Alexander: Here's the Apple Pie!

Sweetbriar Apple Pie, With Love

Crust:

• 1 pound o' butter
  
• 4 cups of good fresh flour
  
• 2 tablespoons, sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons, salt
  
• 1 cuppa water, with ice cube floating around (achtung! you will not use all the water!)
• NOTE: this will be enough crust for 2 or 3 pies

Innards for each pie will be:

• 4 or 5 sour-ish green apples (granny smith or so), peeled and cored and sliced
  
• 1/4 cup, sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons butter
  
• 1/4 teaspoon each of: grated nutmeg, ground mace...and maybe a tiny scosh of cloves and cardamom? whatever. up to you. be creative (which you always are).

Make that crust, just like you have been (i.e., that amazing picture you just sent) but: leave it twice the size, roll it out, and have some nice crumbly artistic edges...you will be folding it over the whole apple deal, in a very soigne way... (For those who would like a lovely pie crust recipe, click here.)

Put this artsy pastry into a nice big pie plate, and chill for about 15 minutes...afterwards, fill 'er up with apple slices, enough so that it looks nice and heaping but not overmuch or too little....

Now, the fun part: shake that sugar softly over the apple slices, and happily dot little bits of butter around. Sprinkle spices on quick-like. Now, fold up those artistic pastry edges, sort of on top of each other. It will seem rather random, but I promise it will come out of the oven looking quite handsome (and taste lovely, to boot). Try to cover up most of those slicey apples, so they are tucked in nice. But don't spend much time on this part.

The pie usually takes about 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven. The crust will be look done, and you'll know. Cool for a few minutes, and then sklather on freshly whipped (no sugar, ist besser!) cream. You can add a bit of grated nutmeg on the top if you want to get super-snazzy.

Enjoy. We will miss you at the turkey table, but we send blessings your way every second of every day.

(Here, we would like to send said blessings, also, to Mim and Pop and Grandma and Grandpa and the Basnights and every Thorne and Reynard we ever knew, along with the Brooksies, the Pilots, the Sans and Chaves families. Aloha, fam. We love all of you and hope you get the right end of the wishbone, every one!)

Alexander: Call your mother if she wrote something down wrong, above; we can try to fix it. It can happen. And remember, my German is sehr rusty, but I try. Ist gut?