How to Build Great Websites Using Grandma's Apple PIE Recipe

Building a great coaching website is as easy as using Grandma’s Apple PIE Recipe. These three simple ingredients will have clients hungry for your services.

Been to Grandma's lately? Maybe for a holiday get-together or a family gathering?

Well, what happens after you've stuffed your face with turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing? Yep, the desserts come out. Lots of them. And the most mouth watering of all? Grandma's freshly baked apple pie. Mmm, Mmm good! You know what happens next: Your eyes widen with anticipation. Your mouth begins to water as you envision the yummy pie you're about to enjoy. You are sold! Gimme pie!

And that's exactly what should happen when people visit your website. They should salivate at the thought of what you're going to serve them - your coaching products and services.

Now let's take a deeper look at the recipe for Grandma's apple PIE. It has three ingredients: P for pretty; I for interesting; and E for easy.

P: It's pretty. The mere sight of that pie sends shivers up and down your spine. It's appetizing to look at; gorgeous to behold.

I: It's interesting. Not only does it look good, it smells good. It's warm and fresh. The heat and aroma emanating from the steaming pie warms your face, tickles your nose and tantalizes your taste buds. And when you bite into it, your mind and body go into pleasure shock. It's more than interesting; it's euphoric!

E: It's easy! Heck, Grandma went to all the trouble of making it; all you have to do is open wide and take a bite.

You are sold!

But most coaching websites aren't that delicious. They're ugly, boring and tough to use. So, how can you use Grandma's recipe to cook up a mouthwatering website that satisfies the taste buds of new clients? It's easy as PIE...

Ingredient 1 - P: Pretty
Your website needs to be Pretty - professional in appearance, and visually delightful. You want visitors to say, "Hey, nice site!" not, "Yuck, what a mess!" Your visitors will need to read your website in order to get excited about what you have to offer. The fonts, colors, backgrounds and images must all work together to make your website easy to read.

Ingredient 2 - I: Interesting
Your site's got to be Interesting - alluring, engaging and motivating.
The copy you write must be vibrant enough to interest and motivate your readers. It must also compel them to seek your coaching services, in order to get relief from their problems and maintain hope for a brighter, more successful future. Readers need belief in you as the coach who can help them. Interesting words can do that.

Ingredient 3 - E: Easy
Your site needs to be Easy - particularly, easy to navigate. It must be organized logically so that visitors can know what's there, where to go and how to get back. The website must guide them along naturally. From a functional standpoint, things must work smoothly and quickly. No clunky forms, slow pages or unintuitive links. If your site is not easy, then visitors won't use it and they won't be interested in what you have to offer. They'll leave the table before dessert is served.

So there you have it - Grandma's PIE recipe: Pretty, Interesting and Easy.

Imagine if your website tasted like Grandma's hot apple PIE. Your visitors would probably need to join Weight Watchers, but at least you'd know they'd be chomping on your content till their bellies were full! The biggest benefit? You would have more clients coming to you with a hunger for your services. What could taste better than that?

About the Author - Kenn Schroder helps coaches who are struggling to attract clients. He provides web design, web marketing and search engine optimization to help you build a client-attracting coaching website. Get your FREE report and FREE newsletter to help you build a practice full of clients. 

How to Make an Apple Pie Recipe Low Calorie and Low Fat

We all love a warm, home-made piece of pie. If you are like me, perhaps you love decadent desserts a little too much.

But you don’t have to cut pies out of your life, altogether. I have found that I can take some simple little steps with the recipe that makes a huge difference in the end. Often, the calories and fat grams are reduced just a fraction of the original recipe.

Let us learn some now. We will start using a traditional Apple Pie recipe. This recipe is fairly consistent with most that are available.

So let’s analyze!

First, let’s say that a serving is about a 1/8 of a pie. Perfect! That is all we really need of this sweet dessert.

Here are the original ingredients:

Crust:
2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup shortening or butter
¼ to ½ cup of ice cold water

Filling:
8 cups thinly sliced, cored and peeled tart apples (about 5-6 large apples)
1/2 cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. butter (melted)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (optional)

This comes to 506 calories and 29 grams of fat per serving, if we use all of the ingredients as they are.

I know you might blink and think that those numbers are for the entire pie, but you would be sadly mistaken. Those large, scary amounts are for one slice of apple pie. At that rate, you can have this pie…for dinner. That is really disappointing. Let’s find a way to get this pie a little more reasonable.

1. Replace the butter or shortening with Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread (entire recipe). This will bring down the most of your fat content right here! There is butter in both the crust and filling, so this one step has major impact. You can use the butter substitute of your choice, but note the significant change.

Reduce 137 calories per serving and 15.6 fat grams per serving.

Replace sugar and brown sugar with Splenda No Calorie (entire recipe). This one is easily adjustable. You can also use the Splenda baking blend or just make your own blend of sugar. Try 3/4 Splenda and 1/4 sugar, and it will still give you the soft sugar flavor, without as many calories. You can still have the sweet- and keep your peace of mind.

Reduce 75 calories per serving.

Make only the top crust with original ingredients. I know- crust is fun. But instead of a pre-packaged dessert baked good, would you not rather have a delicious warm slice of apple pie - even if you only get half the crust. It would be the same amount of calories and you can think of it like a cobbler!

Reduce your recipe 191 calories per serving and 13 grams of fat per serving.

Make the top crust, replacing butter with Smart Balance Buttery Spread and sugar with Splenda no calories. Oh, we are on a roll now! This step is a huge impact on the final numbers.

Reduce 265 calories per serving and 20.8 g of fat per serving

If you combine all of the tips together (half crust on top, smart balance butter and No Calorie Splenda throughout) you will have a pie piece that is only 161 calories and 6.6 grams of fat per serving. The original pie 506 calories and 29 grams of fat per serving! So, get baking!

Pie-Supply.com
More tasty low calorie pie recipes.

How to Make a Good Cheese or Apple Pie

A delicious recipe for cheese or apple pie.

One of may favourite deserts is the cheese pie, although sometimes I go for apple pie as well. I know this recipe from my mother and it is very easy to be done. It is also very easy to remember, as the ingredients are in a proportion of 1 to 1. The same dough can be used for apple or cheese pie.

