Apple Pie

I have been a SAHW (Stay at Home Wife) for the last 2 weeks after recently getting married. Even though I am eager to start back to work soon, I am enjoying this time off to get used to a new place and to have some well deserved "me time"! The first week at the new apartment was SUPER BUSY! I unpacked a never ending stack of boxes (plus more from wedding gifts) and organized every single drawer in the house...WHEW! However, now things are starting to settle down and I have found that I have some free time on my hands. Perfect time for practicing my cooking skills and finding some "keeper recipes". My husband is lucky that I LOVE to cook and he can play taste tester after work. ;) This year, I have the honor of hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I have used my free time to research recipes and prepare/freeze as many meals ahead of time that can still be good after 2 weeks in a freezer. I am being very ambitious this year and am trying to make everything homemade...we'll see how that goes! My first items I plan on freezing are apple pie filling and pie crusts. Apple pie filling is very easy to make and fairly inexpensive! Justin and I went to an apple orchard a week ago and I got 2 bags of Honey Crisp apples (BOGO Free!). The man said that Honey Crisp (cute name!) apples would work great in an apple pie because they are on the tarter side, but still sweet. Anyways...after 1 week, only 5 apples have been eaten and I'm afraid that they will go bad soon, so I decided to go ahead and make the pie filling and freeze it for Thanksgiving. Here is the recipe:

After peeling and slicing all of the apples...I ended up with almost 9 cups of sliced apples! Whew...it took me about 20 minutes to cut it all with my good knife! After I figured how many apples I had...I adjusted the rest of the ingredients. This recipe will make enough for 2 pies. almost 9 cups of Apples 1 1/2 tablesppons of lemon juice 1 1/3 cup of sugar (original recipe called for 2 cups, but I don't like things super sweet! This amount tasted JUST RIGHT for me, but you can adjust after you taste it.) 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg 4 cups of water After peeling apples, slice with an apple slicer and then cut the apples in half one more time. Toss apples in lemon juice and set aside. With a wisk, mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Boil 4 cups of water in a large saucepan. When it starts to boil add sugar mixture and stir continuously for 2 minutes on high. Reduce heat to low/medium and add apples. Simmer apples covered with a lid for 8-10 minutes until tender (be careful not to cook to much or you'll end up with mushy apples!) Check on the apples every 3 minutes or so to stir. Then all you have to do is transfer apples to a large bowl and wait until they cool. After COMPLETELY cooling, ladle apples into a freezer bag and put in freezer! *BTW Justin approved the apples...he had them as "cinnamon apples" for dinner that night!