My, oh my.
I am embarrassed to tell you exactly how long I owned this tool before I ever tried using it.
Wait. Let em back up.
Way back.
Maybe eight years or more ago.
I first saw this tool at a Pampered Chef party. I was wow'd, (wowed? wowwed?) but I couldn't bring myself to buy it because, even though I am a baker at heart, pies rather intimidate me for some reason. Well, that and the fact that I was suffering from sticker shock. This little baby is about fifty bucks, if you get the little wooden stand to go along with it. (which pretty much is a must, I think.)
Fast forward a few years, to about three years ago. My Pampered Chef friend was making her last order and I said, in a total weak moment of bakers insanity, "Order me one, please."
It arrived shortly thereafter. The mere thought of assembling the little wooden base seemed overwhelmingly too mechanical for me. Completely intimidated, it sat there in it's little Papmpered Chef box.
Mmm hmm, just like that.
Years passed (um, as I stated before...three years) and then, this past spring, while out yard saling with a friend, there on an old bookshelf in someones driveway, sat the identical Pampered Chef tool.
Assembled.
It mattered not that I already owned this too-cool-for-school-tool, I grabbed it. For three dollars, I had to. (That and that fact that it was ready to use...fully assembled!)
So, I gave one of my girls the new-in-the-box Pampered Chef Apple Corer Peeler (While I can agonize over dropping fifty bucks on myself, I have no problem giving a fifty dollar item to family or friends.) and I kept the thrifted one.
And, it sat there.
For months.
Until now.
My Rock n" Roll Buddy called me one day last week at work and said he had just bought ten pounds of honey crisp apples and could I make a pie from scratch for Thanksgiving?
Well, certainly I could. (After all, I had that handy-dandy-ready-to-use tool.)
That brings me finally to the point of this post.(Hmmm, I got a little wordy I am now noticing. Oh well. You like that about me, right?)
Anyway.
Last Tuesday evening we got our the gadget and I realized I still did not know how to operate it. Luckily, Ralph is the King of YouTube, and so he immediately suggested we look there(He swears you can teach yourself anything on YouTube, and I do believe he is right.)
Oh yeah, baby.
After watching a thirty second video of a fifth grader demonstrating the corer-peeler, we were in business. Within five minutes Ralph had cored, peeled and sliced all the apples for the pie, thankyouverymuch.
He was having so much fun with it that I had to stop him, lest we have ten punds of skinless, cored apples on our hands.
The pie came out perfectly, by the way. Sweet, and juicy, and yummy.
I think 2013 just might be my year to take on mastering pie making.