Ingredients: (for a big griddle)

The dough:

- 4 eggs

- 14 spoons with sugar

- 14 spoons with cooking oil

- 14 spoons with milk

- 1 teaspoon ammonia

- lemon juice

- flour

Filling:

- 500gr cottage cheese / 500gr apples

- raisins / for the apple pie do not use raisins, but cinnamon

- sugar / sugar

- 1 egg / no egg for apple pie

How to make it:

Break the eggs into a pan. Add sugar gradually and stir. Add milk and stir until sugar melts. Add the cooking oil and stir again. Put the ammonia in a cup and add lemon juice, then add it into the composition. Stir. Add flour until the dough is not too strong, but not too soft either. It needs to be something like lava, meaning that it needs to flow slowly when you incline the pan. Put half or a little bit more of the dough into a griddle. (The griddle was previously buttered and floured or covered in baking paper). Put it in the oven, slow to medium temperature. When the dough is half baked, so not very soft, take the griddle out.

When the dough is in the oven, prepare the filling: Mix the cheese with one or two spoons with sugar, add raisins, an egg and some vanilla essence. Now, the griddle being out, put the filling and add the other half of the dough. Put it back in the oven until it becomes golden on the outside.

The same goes for the apple pie, but make sure the apples are not hot when you fill the pie. To prepare the apple filling, peel the apples, then grate them. Put them into a pan, on the cooker, add sugar and cinnamon and let them boil. When they are ready, cool them a little and only after that fill the pie with it.

Leave the pie to cool down and when it is not hot any more, cut it and eat it. You can also put powder sugar before you serve it.

Classic Apple Pie Recipe

An all time favorite, this simple and tasty apple pie dessert takes only a dollop of vanilla ice cream to make it an out- of- this- world experience.

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Today, apple pie is assumed to be an American dish but, with due respect to finer emotions on its taste, the apple pie is a European dish. Traditionally, (way back in the fourteenth century), the British enjoyed meat pies and that was what encouraged their cooks to start substituting meat with apples to make a dessert. With political ups and downs during the reign of Cromwell, then King Charles II, the apple pie also saw waxing and waning fortunes. However, apple pie was a favorite dessert during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Other European countries also liked the dish, and there is literary evidence of Sweden baking apple pies in 1796, "Apple-pie was used all the year, the evening meal of children. House-pie, in country places is make of apples neither peeled nor freed from the cores, and its crust is not broken if a agon-wheel goes over it…."

Passing from the British kitchens to colonial hands, the apple-pie was originally baked with its crust off, to facilitate the adding of sugar and spices after the dish was baked. Sometimes the crust was even baked separately.

By the eighteenth century, the apple pie was a hot favorite in the United States, but disdain for its English parentage did not go away in a hurry. Mark Twain, the famous nineteenth century writer expressed his feelings for the apple pie of England in these words (in 1878) :

RECIPE FOR NEW ENGLISH PIE - To make this excellent breakfast dish, proceed as follows:

Take a sufficiency of water and a sufficiency of flour, and construct a bullet-proof dough. Work this into the form of a disk, with the edges turned up some three-fourths of an inch. Toughen and kiln-dry in a couple days in a mild but unvarying temperature. Construct a cover for this redoubt in the same way and of the same material. Fill with stewed dried apples; aggravate with cloves, lemon-peel, and slabs of citron; add two portions of New Orleans sugars, then solder on the lid and set in a safe place till it petrifies. Serve cold at breakfast and invite your enemy.

For us lesser mortals, the all time favorite Apple Pie can be made in a much more gourmet friendly manner, which may not give Mark Twain any reason to complain.
For this recipe you need:

1 kilogram cooking apples
¼ cup plain flour
½ cup ground sugar
1and ½ tsp lemon juice
½ tsp cinnamon powder (fresh or freshly ground)
½ tsp allspice powder
¼ tsp nutmeg powder
¼ tsp ginger powder (or crushed ginger)
4 tbsp diced butter (unsalted, softened)

(If you can get pastry strips ready to cook, it’s great, or else, make the pastry with the following ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
6 tbsp cold butter diced
4 tbsp cold lard diced
1 tsp salt.

To make pastry, sift salt and four together. Then add the butter and lard and rub into the flour to make coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in a little ice water to just bind the crumbs into dough. Divide the dough into two balls, warp in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for about half an hour. These will serve as the pastry shell and the crust respectively)

Roll out one dough into a round, 9 inches in diameter and then transfer this into a 23 cm (9 inch) pie tin. Trim or shape the edges as you desire and preheat this tin at about 220 degrees centigrade.

In the meantime peel, core and chop the apples, mix in all the spices, spoon into the pie shell, and drizzle butter on top. Roll out the second dough ball and cover the pie with this crust sheet, press onto the dish edges and crimp.

Decorations can be made with the flour figures (usually leaf shapes) and arranged onto the top dough sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 220 degrees C, then reduce heat to 180 degrees and bake for a further 45 minutes, till a healthy golden brown spreads on the crust.

The apple pie can be enjoyed A La Mode (with vanilla ice cream) or just as it is

Apple Crisp Recipe

Apple is one of the best and most popular dessert fruit. It lends well to almost any dessert made with it- baked, stewed or fried. Here one favorite, light, healthy…and apple-y.

A great cold weather desert, the apple crisp brings with it the memories of cold winter evenings by the hearth, fragrances of cinnamon mixed with smells of warm apples baking. This particular dish is also a great accompaniment for a large dollop of ice cream, if you are one of those people for whom ice cream is always the main course, whatever else the table may be laden with!!

Apple crisp is made with sliced fresh apples and cinnamon then topped with a crumbly mixture of flour, butter, and sugar. Apple Crumble, as Americans love to call it, can be made in a variety of ways, but the basic recipe is always the same… sweet, warm apple filling, topped with crunchy crumble, sometimes with nuts and flavoring, sometimes with plain breadcrumb consistency. Crisp is actually any dish with soft fruit below, topped with a crunchy crumbly topping, sometimes with nuts and dried fruits. Since they do not have a bottom layer (or else they would be a pie!) the top layer gives a great crispy, crunchy contrast to the tart, soft fruit underneath. Crisps can be made with any firm, sweet fruit, peaches, pears, apricots - but we have some interesting versions of apple crisps here.

