually grilled or steamed or pan-sauteed. We don’t fry.

We don’t go out of our way to buy organic. We don’t see the benefit. If the organic apples are on sale and they’re cheaper than the regular apples, we’ll buy organic. And since we do a lot of shopping in Trader Joe’s near our Phoenix place, we wind up buying organic there, since much of what they sell is organic. But it’s also cheap and tasty.

I’m pretty much in agreement with what Brian Dunning has said in his Skeptoid podcast about organic food myths and organic vs. conventional agriculture. (And if you don’t listen to Skeptoid, you should try it; it’s a great weekly dose of reality.)

That said, I still try not to put crap food in my body. But I’m not one of those people who talk the talk about good food and forget to walk the walk.

We have several friends and relatives who are what I call “natural food hypocrites.” They buy “organic” everything — no matter how bad it looks or tastes or how much it costs. When they come to our home, they expect us to buy and serve them organic, too. When we go out to dinner together, they question the source of the chicken or beef and make a big fuss about choosing something that’s free range or farm fed or whatever.

Unless it’s just not convenient for them. Or they feel like having a diet soda. Or want to cut 16 calories off their cup of coffee by using Sweet ‘N Low. Or the guy at the next table in the Mexican restaurant they didn’t want to step foot into just had the Chicken Enchilada and it smells good. Or that chocolate mousse log from the supermarket freezer section looks too damn tasty to pass up.

They’ll put us through hell when they come to visit, making us feel as if we’re not good hosts if we buy regular milk instead of organic while they’re with us, but pop open a Diet Coke to wash down their vitamins with lunch.

Natural food hypocrites.