American as Apple Pie

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July! Work has been extremely busy for my husband and I lately, so it was nice to have a day off and have a bit of a slower pace. Speaking of being busy...you may have noticed that I've been a bit MIA on the blog lately. I recently started a new job, and life has just gotten a bit busier. But, I've got some cake projects coming up, and some new recipes to try out! Plus, I have some projects that I've never had a chance to share yet. My goal is to pick things back up again, starting with a new recipe I made for the 4th of July. 

As I mentioned, my husband and I had a relaxing day including a picnic and a cookout. The weather was perfect on the 4th and we enjoyed a beautiful picnic. We had received an adorable picnic basket for a wedding pleasant, complete with silverware, plates, a cooler area, and a cute blanket. We enjoyed pasta salad I made, chips, sandwiches, and some freshly squeezed lemonade in our mason jar cups!

We did a small cookout that night with our new grill. I wanted to make something festive for dessert. As long time readers of my blog know, I typically stick with cakes and cupcakes, but I decided nothing quite says 4th of July and Americana quite like apple pie. As if that wasn't patriotic enough, I decided to add a unique twist by using stars cutout of the crust on top.

You probably haven't been reading my blog since it started, but if so you may remember my rough start with apple pie... I used the same pie and recipe, though, as I did with my more successful Mickey themed apple pie last year. Thankfully, it turned out well again. The only thing was I should have started out with foil covering the pie. Since there wasn't as much crust, the edges got dark pretty quickly. After noticing this, I carefully covered it with foil and slowed down that process.

I used the same recipe as before, but I'm sharing it again. This pie could be used for lots of occasions, but is definitely fitting for a celebration of America's birthday.

 Apple Pie ingredients:

• 1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts in the box)
• 6 medium apples, peeled and thinly sliced (~6 cups)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbs lemon juice

Apple Pie directions:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Wash, peel, and thinly slice the apples

• Mix together the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon)

• Toss the apples in lemon juice and then the dry ingredient mixture

• Place one crust in a pie pan

• Fill with apples
• Roll out crust and cut out stars using a cookie cutter

• Place stars on top of the filling

• Dot the top of the stars/pie crust with butter and add a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg
• Bake 45-50 mins, carefully cover the edge of the pie with a strip of foil halfway through baking