Apple Crisp Recipe:

To make this delicious and easy dessert, you need:
500 grams apples
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp low fat spread
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Grated rind of one lemon
Juice of one lemon

Peel, core and slice the apples. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees C. Grease a baking dish and keep aside.

Toss the apples into the orange juice and mix in the lemon rind. Place these in an arranged manner inside the baking dish.

Meanwhile, crumb together the flour, low fat spread and sugar, adding in the powdered cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. Using warm water, make a crumb like consistency of this mixture.

Spread over the apples in the baking dish, evenly. Bake till the top is evenly browned, and the apples inside will be tender too.

Serve with a large dollop of ice-cream or fresh cream.

Healthy Apple Crisp Recipe

This version is made using oats with flour which makes it easier to digest, tastier and crunchier.

You need:

½ cup flour
½ cup white sugar
½ cup fat free butter
1/3 cup oats
3 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp flour

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Spray a baking dish with oil, enough to bake, no more. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin crescents, keep aside.

Blend together the flour, butter, white sugar and oats till they resemble bread crumbs. This can also be done with bare hands, and the feel is much better that way. The topping is ready.

In a bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon and three tablespoons of flour.

Combine with the apples so they do not break. Pour this mixture into the baking dish. Then spread the prepared topping evenly over the apples.

Bake this dish for about 45 minutes. The topping should be browned and crusty.

Serve with ice cream on the side. Or if it is a winter dessert menu, serve with fresh cream.

Easy Apple Pie Recipes

Food that makes you go "yum," that’s what apple pies are! So here are some easy apple pie recipes that you can make at home.

When I was younger, most of the time I found my mother in front of the oven with gloves churning out recipes that emanated a lovely aroma. So much so that she always came up with recipes for everything; even the banana that had ripened was turned into banana fritters! This habit has rubbed off on me, (to a certain extent) so most of the time I love donning my apron and experimenting with recipes. With the thought of food and thanksgiving around the corner, I thought I might as well share some scrumptious easy apple pie recipes with you. Here they are…

Apple Pie

Required Ingredients

• 1 piecrust
• 1 c. of sugar
• ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 6 c. pared and sliced apples
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon of butter

Instructions

• To start, combine cinnamon, sugar, salt and flour in a mixing bowl.
• Then arrange the apples in layers in the 9-inch pastry lined pan.
• Now sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over each layer, along with lemon juice and dotted with butter.
• Once that is done, put the top crust over filling and press together the edges around the pie.
• Cut slits in it in order to allow steam to escape.
• Bake this at 375 degrees for about 40 to 50 minutes.

Caramel Apple Pie

Required Ingredients

• About 10 caramel candies
• 1/3 c. of flour
• 3 c. Rome/Jonathan apples (chopped)
• 2/3 c. caramel ice cream topping
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• ½ c. of pecan pieces
• A 9-inch frozen piecrust

Instructions

• First combine all the caramel candies (each cut into 4 pieces), the flour, the apples, the caramel topping and the lemon juice and mix well.
• Now pour this mixture into the frozen piecrust and sprinkle with the pecan pieces.
• Bake this at 375 degrees on a preheated baking sheet for about 40 to 45 minutes.
• Remember not to put the pie in the refrigerator.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Required Ingredients

• 2 9-inches piecrusts (one for the top and one for the bottom)
• ¼ cup of all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup of sugar
• ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon (ground)
• ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg (ground)
• A dash of salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 6 cups apples (thinly sliced and cored)

Instructions

• Mix the cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, flour and salt.
• Then stir in the apples and place into the pie crust and dot with some butter.
• Once that is done, cover the top crust and slit evenly in order to let steam escape.
• Now pinch the sides together and seal the top crust to the bottom.
• Use a three-inch strip of aluminum foil to cover the edge of the crust.
• Back in an oven that has been preheated to 425°F for 40 to 50 minutes.

Apple and Maple Pie

Required Ingredients

• 1 Piecrust
• 4 apples (peeled and sliced)
• 1 c. pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon of margarine

Instructions

• First place the apples in the piecrust.
• Then blend the maple syrup along with the cornstarch in a blender.
• Now put the mixture into a saucepan with the margarine and cook this over a moderate heat. (Stir this until the mixture becomes thick).
• Once that is done, pour the maple syrup mixture over the apples.
• With that over, bake in an oven that has been preheated to 350 °F for about 45 minutes.

Apple Pie Recipe

What would it take to make the best ever apple pie recipe? Now that’s actually very easy. It would take all the right ingredients to bring back all those fond memories and maybe even create new ones. Everyone knows what their best ever apple pie tastes like, but when it comes to recreating the same pie, most people fall short of capturing the essence of the apple pie.

Though it may seem like an easy treat to cook up, it is indeed very hard to start from scratch if you are looking to recreate your Mom’s apple pie, the one that you loved so much as a kid. Fortunately for us, if you are looking for the recipe of a wonderful homemade apple pie, then you’ll find loads of these free recipes over the Internet that will also show you how to make your apple pie from scratch, including the crust.

You’ll find absolutely everything, right from award winning recipes for homemade apple pies to those standard yet deliciously rich classic ones. You can even make Marlboro apple pies, dried apple pies, vegan apple pies, glazed apple pies, caramel apple pies, Dutch apple pies, Texan apple pies, fried apple pies, Cranberry apple pies, apple crumble pies, mock apple pies and even apple pumpkin pies!

Or perhaps, all you need to learn is simply how to make the right apple pie filling to put in a readymade piecrust. There is no problem in that too. There are loads of apple pie recipes that don’t take up much time for preparation. The best part I, when you serve your own hot version of the homemade apple pie, you’ll definitely be creating some very fond memories for yourself as well as your loved ones.

The Best Apple Pie Recipe ever!
Ingredients for the flaky crust:

• 2 ¼ cups of Five Roses cake and Pastry flour.
• 1 tsp of sugar.
• ¾ tsp of salt.
• ¼ cup of cold butter.
• ½ a cup of shortening.
• 1 large egg.
• Ice cold water.

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 500 grams of red plums, sliced and stoned.
• 3 large apples, peeled and chopped.
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice.
• ¾ cups of granulated sugar.
• 3 tbsp of Five Roses all-purpose flour.
• ¾ tsp of cinnamon.
• 1 egg yolk.
• 1 tsp of milk.
• Some granulated sugar.

