CHERRY'S Cherry pie

This was what I made Noah for Valentines day. His favorite pie is cherry (even though it came from a can anyway, its the winter there's no way I'm finding fresh cherries) but the crust is homemade. It was actually pretty good. I realized that this pie was hard to cut with the design I made (and have the pieces still look nice). I was tempted to just take a fork to it and eat! Next time I'll do the crust a little different.





The last two pictures were right before I put it in the oven.

Pizza: Man's #1 choice of food

So here are some pictures, before and after they were cooked. Noah did the pepperoni. I like my pizza soft, he likes it crispy. I like thin crust, he likes thick, stuffed crust pizza. Noah eats a whole pizza and is still hungry...How do we solve this? By making 2 pizzas! Mine didn't look as good as Noah's so I didn't even post them. Just kidding, mine is at the bottom.



*NOTE: We make pizza every Sunday, its a Ruggieri tradition passed on through the generations! It's actually really fun and doesn't take a lot of time. I'll include a good sauce recipe I like. I love spices! Also every time we make this pizza it looks better than the last time. It just takes trial and error. We also use mozzarella sticks to make the stuffed crust.

PIZZA SAUCE
Ingredients

* 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
* 6 fluid ounces warm water
* 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
* 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
* 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes or powder (you can add more if you like it spicier or even cayenne pepper, but I don't like that)
* salt to taste



Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Click here for the pizza dough recipe.

Apple Pie w/delicious pie crust

This pie recipe is really great. From start to finish it took me about 30 minutes. I did everything (pie crust and filling) while Noah peeled, cut, and cored the apples and we got done around the same time (of course Noah was watching TV at the same time, so maybe it wouldn't have taken so long!). I always like using fresh fruit rather than canned because I feel like it just tastes so much better. Sometimes those canned recipes are sour and the fruit looks discolored, just grosses me out personally.

I got the pie crust recipe from our friends Matt and Shannon who got it from a ward pie-making activity, it came from Sister Duda. This recipe originally was made for 10 pies but Shannon revised it to 2 crusts. It is the best pie crust I've tasted and relatively easy.





Here it is:
PIE CRUST
4 cups all purpose flour
1 3/4 C vegetable shortening (I use margarine, it has better flavor)
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 T vinegar
1 egg
1/2 cup water

With a fork mix together the first four ingredients. In a separate dish beat the remaining ingredients. Combine two mixtures stirring with a fork until all ingredients are moistened. Blend with hands, fold dough into ball. Chill at least 15 minutes before rolling into desired shape.
Can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in fridge for 3 days or freezed indefinitely.
Makes 2 9" double crust pies and 1 single crust pie.

*NOTE: Noah's dad is the best at pies and probably anything involving baking. He gave me the tip to put down ice or icecube trays on the counter. Its good to chill the counter and the dough before rolling it out. Also always put butter in the pie before putting on the pie crust. It helps with the flavor. I also put on "raw sugar" which is like brown sugar crystals. Its good to put that on the crust when its 10 minutes from being cooked. And if you start to notice the edge of the crust browning before the rest of the pie is done its good to put foil along the edges, that'll keep it from browning more.

We also had leftover dough and apple pie filling so we decided to make mini pies out of it. I will add that Noah made the cute design, he's actually a perfectionist when it comes to these things!