Apples and Bananas!

I had planned on picking up Gooser after school and going out for lunch--but he didn't want to--he wanted to stay home. Okay by me! I told him we would stay home and have a baking day instead.

Since I have ten million apples taking over my kitchen, I decided to something about it and bake a pie. But I wanted an easy pie. I know how to make a decent pie crust--but I didn't want to get into all that today--peeling and slicing the apples is work enough.

So I searched the Interwebs and I came up with something quick and easy. The one I found had a crust recipe--but I bypassed that for my frozen Pillsbury one. The cool thing about this pie is that it didn't have a crust on top--but more of a crumble.

Stop the presses! Even with the store-bought crust, I think it's the best apple pie I've ever had! It was crazy delicious!!!

Here's the recipe--I'm not even including the crust part--just thaw out a deep dish Pillsbury crust and save yourself the trouble.

The Easiest and Best Apple Pie on the Internets

6 Fuji apples, cored and sliced ***I used a combination of different apples and I thinly sliced them.
3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

To Make Filling: Mix together 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle over apples and toss to coat. Spread evenly in unbaked pie shell.

To Make Topping: Using a pastry cutter, mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar and butter until evenly distributed and crumbly in texture. Sprinkle over apples.

Put pie in the oven on a cookie sheet to catch the juices that may spill over. Bake 45 minutes. **

**I think I baked mine longer than 45 minutes. I wanted the crumbly stuff on top to get nice and brown--so I left it in longer, Also, every now and then I kind of pushed the crumbly stuff around with a spoon to coat it a little with the apple juices.

Here is my baby:

THEN--as if that wasn't enough--I also made cookies. But not just any cookies--BANANA cookies. Made with real bananas. Because in addition to having ten million apples, I have quite a few bananas-- and some of them were running out of time.

This recipe is from my friend, Steph, and these are also crazy delicious! Thanks Steph!!

Frosted Banana Cookies

3/4 C butter flavored shortening ***I used butter and it worked fine!!
3/4 C brown sugar
2 mashed bananas
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 C flour

Cream shortening (or butter!) and sugar. Add egg, vanilla, bananas, and beat well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to banana mixture. Mix well. Drop onto greased cookie sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes at 325 degrees.

Frosting

1/2 C butter
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C milk
1 3/4 C powdered sugar

Melt butter and add brown sugar and bring to a boil. Add 1/4 cup milk and bring to a boil again. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Frost cookies while frosting is still warm.

Hello luvah!

The frosting is sort of caramely--so really they're banana-caramel cookies!

Batman loved them and Andy said they were "da bomb."

So if you have some apples and bananas around--now you know what to do with them. Get to work!