Procedure:

For the crust: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Using a pastry blender cut the cold butter and then cut the shortening till it is the size of tiny peas. In a small measuring jar, beat the eggs and then stir in some of the ice-cold water; it should equal ½ a cup. Next, stir in the egg mixture, a tablespoon at a time and pour it into the flour mixture until the pastry becomes moist and holds it together in a ball. Press the dough together and then flatten it into two 5-inch rounds. Wrap this with some plastic wrap and then leave it for 30 minutes for chilling.

For the Filling: In a large bowl, toss some of the fruit along with the lemon juice. In a smaller bowl, stir the flour, sugar and cinnamon and stir it well into the fruit. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to about 1/8 of an inch thickness, to fit into a pie plate. Trim the edges of the pastry and then brush with water. Roll out the pastry for the top crust, cutting the steam vents. Spread the apple and plum mixture into the bottom of the crust. Finish the crust edge, as you desire. In a small mixing bowl, mix the milk and egg yolk and brush a little over the crust and sprinkle a little sugar on top. Bake at about 425 degrees F for ten minutes and then reduce to about 350 degrees F and keep baking for half an hour.

Apple Pie with Cheddar Cheese Crust Recipe
Apples go well with cheddar cheese and in this recipe the cheese is built right into the crust. For a good variation, make use of your favorite apple pie crust and top it with apple crisp topping.

Ingredients for the Cheddar Crust:

• 2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour.
• ¾ tsp of salt.
• ½ a cup of vegetable shortening.
• ¼ cup of cold butter.
• 1-¾ cups of cheddar cheese.
• 6 tbsp of ice cold water.

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 6 cups of Ontario apples.
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice.
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar.
• 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour.
• ½ a tsp of cinnamon.
• 1 egg yolk.
• 1 tsp milk.

Procedure:

In a large mixing bowl, mix the salt and flour. With the pastry blender, cut the butter and shortening until the mixture starts to resemble fine crumbs. Now, stir the cheese in and also stir some water in, a little at a time so that the dough holds together. Flatten it into 2 round disks and wrap with plastic and then chill for 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the filling: in a bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice. In a smaller bowl, mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon and then stir this into the apples.

On a floured surface, roll out the pastry for the bottom crust and place it in a 9-inch thick pie plate. Trim the edges evenly. Now, roll out the pastry for the top crust while cutting the steam vents. Add the filling to the bottom crust and then place the top crust over the apple. Finish the edge as preferred. In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and milk together and brush the top of the pie with the mixture.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes and then reduce the temp to 350 degrees F and bake for 40 minutes.

Apple Custard Pie

Have you just bought some delicious apples? Why not make an apple custard pie with the apples? Scroll down to know how to make the pie...

I always favor a fruit pie as it has the luscious goodness of fresh or canned fruits. So how can an apple custard pie be an exception to this rule? Apple pies originated in England, but now are made with variations all over the world. As a matter of fact, in a number of American homes, meals end with an apple pie. They are made up of apples (but naturally) and sugar spices, which are sandwiched between a pastry crust. Do you remember your kitchen filled with delicious aroma of apple pie on Sunday, with your mother busy at the oven? Well even, you can make the delicious pie. Let’s see some apple custard pie recipes.

Recipes for Apple Custard Pie

The following are some apple pie recipes that you can use to make delicious pies at home, and tempt your neighbors with the delicious aroma of your cooking.

Apple Custard Pie Recipe
This is a recipe with which your guests will be liking their fingers and asking for more. With this recipe, you will be able to make 12 servings. You may want to read on how to make apple pie.

Ingredients

• 9 inch Pie Shell (unbaked), 1
• Apples (peeled and cut into thin wedges), 4
• Sugar, 1 cup
• Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
• Salt, ½ teaspoon
• Heavy Cream, 1 cup
• Eggs, 2
• Vanilla, 1 teaspoon
• Butter (cut into small dice), 2 tablespoons
• Vegetable Spray

Method

• Set the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Spray the oven pie plate with vegetable spray. Then arrange half of the apple slices at the bottom of the pie crust in an overlapping pattern
• Sift sugar, cinnamon and salt together. Sprinkle half of the sugar cinnamon mixture over the apples.
• Whisk heavy cream, eggs and vanilla together. Pour half of this mixture on top of the pie.
• Now layer remaining apples in the pie and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over it. At last pour the egg mixture on top.
• Dot with butter and place the oven plate in the oven. Bake the pie at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 12 minutes.
• Then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes.
• Once you see the edges of the crust are evenly and nicely browned, understand your pie is ready. However, you will have to check the pie in between the baking session. If you notice that the crust is browning too quickly, you will need to loosely cover the pie plate with a foil.
• When the pie is ready, let it cool at room temperature for approximately 2 hours. It is recommended you serve the pie the day you bake it. It can also be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

French Apple Custard Pie Recipe
In this recipe, we will see how to make apple custard pie with one crust. You may want to read on homemade apple pie recipe.

Ingredients for Filling

• Sliced Apples (canned or fresh), 20 ounces
• White Sugar, ½ cup
• Brown Sugar, ½ cup
• All Purpose Flour, ¼ cup
• Ground Cinnamon, ½ teaspoon
• Ground Nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon
• Salt, ½ teaspoon
• Butter (melted), ¼ cup
• 9" Pie Crust (unbaked), 1

Ingredients for Streusel Crumb Topping

• All Purpose Flour, ½ cup
• White Sugar, ¼ cup
• Salt, a pinch
• Butter (melted), 2 tablespoons
• Walnuts (chopped), ¼ cup
• Coconut (sweetened and flaked), ⅓ cup

Method

• Drain the apples and place them in a large mixing bowl. Add the filling ingredients and mix with a spoon.
• Pour the apple mixture on the unbaked pie crust and keep aside.
• In the same bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt and butter and blend till crumbly and looks like streusel. Now add walnuts and coconut and mix well.
• Spread the mixture evenly over the pie.
• Bake at 374 degrees for approximately 40 to 45 minutes or till the topping is lightly brown in color.
• Cool the pie for an hour, before you serve it.

