I have a lot to live up to though. My Grandma Peacock (my great grandmother) made unbelievably delicious pies. And a lot of them. Everyone that went over to visit her left with at least a half a pie in their bellies. She always had a pie or two on hand for visitors. And her slices of pie were done in quarters. Nothing smaller. Before my Grandpa and Grandma Jewkes left on their mission, we had a big celebration. My Grandma let us bake the last of Grandma Peacock's pies. It was bittersweet. Knowing we'd never again get to taste that buttery, flaky crust and that we were saying bye for 18 months to Grandpa and Grandma were sad but the sweet memories of Grandma - and the delicious aroma of sugar and butter - filled the room.
Back to my first fore into pie baking.
With a basket of green apples that no one would eat and an entire evening to myself, I decided the time was right. I didn't think it could be that hard.
Green apples really are quite pretty.
But even more pretty with sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg coating them.
I put a little too much ice water in my dough. Let's hope the recipe is forgiving of a beginner's mistakes. 
Even if you're not a pie fan - I'm not a huge fan myself - you can't help but smile at a pastry filled with tart apples, sugar, and spices.
This is what my pie was supposed to look like. Thank you Our Best Bites!
Oh well. 
No one will notice I didn't flute the edges if I put a bunch of melted butter and sweet sugar on top, right?
Please don't burn. Side note: you see my clean oven that I scrubbed yesterday? Yeah, my taunting to my siblings backfired on me when my pie oozed it's sweet, sugary deliciousness all over my clean oven. 
I couldn't help myself... I had to take a sneak peek (like every 10 minutes)!
Oh my. Heavenly smells and a heavenly golden brown crust.
I couldn't wait for my family to get home to try a slice... but can you blame me?
I now understand why Grandma's pies were so good. They take a lot of work and time. And love. It sounds corny, but Grandma must have really loved us to spend all day baking 80 pies at a time. The peeling, chopping, rolling, patting, filling, and baking.Now that's love.
