Will and I had the following conversation in the grocery store last week regarding what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday (which, amazingly enough, happens to be today. Quelle coincidence!):

Will: [Reaches for the funfetti cake] I’m assuming you want this one?
Me: Umm…hold on. [Studies cake selection for about two minutes. Tentatively reaches for the funfetti. Hesitates.]
Will: Pick one.
Me: Umm…ok…[Picks up box of funfetti cake. Puts it back on the shelf and takes a box of rainbow chip cake]. This one.
Will: You sure about that?
Me: I think so? Let me look again. Hold on. [Studies cake selection again] Yeah ok, that one.
Will: Ok, now the frosting. White frosting?
Me: No, I want something PINK!
Will: [shakes head]
Me: PINK! [Picks up can of strawberry frosting]
Will: You don’t want this one? It’s pink but it tastes like vanilla.
Me: What’s the point of buying pink frosting if it doesn’t taste like strawberries?
Will: More people like vanilla.
Me: IT’S MY CAKE. I want strawberry. [smiles sweetly]
Will: [Sighs. Puts strawberry frosting in the cart.] I feel like I’m going to a birthday party for a five-year-old.

And what better way to take a break on a lovely fall afternoon than to make apple pie! Mmm. I found a recipe for a single serving pie in a jar over on ourbestbites.com. It’s a fantastic cooking site, and I highly recommend checking them out for fun food ideas.

This is kind of reinventing the wheel, since they have a picture tutorial on their site, but I thought I’d share mine so you can see that even someone who is severely challenged in the kitchen can pull these off.

You can make them with just about any filling, but I did apple. You’ll need some 8 oz mason jars (don’t go with the tall ones I used – I found out the hard way there’s a reason why you’re supposed to go with the shorter, wide-mouthed jars), and some apples.

You’ll also need these:

And some pie crust, not pictured and I expect you to respect its privacy, thank-you-very-much. If you’re really motivated, you can make your own. I bought some pre-made crust at Shaw’s. I found that one pie crust and two apples made the perfect amount for three pies. Two for me and one for you! That’s some good math right there.

I’m not going to give you any measurements, because I didn’t measure anything. I’m guessing I had about a half teaspoon of the spices, a couple teaspoons of flour, sugar splenda, and brown sugar, and a dash of vanilla and lemon juice. My rule of thumb was to just keep adding things until it smelled so good I wanted to stick my face in the bowl. When you reach that point, you know it’s good.

Take your frozen lovingly hand-crafted pie crust and cut out circles for the top of each pie, using the mason jar lid as a cookie cutter. Then take the rest of the pie crust and line the jars with it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just make sure it goes allllllmost all the way up to the top. Remember, you’re getting points for deliciousness, not neatness. Oh, this is the first time I realized why I needed the shorter jars. One, my tiny little fingers couldn’t reach all the way down to the bottom, so I had to use a spoon and mash the pie crust down. The second is that it takes more crust to line the taller jar. I personally like it that way, but if you prefer more filling you’d probably be better off with the wide-mouth jars.

Add the filling. Pretty pretty! Put a tiny dollop of butter on top (about 1/4 teaspoon).

And then put your cut out dough circles on top, making sure to pinch the edges together with the crust that you lined the side of the jar with. If you’re really trying to make these look nice, you can use a cookie cutter to cut a pretty shape out of the top. Or you can just rip it open. Either way, make sure there’s a vent in the top. Here you can see the official Alexis Hall Photo pie in a jar. Coming soon to a supermarket near you. The recipe suggests brushing the crust with butter after you do this, and I’m sure that’s a lovely idea, but I just forgot. Oops.

At this point, you can either put the lids back on and pop them in the freezer to enjoy at a later date, or you can put them in the oven and have them NOW. I’m not sure why you would ever make these and not enjoy at least one right away. Go ahead. You’ve earned it. Preheat the oven to 375, and bake for about 45 minutes.

Unfortunately they’ll have to sit for a little while before you can eat them, unless you don’t mind scalding all the taste buds right off your tongue. If that’s ok with you, dive in. If you’d like to still have some sensation in your mouth, I recommend waiting a little while. You can photograph your pie while you wait!

And wait…

…and wait some more….

Ready go! Ah, that was some good pie. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

A picture is worth a thousand noms.

So that’s why I waited almost 4 decades to get a crockpot. You know, to be sure it wasn’t just a fad. But OHMIGOSH why didn’t I get one sooner? Good lord, I can’t believe I’m just catching on to the wonders of this thing.

The name’s Pot. Crock Pot.

Confession: I had a crockpot for almost two years. Never used it. Not once, not ever. When I moved a few months ago, we agreed that the crockpot had been carted around one too many times, so we donated it to the local thrift store. Ordinarily I would call that a mistake, but this one is actually a much nicer model than the one we gave up, so I’m ok with spending a little extra money.

This one, for instance, has a timer! To time things! Wow! And I can cook a roast for up to 6 people! You know, for all those dinner parties I host.

We had some pork in the freezer that we really needed to use, and some quick searching lead me to this gem of a recipe: Cider Pork Roast. This week’s recipe (what you see in the picture above is slow cooker beef stew, found on allrecipe.com, my new favorite site.

Mmmm. It was amazing, and the best part is that it took 15 minutes from start to finish for the prep work! Set the timer for four hours, and boom, there’s dinner!

Everyone else who regularly uses their slow cooker is probably rolling their eyes and going, “Mmm-hmm, honey, you do know that that’s the whole POINT of a crockpot, right?” Indulge me. I’m just a little bit excited about this right now.

Do you use a slow cooker? I think it’ll be great this winter – any great recipes that we should try? Share them in the comments!