Apple Custard Pie Recipe
This is one of the easiest recipes, which you can use to make your apple pie. Do you want to read on easy Dutch apple pie.

Ingredients

• 9" Pastry Shell (unbaked), 1
• Sour Cream, 1½ cup
• Sweetened Condensed Milk, 1 can
• Frozen Apple Juice (thawed), ¼ cup
• Egg, 1
• Vanilla Extract, 1½ teaspoon
• Ground Cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon
• Apple Filling, 1 can

Method

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the pastry shell for 15 minutes.
• While the pastry shell is baking beat sour cream, condensed milk, apple juice, egg, vanilla and cinnamon powder till the mixture becomes smooth.
• Pour it on to the pastry shell and bake for 30 minutes.
• Let the pie cool and then top it with apple filling and serve.

For more information, read

• Easy Apple Pie Recipes
• Classic Apple Pie Recipe

Now that you know a number of apple custard pie recipes, you can try all of them and see which suits your taste buds better. I make all of them, depending on the ingredients available at home and also the time I have at hand. Happy baking.

Sugar Free Apple Pie

Wanna enjoy desserts without worrying too much about the calorie content? Well, read this article on sugar free apple pie and learn how to make sugar free apple pie.

Apple pie is one of the most tempting desserts that is quite popular across the globe. Making apple pie for special occasions has become a tradition in several homes. Apple pies taste delicious because of its crunchy crust and crispy apples. Apple pie recipes are made in different ways in different cuisines. For instance, the Dutch style apple pie may vary from the Swedish style apple pie in the use of ingredients. People suffering from diabetes can also enjoy this tempting delicacy in the form of sugar free apple pie, without worrying too much about sugar free apple pie calories. It has approximately 128 calories. Let us take a look at some of the best sugar free apple pie recipes. Also refer to sugar free recipes and pie recipes.

Sugar Free Apple Pie Recipe

Ingredients

• 8 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 cup Splenda sugar substitute
• 2 pie crust
• ⅓ cup unsweetened apple juice
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Preparation

Cut the peeled, cored and sliced apples into rings of about ½'' thickness. Put a crust in a pie pan and transfer the apples. In a saucepan, stir in unsweetened apple juice, Splenda, apple pie spice and cornstarch and continue to stir till the juice thickens to a smooth consistency. On top of the apple slices spread the butter or margarine and pour the mixture into the pie pan. Press the second crust on top and stick the edges. Slit the crust on top and bake this mixture in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to about 350 degrees and allow the pie to bake for about 50 more minutes. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool before serving.

Sugar Free Dutch Apple Pie Recipe

Ingredients for Pie

• 5 cups sliced baking apples
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ cup unsweetened frozen apple juice concentrate
• ½ cup quick cooking oats

Ingredients for Topping

• One package sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg
• ¼ cup butter or margarine
• ½ cup Brown Sugar Twin
• ½ cup quick cooking oats

Preparation

In a bowl, mix oats, sweetener, flour and cinnamon (or nutmeg, depending on your preference) and combine them with a fork. Transfer this mixture over the apples and pour the frozen apple juice on top. Blend the contents thoroughly. Pour this apple mixture into a pie crust and keep it aside. For the topping, in a medium-sized bowl, blend the vanilla pudding mix, oats, cinnamon, flour and brown sugar with a fork. Add the butter to the contents of the bowl and mix it with a blender till it forms coarse crumbs. Pour this mixture in the pie crust and spread it evenly over the apple mixture. Bake this apple pie in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about one hour. Also read easy Dutch apple pie.

Sugar Free Apple Crumble Pie

Ingredients

• 5 cups apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 deep dish pie crust
• ¾ cup Splenda
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation

Mix cinnamon powder and sugar in a bowl and sprinkle this mixture over the sliced apples. Transfer the apples into the pie crust and set aside. Mix the remaining sugar with the flour and butter and blend them till crumbs are formed. Spread this mixture evenly over the apples and bake this pie in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for about half an hour.

Read more on:

• How to Make Apple Pie
• Homemade Apple Pie Recipe
• Apple Pie Recipes with Fresh Apples
• Easy Apple Pie Recipes

If you love eating sweets, inspite of being a diabetic, you can tempt your sweet tooth by relishing sugar free apple pie without having to worry much about the calories or sugar level.

Dutch Apple Pie Recipe

With the fast approaching Christmas, it's time to celebrate with gourmet meals and elaborate desserts. Here are a couple of Dutch apple pie recipes that would serve as sweet conclusions to all those turkey-ed meals on chilly December nights.

The pie should be eaten "while it is yet florescent, white or creamy yellow, with the merest drip of candied juice along the edges, (as if the flavor were so good to itself that its own lips watered!) of a mild and modest warmth, the sugar suggesting jelly, yet not jellied, the morsels of apple neither dissolved nor yet in original substance, but hanging as it were in a trance between the spirit and the flesh of applehood...then, O blessed man, favored by all the divinities! eat, give thanks, and go forth, 'in apple-pie order!'"

~ Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (on the proper way to eat an apple-pie)

Well, that is what the Reverend Beecher precisely tells us about the best way to eat an apple pie, so as to derive the greatest gustatory pleasure out of digging into this sweet sin. Dutch apple pie recipe differs from the traditional English variant, the classic apple pie recipe, in terms of incorporating various different seasonings and condiments to impart a distinct flavor. Such seasonings and condiments include cinnamon and lemon juice besides sugar, raisins and icing apart from the crust pastry and apples. Let's take a look at some of the best Dutch apple pie recipes that you can easily give a try this festive season. So, get your toque on and get ready to sweep the sweet tooth off its feet (or roots?!) this winter!

Easy Dutch Apple Pie From Scratch

The following easy Dutch apple pie recipe is simple to make and serves as a great, rich dessert that sync with the mood of this festive month of December! What better way to celebrate the Nazarene's birthday than conjuring up a sweet surprise that tastes rich and smells intoxicatingly alluring? Before we get down to the recipe, let;s be aware that a Dutch apple pie has three parts - the crust, the apple filling and the streusel topping - and each of these has to be made separately before combining them into a gustatory extravaganza. Check out the following recipe complete with ingredients and preparation method of each part of the Dutch apple pie.

