"Al Gore is a slacker and I made apricot pie"

My internet was goofy all day yesterday and finally went totally down today. "They" said it was a tower down because of the storm.

I blame Al Gore. I mean, if he invented the darn thing, you'd think he'd keep it going!

But oh no, he's too busy going all over the place trying to make everything better for our planet. Hey Al, first things first, ok pal??? You can't make the environment better if we can't email all our friends to stop buying Dixie cups!!!

I could read email on my Blackberry, but I cannot, for the life of me, type on those itty bitty keys very fast, so I couldn't communicate. I'm back up, which is great, because I'm kinda addicted to cyberspace. I mean, what is the purpose of life, if you can't forward jokes???

For this week’s “Papa Dale Pie Project”, I’ve made an apricot pie. Now, I was stumped on how the heck I was going to make an apricot pie, with no fresh apricots – even though my Dad said canned ones would “be fine”. It didn’t sound likely, in fact it sounded kinda horrid. So I decided to call on the experts….the wonderful Norita Solt, who has won something like 2 zillion ribbons in the Iowa state fair over the years. She had some very good ideas and also very generously contacted Louise Piper, another very proficient prize-winning pie baker, who had a simple recipe using canned apricots. Bakers - the most amazingly generous chemists in the world. Thank you, ladies – you’ll made the world’s foremost pie expert (my Dad) very happy!

I'll take it to him tomorrow morning...I know it will be wonderful.

Louise Piper’s Apricot Pie

Pastry for a 9” two-crust pie
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
3 – 15 oz. cans apricot halves, well drained and cut up a bit
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter

Line a pie plate with bottom crust.

Combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Fold in cut, drained apricots and lemon juice.

Pour into pie shell. Dot apricots with pieces of butter. Cover top with pastry (either lattice style or cut vents in top) and crimp edges. Bake at 375 for 40 – 45 minutes or until nicely browned.

Cook’s Notes: I did add a scant teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg to the sugar mixture. After I drained the apricots, I used kitchen shears to cut the apricots a bit smaller. I also patted them dry as possible with paper towels, so as not to be too mushy. I brushed the top crust with a little milk mixed with a dash of vanilla, then sprinkled granulated sugar over the top. I also needed to cover the crust edges with strips of foil (I use the “quick release” foil so it won’t stick!) to avoid over browning. Those store-bought tin pie edge covers never work for me. I like to cut 4 or 5 foil strips, about 4 inches in length and 2 inches wide, and make my own. Way better.