Year: 2011

Bacon Apple Pie

Makes 2 mini pies
8 slices bacon (applewood smoked, center cut, thick sliced), divided use
1 sheet refrigerated pie crust
2-3 small granny smith apples (2 cups yield)
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons maple syrup, divided use
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons flour (plus more for rolling dough)
 
To make the lattice tops, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 4 pieces of bacon in half crosswise, then again lengthwise (to create long strips). Each lattice will use 8 strips – 4 horizontal and 4 vertical. Weave them together to create a basket-weave pattern. Place lattices on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil, top with another piece of foil, and finally another baking sheet to weigh down the bacon. Bake for about 17 minutes, until bacon is brown and slightly crisp. Drain on paper towels and reserve.
 
With remaining 4 slices of bacon, chop in a small dice and fry in a large pan. Cook until bacon is very crispy, then drain on paper towels and let cool. Reserve 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in pan.
Once the bacon bits are cool, place 2 tablespoons in a grinder (I use a coffee grinder designated for spices) and run until the bacon is ground to a fine dust. Reserve remaining bacon.
For the pie shells, turn oven down to 350 degrees. Sprinkle flour on counter and roll out pie dough slightly to about 12 inches across. Cut out circles larger than the tart pans. Sprinkle bacon dust over each crust and press in lightly with rolling pin. Fit dough into tart pans, tucking excess dough underneath to create a thicker edge. Press buttered foil into shells and fill with beans or weights. Blind bake shells for 20 minutes. Reserve.

When ready to fill pies, peel and quarter the apples. Cut each quarter very thinly (about 8 slices each), then cut in half crosswise. In the same pan you cooked the bacon, heat the 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. Add apples and remaining bacon bits. Sauté until softening, then add sugar, syrup and cinnamon. Cook for another minute until mixture becomes like caramel. Remove from heat and stir in flour. Brush the pie shells with 1/2 tablespoon of syrup each, coating sides and bottom. Fill the shells with the apple mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. While the pies are baking, coat both sides of each bacon lattice with remaining maple syrup. After 12 minutes, place a lattice over each pie and return to oven. Bake for about 13 more minutes, until bacon is slightly crisp. Cool slightly before cutting. via

Money Etiquitte Issues

Problem: Friends or coworkers who need to reimburse you for a group gift keep saying, “Yeah, I’ll get that to you,” and never do. What should you do?

Solution: Send an e-mail reminding everyone that you’re collecting and would appreciate it if they’d get their share to you by a specific date, suggests Susan Hackley, the managing director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. “If people still haven’t paid within a week, another pleasant e-mail―appreciatively noting the names of those who have paid―is perfectly appropriate,” says Hackley. If only one or two people haven’t chipped in yet, talk to them privately, says Spizman. “Ask if they sent it and by chance you didn’t receive it―don’t be accusatory. They really might have forgotten,” she says. It’s also possible that they’re short of money. In that case, you could compromise and say you’d be willing to accept whatever they can manage. If this puts you in a bind, you might ask some other group members (without revealing intimate details) if they’d consider chipping in a few extra bucks, since the group ran short.

CLICK HERE for 10 other money etiquitte issues.

Toilet Train Your Cat

Move the cat’s litter box so it is right next to the toilet, keep it like this for about a day.
Then gradually raise the litter box up by placing phone books (or something similar) under it. Repeat daily until the box is of equal height to the toilet. Whenever you raise the box take a little bit of the litter out of the box. You may need to secure the litter box to the phone books or whatever it’s sitting on so that it doesn’t move when the cat jumps onto it.

Move the box over 1 inch onto the seat. Repeat daily until the box is directly over the seat. Continue gradually decreasing the amount of litter in the box until there is only a thin layer (less than 1 inch) of it left.4Replace the litter box with a “training box”. You have a few different options here, but the important thing to remember is to make sure the “training box” can hold your cat’s weight if they step or jump onto it:
Lift the toilet seat and tape a piece of wax paper over the hole so that the toilet looks like a drum. Lower the seat over the wax paper. Add flushable litter.
Lift the toilet seat and tape a bowl or aluminum pan to the edges. Put the seat down so that it holds the bowl in place. (See video below.) Add flushable litter.
Use a commercial training device, sold specifically for this purpose. via