And then there was Pie.

We had a pretty casual Thanksgiving, just the two of us and our good friend Alex. I had to work all week and the day of, so poor Brian had to make all of the sides and the bird itself. My contribution? The Pie.

Yes, holiday Pies are a proper noun. They are the finale of a day long preparation and fast; the last character on the stage before the curtain falls. The last thing you have to remember your meal by is the Pie.As you read earlier, I had made a pumpkin pie earlier in the month, so the obvious choice for our dinner was apple.

I've had some issues with apple pie in the past. Apples were too tart, or not enough. Filling was gooey or was just very dry. What makes a good apple pie is an exact science, one that I hadn't figured out yet. I have about a dozen mediocre pies under my belt (rather, hanging just over my belt!) so if this was going to be my only contribution to our first wedded Thanksgiving, you betcha it had better be good.

None of the recipes in my 8 million cookbooks had worked for me, so I struck out on the scary path to internet recipe hunting. When you Google 'Apple Pie Recipe', the search engine tells you there are 'About 1,490,000 results'. Which one is the best? Sites like AllRecipes.com usually have good choices, but I've found the results for a lot of there things to be average. So, I used a different rule: The more old school the website, the better the results will be. And boy, did I find a doozy: My Home Cooking. It had everything I was looking for: cheezy graphics, broken links, directions written for a five year old, and the self proclaimed 'Best Apple Pie on the Internet!' Despite the crazy old lady persona the site has, it has very clear instructions with lots of photos.

Careful, she means business.

I started way too late, and was pretty cranky to be peeling a half dozen apples when all I wanted to do was go to bed (I'm thinking about investing in an apple peeler...we'll see!) The last few times I made an apple pie I used Granny Smith's, but I found them to be a little too tart and I had a hard time getting them to cook all of the way through.  I settled on Mac's - according to the illustration in the Shaw's produce aisle, they're a notch sweeter than the GS but still on the tart end of the spectrum.

I also added a cup of oats that weren't in the original recipe.My final tweak was to try a lattice crust instead of the flat crust. I always find that regular crusts get ugly and stretch around the apples, and it can cook unevenly. The lattice is a lot easier than it looks, the key is to start in the middle and work your way to the edges. I used a pizza cutter to cut the strips of dough for the top. The last step that seems easy to skip but you really, REALLY shouldn't is wrapping the edge of the crust in tinfoil when you bake it.  It keeps your crust edges from getting too brown or burnt. Remember, it's just the edges, not the entire top.

The pie got rave reviews, from Alex and Brian and the kids at EMS. Apple pie, I have conquered thee!

It would look even yummier if the stove top were clean.