So sweet!

In my opinion, when a person makes a big, fancy meal, the important food items should be prepared first. With that in mind, I made all my sweets for Thanksgiving ahead of time. :-)

Last night, I baked an apple pie. At least, that's what the recipe said: "Easy Swedish Apple Pie." And yes, I specifically did a search for "easy apple pie" recipe. I found the recipe here, on allrecipes.com. The recipe actually seemed so easy that I decided to add in the "tweakings" that were posted in the first review (by pavonee). Once I got the apples peeled, cored, and sliced, the recipe really couldn't have been easier. However, once I was finished putting it together, I began to question whether or not this is really a pie. There is no bottom crust. You just put the apples into the pie plate, and then spread the flour/sugar/cinnamon/egg mixture over the top of them. Really, what I put into the oven looked more like an apple crisp than an apple pie.

However...whatever you call it, can you really go wrong with apples, cinnamon, and sugar?? While it was baking, it smelled incredibly good!! And when it came out, it looked really good, too!
I have been good about saving my goodies for Thanksgiving dinner, so I haven't tried this apple "pie" yet, but I'm really excited about it! I'm also excited about what I made tonight - a milk chocolate pecan pie! It's in the oven as I type this (so I'll post a picture and other info later), and the only thing I'm worried about is the amount of filling the recipe made. I should have used a much deeper pie shell...and I'm really glad that I put the pie on a baking sheet in the oven! Quite a bit of the gooey chocolate pecan filling has overflowed already. Oops.

And finally...since I've had a couple requests for it, here's the recipe for the cranberry sauce I made the other night. It was originally in Bon Appetite magazine, but I don't know what issue. My friend Abby sent it to me.
Ingredients:

• 1 12 ounce bag fresh cranberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 1/4 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Directions: Bring all ingredients to boil in a heavy medium saucepan, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until most cranberries burst, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Cool, cover, and refrigerate. **The sauce can be made up to a week ahead of time.