More Fall Cooking

The garden produced very little usable produce this year. I didn't give it much opportunity and the blight took most of what it had, but there was one surprise that showed up in August.
The plant that this watermelon came from didn't even have many flowers on it, and none of them amounted to anything - or so I thought.
FabHub found this watermelon just sitting out there doing nothing but growing. He let it grow until there was a threat of frost made him go out and pick it.

It didn't have much color or flavor, but it wasn't bad.

After my last Upside Down Apple Pecan pie adventure I decided to buy some real pie apples and try another pie and maybe a few canned apple recipes.
I made a normal pie last night (Friday 2 Oct) while FabHub was chaperoning a school dance. It ended up getting eaten by FabHub and the crew working on his brothers porch roof today.
The second pie is described below and the other recipe I decided to make is in the jars in this picture.

It is called Apple Pie Jam. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks like it may be best used warmed up and on top of pancakes, waffles, ice cream or something like that. I was probably supposed to chop up the apples more than I did, but it looks interesting.
I think I messed up the first batch. I was supposed to boil the Sure-Jell and then add the sugar, but I added everything at once.
The second batch looks thicker, but since everything floated - well apples, sugar, and cinnamon it can't be bad.

The second upside down pie got the special treatment. I decided to not use a Jif pie crust mix like usual since they don't seem to stretch far enough anymore.

I mixed up a nice pie crust the hard way. Shortening, flour, water, and a bunch of work with the pastry blender.

The pie starts with pecans, brown sugar, and butter in the bottom of a pie pan. I put the wax paper under it all to keep that mix from sticking. Then the 'top' pie crust goes on. Remember this is upside down pie.

After I get that all prepared I work on the apples. I would do them first, but they brown so quickly it seems better to get everything else done first.
These are the apples that went into the pie. Two Galas, two Macintosh, and two Jonagold. A nice mix of sweet and tart. Next to them is the peeler waiting to attack.

Here they are losing their peels. The peeler is great, it peels, cores, and slices all in a few cranks.
The only problem with that peeler is that it is really messy to use on the counter top like that. I need a different set up that lets the peels go straight into a bowl or something. Back on the Minnesota farm I remember the apple peeler was clamped to the side of the table and the peels fell straight into a 5 gallon bucket. The pigs got all of those I think. I put these into a freezer bag until I have a big bunch so that I can make apple jelly with them.

Back to the pie making.
After the apples are mixed with sugar and cinnamon they go in the crust. The 'bottom' crust is put on top. This is the worst pie crust sealing job in the world.

After the pie comes out of the oven I pulled off the wax paper.

This pie looks a lot different from the first one.

It is on a flat serving plate, which helps, but since the apples didn't mush it is holding up pretty well. Even with that horrible crust. It tastes pretty good though.

So anyway, that is what I did today instead of running a 5k. How about you?