Ingredients

Pie Crust Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 1½ cup
• Salt - ½ teaspoon
• Shortening - ¼ cup
• Butter - 4 tablespoonfuls

Filling Ingredients

• Cooking Apples (preferably Granny Smith) - 2 lbs
• Sour cream - 8 oz
• Crystallized sugar - ¾ cups
• Lemon juice - 2 tablespoonfuls
• All purpose flour - 2 tablespoonfuls
• Salt - ⅛ teaspoon
• Vanilla essence - ¾ to 1 teaspoonful
• Egg - 1

Streusel Topping Ingredients

• All purpose flour - ¾ cups
• Packed brown sugar - ¼ cup
• Crystallized sugar - ¼ cup
• Chopped, roasted walnuts - ½ cup
• Orange peel (grated) - 1 teaspoonful
• Butter (not melted) - 4 tablespoonfuls

Preparation Method

1. Start with preparing the pie crust. For this, mix the salt and flour in a medium bowl and combine butter and shortening with a pastry blender so that the result looks like rough crumbs. Sprinkle approximately 3-4 tablespoons of cold water over the salt-flour mixture so as to turn it into dough.
2. Mold the dough into the shape of a dish to form the crust base. For this, create the base of the dough dish by rolling out a circular base that is a little larger in diameter than the sides of the dough dish. Fix the base and the sides and trim away the extra dough. Leave a little overhang of the sides and fold it under the base to fix the base and sides securely. The pie shell is ready to be refrigerated for fixing.
3. Next, prepare the apple filling by first peeling and coring the apples and cutting them into ¼ to ½ inch thick slices. Toss the apple slices with the lemon juice in a large bowl and beat sour cream, vanilla essence, sugar, egg and salt in a separate medium bowl until they form a smooth blend. Before starting with preparing the filling, prepare the oven by preheating it to 400 °F.
4. Mix the sour cream batter and lemon juice-apple mixture together and fill this resulting mixture into the refrigerated pie shell.
5. Place the pie mold containing the apple and sour cream filling upon a foil and crimp the edges of the foil to prevent any drips during the baking process to land on the oven floor.
6. Bake for about an hour, keeping a tab on the apples to see if they are browning too fast. If this is the case, then cover the top loosely with foil.
7. By the time the pie gets baked, mix flour, walnuts, crystallized sugar, cinnamon, brown sugar, and orange peel together and mix with cold butter until the resultant mixture resembles rough crumbs. Do the mixing with your fingertips. The streusel topping is ready for sprinkling over the baked pie.
8. Take out the pie after it has been baked for an hour and sprinkle the streusel over it evenly. Set the oven temperature to 350 °F and bake for another half an hour. If the top doesn't look golden and bubbly, bake for some more time.
9. Cool the pie for about an hour if you wish to serve it warm. You can also cool it completely. Suit the taste of the company.

Dutch Apple Pie Recipe With Crumb Topping

This easy apple pie recipe is the same as the above recipe, the only difference being the simplicity of preparing the topping. The topping ingredients would include just the flour, cinnamon, crystallized sugar, salt and cold butter in the same measurements as above. You need to mix the topping ingredients as mentioned above under point #7 of preparation method. Thereafter, refrigerate the resultant rough crumbs and sprinkle them over the pie evenly after it has baked for about half an hour on 350°F temperature. After sprinkling the topping, bake for another twenty to twenty five minutes on 400 °F. You may bake for a longer or shorter duration depending upon how long it takes for the apples to get tender. Keep checking for tenderness in between the baking with a fork or knife. Cool before serving or refrigerate - suit yourself!

You can conjure up a whole lot of tempting homemade apple pie recipe or even sugar free apple pie recipe, after you have mastered these easy, mouth watering Dutch apple pie recipe. For the best taste, texture and aroma, make use of apple pie recipes with fresh apples. Now that you know how to make apple pie, sweeten up those special occasions with a touch of your dessert recipe expertise and impart sweet magic to those family dinners that would leave the kids as well as the grown ups wanting more!

5 Black Foods To Try

Black is always in fashion, right?

Perhaps it isn’t the first color that pops into your mind when you think about food, but we think 2011 might be the year of black food.

Here are five worth trying:

1. Squid ink pasta – pasta makers, especially coastal Italian pasta makers — love to take squid or cuttlefish ink and turn ordinary pasta into black pasta.

The ink is full of amino acids called glutamates — think umami — although the flavor mellows when made into dried pasta. Take a look at our Pasta in Italy post and see two very different uses of squid ink: one with dried pasta like the picture above, and the other using the ink as the sauce).

2: Black lentils – these lentils hold their shape well when cooked, but lose some of the ebony color. Look for them at Whole Foods, or you can find pre-cooked packages at Trader Joe’s.

3. Charcoal crackers. Striking on a cheese tray, these crackers taste similar to butter crackers and if you closed your eyes, you’d never guess the color. We first learned about food grade, edible charcoal powder from the pastry chef at elements at the Sanctuary at Camelback Resort, who in turn discovered it from pastry chefs in Japan who were using the powder to make black macaroons.

4. Black quinoa. When cooked, it loses some of its dramatic dark color, but it is still darker than the red quinoa (which we explain how to cook here and use in a salad with Cara Cara oranges and in buttermilk pancakes.)

5. Black garlic. It might not look like something you’d want to eat, but trust us, one bite of this raisin-y, mild flavored garlic clove and you’ll understand why we love it. We first wrote about black garlic last summer, and ever since, we’ve kept a jar in the fridge, using the cloves in pastas, soups and sauces, or just sliced and used as a garnish for bruschetta.

What other naturally black foods can you add to the list?

02 Jul Behind the Line at Binkley’s Restaurant

Ever wonder what it would be like to be behind the scenes in your favorite restaurant? I had the opportunity to spend a day with award-winning Chef Kevin Binkley of Binkley’s restaurant in Cave Creek, Arizona. Here’s what happened:

(Note: My article first appeared in Edible Phoenix)

Perched on a barstool in the most talked about restaurant in the valley, I can only see a fraction of the kitchen through the tiny window behind the bar. I am certain that there is more going on than meets the eye, but all I see is a tall man with a neatly trimmed goatee and Zen-like movements. Plate after plate is placed in the window before it disappears into the hands of a stealth-moving server.  What is going on back there that I can’t see? The curiosity is killing me.

