Best Day Ever Challenge 9/28 – 10/4
Weekly Challenge
9/28 - 10/4
Secret to the Best Apple Pie
We’re moving into apple season and superstar chef Thomas Keller has some tips!
His hot tip for baking the perfect apple pie is controversial. Keller says to incorporate both diced and grated apples into your filling. “The grated apple cooks quickly and consistently, allowing for excess liquid to evaporate and resulting in an applesauce texture with just the right amount of moisture. Alternatively the diced apple provides a textural contrast.”
When you consider how prone the bottom crust of apple pie is to getting soft and soggy from water leaching out from the fresh apples, this trick makes a lot of sense. Grated apples have significantly more surface area exposed, which means moisture inside the fruit is able to evaporate at a higher rate in the oven compared to larger-sized apple pieces. Combining the two sizes helps preserve the textural contrast between the crust and filling (and we all know a grated apple pie would be less than ideal). You’ll still be biting into a sweet, tender-cooked apple chunk—it just won’t be encased in mushy, limp pie crust. Keller recommends using a 1:1 ratio of grated to diced apples.
A Covid Holiday Reality Check!
This weeks tip is about the realities of shopping these days; what’s available, prices and raising shipping costs.
Our changing retail experience and dramatic halts in manufacturing means the holiday season could look very different this year. Manufacturing as a whole was completely shut down for weeks world wide in the first and second quarter of the year as we saw both luxury brands like Rolex and Louis Vuitton and more common brands like Levi’s halt production completely. Many companies and retailers are struggling to get their orders made and delivered.
As a result, we are seeing empty shelves, less variety, lower stock levels and sparse retails experiences.; if the stores are even opened. This is sure to be the same or worse for the Holidays.
In addition to low and no stock issues, we should all be planning on more expensive shipping with longer delivery times. Two day and overnight delivery on high demand items may simply not exist. We have to plan better.
So there are two things we should be doing to prepare for the Holidays.
1. Start shopping early this year to insure optimum inventory, timely delivery and lower prices. High demand and scarcity is what causes price increases.
2. Shop for used and 2nd hand goods. The resale market is booming. Quite often when you can’t find something from a retailer, you can find a “gently loved” version on a resale site. Don’t be afraid to buy and gift a resold item. As products become harder to get, a used version is sure to be cherished gold.
So start your holiday planning and shopping extra extra early this year. It’s a small step to keeping things a little normal in these unusual times.
You can do this!
Andy Paige
Easy Apple Dip
Just a few ingredients and you’ll have one of the YUMMIEST apple dips ever! You kids will definitely eat more apples!
2 TBS Vanilla yogurt
1 TBS Peanut Butter
Sprinkle of Cinnamon
1 Apple
Mix first 3 ingredients together. Dip apple slices in.
For ALL my Cookin With Brook recipes, click here!
The Advantium Oven from Gerrit’s Appliance is so great! I love mine!
Removing Blood from Carpet
It’s bloody nose season! Here’s a great way to remove blood from your carpet.
Mix one teaspoon of dishwashing (regular dishsoap, not automatic dishwasher detergent) with two cups of cold water. Take a clean, white cloth and dip it in the detergent solution you just mixed. Blot directly on the bloodstain, repeatedly. Blot do not scrub!
Best Day Ever Challenge 9/21 – 9/27
Weekly Challenge
9/21 - 9/27
