Pies for the win

Bill's office decided to have a little bake-off this week. And if there's one thing we cannot walk away from, it's a cooking competition! So, Bill was hell-bent on a classic apple pie. And I threw together something involving Pillsbury crusts, canned Oregon fruit and a few handfuls of Bill's carefully peeled and sliced apples.

Here is the recipe we found on Allrecipes.com. And the one we found on OurBestBites.com.

And this is what Bill did with them:

Recipe for double pastry crust

2 Tbsp butter

5 Tbsp flour

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

8 apples

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour. Add water, sugar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Spoon over apples, coating them well.

Place bottom crust in 10" deep dish pie pan. Fill with apples, slightly mounded. Top with second crust.

Seal edges of top and bottom crusts. Cut vents in top crust.

Bake 45 min.

4th of July Jell-o

My friend Jenn posted this recipe on her blog a very long time ago, and although I haven't made it in years, I remembered it being a big hit at potlucks. And we were unpacking the kitchen all morning so it wasn't such a pain to keep up with all of the layers! So, I thought it was time to revive this one:

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1 box (6 oz.) berry-blue flavored Jell-o
1 box (6 oz.) raspberry flavored Jell-o
2 packets Knox plain gelatin
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait mountain blueberry yogurt
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait red raspberry yogurt
1 (6 oz.) container Yoplait vanilla yogurt
water
½ cup sugar

1. In medium bowl, stir 2 cups boiling water into blue jell-o until jell-o is dissolved. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the blue jell-o into blueberry yogurt. Pour yogurt mixture into 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until set. Meanwhile, stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain blue jell-o; let stand at room temperature.
2. When blue yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain blue jell-o over yogurt layer. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set.
3. Pour ½ cup cold water into a bowl. Sprinkle with two packets of Knox plain gelatin; let stand one minute. Add 1 ½ cups boiling water and stir until gelatin completely dissolves. Stir in ½ cup sugar. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the gelatin mixture into vanilla yogurt. Pour mixture over blue layers. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain gelatin; let stand at room temperature.
4. When white yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain gelatin over yogurt layer. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set.
5. In medium bowl, stir 2 cups boiling water into raspberry jell-o until jell-o is dissolved. In another medium bowl, slowly stir 1 cup of the raspberry jell-o into raspberry yogurt. Pour yogurt mixture over layer of clear gelatin. Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until set. Stir 2/3 cup cold water into remaining plain raspberry jell-o; let stand at room temperature.
6. When raspberry yogurt layer is set, carefully pour plain raspberry jell-o over yogurt layer. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until set.