Kevin and Amy Binkley opened Binkley’s Restaurant in the unlikely northern valley cowboy outpost of Cave Creek in May, 2004 to much fanfare. The local media persistently drool over Binkley’s edible art. It takes weeks to secure a reservation. Kevin’s champion culinary pedigree includes serious stints at two of the countries most renowned restaurants: Virginia’s The Inn at Little Washington, and The French Laundry in Napa Valley.

What would it be like to walk in his shoes for a day? I recently found out when Kevin agreed to let me shadow him for a day, from the moment he arrived, until he locked the doors at the end of the evening. Would I still be blinded by the glamour of Phoenix’s hottest new restaurant?

Just after noon on a Tuesday, Kevin leads me through the swinging doors to the kitchen.  I am transported from a quiet 52-seat dining room into another world; blinding lights, clanging pots, and muted chatter from a half dozen cooks milling about cramped quarters. Kevin introduces me to his crew, snuggled between a line of stoves on one side, and a slim countertop on the other. “I hire future chefs, not cooks,” he says. “They will leave here ready to open their own places.”

1:00 p.m. Kevin found out before he arrived that two of his key suppliers would be late. We squeeze our way through the line and he answers a handful of questions from his young cooks. We pause briefly at the 2 foot by 3 foot window that peers into the dining room, the stage from which he will conduct his band of artisans in a few hours.

He cleans a tray of Alfonsino, snapper-like red fish from New Zealand, which less than 48 hours ago were swimming in the ocean.  After scaling the fish, Kevin methodically fillets them with a long, sharp slicing knife, his favorite.

1:45 p.m. The stovetops are blazing, covered with a half dozen pots. More fresh fish arrives at the back door. A four foot Ono in a Styrofoam container is perched on ice. Kevin points out a chunk missing near the tail. “They removed that to check the quality. I only want sushi grade,” he says.

A pan of roasted chestnuts emerges from the oven and a cook with asbestos hands painstakingly peels them for tonight’s soup. Kevin finishes filleting the Alfonsino, showing me the white flecks in the flesh. “That’s fat content – it’s just buttery, and melts in your mouth,” he gushes.

2:15 p.m. A cook is wedged in the teeny pantry in the back working under a spotlight. He hollows an indentation in baked fingerling potatoes, scoops the flesh into a bowl, and mashes butter, crème fraîche, and herbs into the potato remnants. He carefully pipes the filling into the hollowed fingerlings, creating miniature twice-baked potatoes with perfectly coiffed tops. Before he makes the whole batch, he bakes off two to check the consistency of the filling.

2:45 p.m. Kevin turns his attention to a cook who is boiling hand-cut French fries. He says he learned the key to perfectly crunchy French fries while vacationing in London last summer. The secret is a triple cooking process. He first boils the potatoes, and then blanches them in 325 degree oil, before a final fry at 350 degrees when ordered.

3:00 p.m. Four cooks break away from their tasks to check in the late produce. Kevin is on the phone with his rep, complaining about the late delivery as his cooks scramble to dole out the supplies.

He tackles the Ono, slicing down one side of the backbone, taking steps as it is too long to cut in one fell swoop, even with his lengthy arm span. He turns the fish and cuts the other side and frowns. The flesh is not smooth. Bad handling he says, and instead of the 20 portions he was counting on, he only manages 13. The scraps are given to a cook to prepare for the staff meal.

3:25 p.m. More chestnuts are stripped from their roasted shells, as Kevin checks on the progress. Quietly disappointed, he instructs another cook to start a celery root soup, and makes a notation on the menu. Chestnuts are now slated as a garnish instead of the main attraction.

4:00 p.m. The mood in the kitchen switches gears – less talking and a quickened pace. Kevin scales Barramundi, farm-raised fish with mottled gray skin glinting pink and blue that will be roasted whole. Scales fly everywhere; one lands on my shoe that I find later, a badge of honor. He shows me the bright crimson gills. “It’s fresh as can be, but it’s also a function of how they kill it. They slowly decrease the water temperature, eventually freezing the fish to death,” he says. Cruel, I ask? He nods slowly and then shrugs, as if to say it is all part of the food chain.

He stops to sweep the floor around his station. No one bats an eye.

4:30 p.m. Kevin has his eye on everything and everyone, gently prodding some cooks. He chats with the pastry cook about a new dessert. She suggests bread pudding but he counters with panna cotta, with olive oil.  “Maybe add a vanilla bean in addition to extra virgin olive oil,” he says. He instructs a cook to puree the celery root soup after the staff meal.

5:10 p.m. The cooks adjourn to the dining room to review the menu with the servers, who ask questions about the origins of the evening’s entrées. Once they return to the kitchen, the cooks review prep lists, and gather all the ingredients they’ll need once the orders start rolling in.  Kevin’s hands are still for the first time all day. He slides on a crisp, clean chef’s coat. The party is about to start.

5:30 p.m. The first guests arrive, and Kevin chats with them through his window. The cooks are stacking piles of dishes and sauté pans near their stations. Kevin shows me three menus for the evening. “We don’t ‘86’ anything. We just print new menus and switch gears,” he says.

Only a few pots sit bubbling on the stove, a far cry from the height of thirteen I counted two hours ago. I’ve only seen a fraction of what really transpired these past five hours. Now it’s show time. I squeeze into a corner hoping to stay out of the fray.

6:00 p.m. The ticket machine spews its first order. Kevin calls out the courses by name, to no one in particular it seems, but the appropriate cook repeats the order and sets to work. Soon more orders rattle through the machine, and now four tickets hang under his window. Kevin is moving through the line, tasting everything, adjusting seasonings. He calls out for a VIP plate, a baby octopus salad, and then tells the customer at the bar “just because you’ve retired doesn’t mean you can get away with only two courses.”

6:30 p.m. The line is hopping. Kevin inspects a foie gras trio appetizer plate and gently chides the cook to “broaden her horizons, do something different,” with the balsamic reduction drizzle design. She asks if he’ll show her how he would do it. “You want me to do a plate for you,” he kids in his best mafia voice. “No,” she says, “I can handle it.” The ticket machine is spitting more orders. “One lamb, medium rare, one Ono, well done – what a shame,” he says. He believes this fish is best at medium, if not medium-rare.

