Cheese and Apple Pie

We had left-over apple pie after Thanksgiving dinner this year (which never lasts very long around here) and I was struck by the memory of a savory slice of pie that I had in Abilene several weeks prior with my church family at Minter Lane. My good friend Anna Jane, who lived with her husband for several years in England, baked a pie that had cheese in the crust and said it was a British tradition to have cheese and apple pie. I figured it made perfect sense to me since many people enjoy fresh fruit and cheese. She also mentioned that apple pie with a melted slice of cheese on it would be a good breakfast and we laughed trying to figure out how many of the necessary food groups it would satisfy. I did some brief research and it seems like it's a traditional way to serve pie in Yorkshire with cheese. And someone claimed that years ago it was against the law to serve pie in Wisconsin without a slice of cheese on it.

My friends will telly you that I like to experiment with food combinations so naturally I had to try it. It's probably not the best thing for you, but with a hot cup of coffee, it would be tough to beat a slice of warm apple pie with melted cheese. Thanks Anna Jane!

The pie pictured is a slice of store bought apple pie with smoked gouda on top.

Homemade Cliff Bars

I've been wanting to make my own version of the Cliff Bar for several years now, in attempts to cheapen the cost of an energy bar and just because I feel like it should be easy. Well, I finally made my first attempt this week. I searched lots of sites on the internet for a general ratio of ingredients. Practical Hacks had the closest to what I was looking for, so my recipe is bases loosely on "Kevin's." However, I definitely added my own twists: the biggest being adding chia seeds and quinoa flakes. These ingredients are well known for their incredible nutritional value and were/are staples in the diets of early civilizations/current people in Mexico and Peru, respectively. (I might post another discussion on these but I don't want to get into too much detail right now.) Thus I am dubbing my version of the Power Bar or Cliff Bar the "Bars of the Ancients." And if I add flax seed, which was prevalent in the diets of ancient Egyptians, it will fit even more...

And success! The bars came out very tasty. I added dried cranberries and chopped almonds (although it took waaay too long to chop the nuts, maybe use a blender next time?) and the flavor was tasty. I may have baked them too long, and winded up slightly burning a couple, but I wanted to make sure and cook the eggs enough so as not to kill my taste-testers. In the future I will be experimenting with adding some spices and fiddling with the ingredient ratio even more.

Memorial Day Weekend

Rain is a very funny thing. I get home and the Flathead Valley is experiencing an unusually wet and rainy spring. Naturally I find myself complaining that I am not able to get out and do what I love to do best: climb (and skiing isn't really a very good option either since the weather is bad in the mountains). However I have to pause and realize what a blessing it is to have the moisture. It's making everything green and grow well, giving farmers hope of a good farming season and everyone dream of no fires toward the end of the summer. I have to remind myself surprisingly often that I'm not the center of the universe and not everything revolves around keeping me happy. Imagine that!

Well regardless of the (un)fortunate rainy weather, Memorial Day Weekend had a lot of excitement, especially of a sort that I don't often get to take advantage of since I'm usually on the go. Saturday night, my parents and I threw together a couple of homemade, whole wheat crust pizzas from scratch and ate them while relaxing with the movie Up. Very tasty and entertaining! Then Monday, I had work off for the holiday and was able to whip up an apple pie (again from scratch) to celebrate Dad's belated birthday. We even savored the scrumptious dessert to the tune of decaf coffee and Bananagrams.

Yet another reason to be thankful for the blessings-in-disguise of the rain: forcing us all to slow down and relish the small and often overlooked things in life.