HAPPY VETERANS DAY!
Today is a day for us to honor the men and women who served our great country and fought to keep it safe. A day to give thanks to those who were willing to give their lives, so that we can enjoy ours. To all our Veterans and active duty service men and women, we appreciate you, we love you, and we thank you for what you did and do to protect our freedoms. Not just today, but every day!
Holidays dedicated to honoring our military always seem to evoke a level of patriotism across the country. When we stop to think about the freedoms we enjoy, and the people who ensure that we keep them, it really makes us proud to be Americans! Proud to live in a place that affords us the opportunity to do so many great things, both big and small. Sometimes we take for granted the fact that we can wake up and decide to do something as simple as going to an apple orchard, picking some apples, and taking them home to bake a fresh pie! But thanks to our veterans, we can do just that.
Apple pie certainly didn’t originate in America, but it has become one of those good ole symbols of Americana. And the story goes that when journalists asked soldiers being deployed during World War II why they were fighting, their go-to answer was “…for Mom and apple pie!”
My family loves apple pie, like so many others. But we’ve never actually baked our own! Spencer’s mom has baked homemade apple pies from scratch as long as he can remember, and so has mine. Last year we almost gave it a try but didn’t have everything we needed, and never ended up getting around to it, because, life. But this year I made sure we had all kitchenware necessary to give it a go. We took a trip to Gaver Farm out in Mt. Airy, MD to hand pick our own apples from their apple orchards and had so much fun! Kade preferred to pick the apples up off the ground and throw them in our bag, but eventually he caught on that you can pick them right off the tree as well.
We brought the apples home and did some research online about what kind of recipe we wanted to use. After selecting them we decided to make a few tweaks here and there to put our own twist on our pie. We went all in and even made our own pie crust from scratch too! If you’ve ever baked an apple pie, you know it’s a pretty involved process. But if you’ve ever baked a pie with a 20-month-old, involved is not even the word! One of the best parts about being a parent is seeing the world through your young child’s eyes and watching them learn and grow. When you see everything as a new experience, it makes you feel like a kid again!
Involving Kade in the baking process and letting him help was so much fun for us, and him. Sure, it was a little messier than it may have been otherwise (who am I kidding, I’m pretty messy myself!). But the joy on his face was priceless as he poured ingredients into the bowl and watched the mixer go ‘round and ‘round! He also enjoyed sampling the apples, getting flour on his face, and playing drums on the counter with the measuring cups!
Overall it took way longer to do than it probably should have, but we had so much fun and the experience of baking our first apple pie as a family will be one of our favorite memories! As we start to build some family traditions of our own, baking an apple pie might just be one of them! I have to admit, I’m am pretty impressed with our results. It turned out great! Not only does it look good, but it tasted delicious too, which of course is the most important part. This definitely won’t be our last pie baking experience!
Make sure you say thank you to the Veterans in your life today. Enjoy the fact that you can spend the day doing anything you want. Whether it be watching football, going for a hike, or starting a new family tradition. We can do it because of the Veterans who fought to protect our freedoms.
Happy Veterans Day!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SHOP OUR STYLE