7:00 p.m. A few minutes of calm preside over the kitchen and everyone takes the brief respite to clean their stations. The ticket machine cranks up again. Two cooks are huddled in the back, still peeling chestnuts. A cook puts an octopus salad in the window. Kevin pulls it down, and gently whispers something in the cook’s ear. The plate is rearranged and passes inspection. He hasn’t raised his voice once today, nor thrown any fits, nor made anyone feel inferior.

7:30 p.m. The appetizer station is behind. Kevin calls up two cooks from the back, both ecstatic to leave the chestnuts behind and join the front line. More tickets are flying out of the machine; he now has five in front of him. Plates are put in front of him with rapid succession, and he deftly addresses each one, fussing with the components. He marks his tickets as each plate leaves the kitchen. At any given time, he knows which table is on which course.

7:45 p.m. The line is bump and grind; a flurry of choreographed bounces. All that’s missing is a little Lambada music. The orders are whizzing through the ticket machine. Kevin calls them out; his cooks repeat the words, in zombie-like monotones, toggling between constructing plates and searing proteins. The appetizer station is in the weeds again and reinforcements reappear from the back. Arms reach over bodies, grabbing squeeze bottles and plates. The sound of sizzling meat drowns out the clattering ticket machine.

8:00 p.m. Kevin leans toward the window to shoot the breeze with guests; meanwhile the kitchen is in a chaotic modern dance, a furious pace. He calls for another VIP plate, this time seared duck breast with quinoa and candied mint. He returns another octopus plate to the cook and gently says, “Remember?”  The cook nods and tries again. Kevin inspects a salad with a crisp prosciutto garnish, and adds another one. “We’re cheap on the prosciutto tonight, are we?” chiding the cook. She has to fry more to make up for her boss’s generosity. He finishes assembling a half dozen other dishes and grabs more tickets, now multiplying like rabbits.

8:30 p.m. The cooks are moving at warp speed, their faces intent. Kevin checks with his expediter on the other side of the window for a pulse on the dining room. She tells him to slow down on table 22, they’re not progressing, but table 9 is ahead of schedule. The ticket machine coughs up two more orders. Kevin fillets a roasted fish, “I love roasting fish on the bone, it’s so juicy,” he says, handing me a piece that fell off the fillet. He softly tells the octopus plate-challenged cook to re-plate a duck appetizer, with a better mango design.

9:00 p.m. Only 2 tickets hang in front of Kevin as the machine cranks up again, and more guests arrive at the door. The cooks fill the lull in action with chestnut peeling. Kevin calls out more orders, and the line takes off again. He marks the tickets, now numbering five, keeping track of who’s on first. Tete de Moines is gathered in a ribbon by the girolle cutter, one of six cheeses for another VIP plate. He doles out a dozen VIP plates through the course of the evening.

9:30 p.m. Kevin fillets another whole fish, and tells me how his cooks can read him like a book. “Sometimes I just look at them, and they know what I want.” A guest returns a medium-cooked Ono for more cooking. Kevin asks if the guest knew it was supposed to be served medium. He rolls his eyes, but returns the fish to the line for a hot oil bath, requesting fresh garnishes and sides for the doomed fish. Three tickets are working and the machine spits out another order.

10:00 p.m. The hot line begins to break down as a friend of Kevin’s, another local chef, pops in to say hi. Kevin treats him to a thrice-cooked French fry, asking the chef if he’s ever tasted a more perfect fry. No, the chef says, savoring the crunch. The kitchen is slowing down. Cooks pull inventory from the refrigerators to count what’s left over. Kevin plates two last dishes, and then begins to put away his garnishes. He washes the counter and walls with a bucket of hot, soapy water. His stage gleams.

10:30 p.m. Kevin leaves the kitchen to circle the dining room, stopping at the handful of lingering tables. He sits at the bar to chat with his chef friend, and jots notes down on a piece of paper. The cooks are cleaning the kitchen, putting leftover inventory away and making their own notes.

10:50 p.m. Two tables are hanging on. Kevin orders a glass of zinfandel. The last guests leave and he stands to bid them goodnight. They stop and admire the framed Bon Appétit page proclaiming Binkley’s Restaurant one of the top “Hot 50: Where to Eat Now.”  He tells me after the guests leave that this was a good night. He jokes that he would have preferred a little more chaos. He is still two hours away from locking the door.

11:00 p.m. His friend takes off, and Kevin turns back to his notes. He wants to order some candy-stripe beets to add color to the roasted beet appetizer. He notes that the herb garden just off the kitchen side door needs watering, and he takes me into the back to check on his microgreens– radish, mustard greens, and amaranth, among others – suspiciously hidden high atop a shelf in the back pantry, nurtured by grow lights.  The cooks are almost finished cleaning, and he tells them to meet him in the dining room for the postmortem.

11:30 p.m. The cooks straggle to the front, chatting about who sold more food, how disasters were averted. Some grab a beer from the bar before settling down to business. Kevin announces he has shrimp coming in from Florida later in the week. He asks if there are enough roasted beets for tomorrow. He switches gears faster than a Maserati. “Duck breast, how many do we have? We’re good on soup?” he kids. Laughter erupts as everyone took a turn peeling chestnuts throughout the day.

12:00 a.m. Each cook has his or her prep list in front of them. Kevin has a copy of the menu. The pheasant will be replaced with veal. Do they want to do veal squared, he asks? Yes, cheek and sweetbread. He wants to bring in Red Oak lettuce from a local farm to add color to the salad greens. “Do we still have gooseberries?” he asks. Yes. “I say we do duck confit perogies, with gooseberries.” Kevin and his band of cooks speak like they move in the kitchen, a dance done a hundred times before. At the end of an hour, they have re-written more than half of the menu for tomorrow, and an order list is put together.

12:30 a.m. The cooks begin to disperse. Kevin sits alone at the table, reviewing the newly minted menu and assembling his order list. He calls in the orders, leaving detailed messages for a handful of suppliers. He smiles at me, not showing even a hint of exhaustion. In fact, he seems eerily peaceful. The last task is to turn off the lights, set the alarm and lock the door, but not before one last stroll through the kitchen, checking equipment, and pausing a moment to reflect on another day on the books. The party is over. At least until tomorrow.