Apple Pie Apology.

Autumn is a time when we struggle with our eternal wish to go on a diet. How can we regulate our weight after pounding it on during the summer, when our son is at home and we believe that we too, can eat like a teenager and yet remain slim?

So now, when he has gone back to university and it is a good time for some serious self regulation, what happens? The harvest season is here and we feel that it is wasteful if we do not eat the apples produced by our three trees. It must be confessed that we have already had the same guilt pangs, as we ate our way through a grape crop of about 50 pounds in weight. ( In our defence, I have to add that we did give most away.)

Today it the turn of our Bramley cooking apples to be sacrificed on the alter of internal gratification. There is something special about going out in the morning, picking four huge apples from a tree and then preparing them for a pie that will be eaten for lunch. I opted for puff pastry and added cinnamon as flavoring in North American style. Cloves are used in the British style, but we are not fond of that taste.

The result was delicious. We had the pie without anything else for lunch, just as a concession to our conscience.