My school has gone to a Universal Breakfast program where all students are to eat breakfast in the classroom. While there is some personal commentary on what these students are being fed, for the most part I find this is a good idea.
Unfortunately, some of my students are throwing away their food. Things that are packaged or have a thick peel (bananas and oranges) can be "recycled". I'm not sure if this means they're put back in a lunch at a later date, or if they're donated to a food pantry. Any who, partly eaten items or fruits with a soft peel are to be thrown away.
While I understand why they can't reuse fruit with a soft peal, it breaks my heart to see so many pieces of fruit thrown away. I saw, on average, 7-10 pieces of perfectly good fruit thrown away. It completely breaks my heart to see such a waste. I decided that collecting the fruit and eating it myself wasn't the answer. I mean, how much fruit can Danielle and I eat? So, what I will be doing is collecting the fruit and baking the fruit in to something.
Why do you care? Well, it's my blog and I haven't posted in a while (no worries, I have some froggie stories to share too!). And I figured you might be interested in some fruit recipes, or have some recipes for me to use. I'm fairly certain that I'll get sick of the fruit pie rather quickly, so I'm going to get creative and let you know how it works.
My first attempt was your basic apple pie--
I rolled out the pie crust using flour and butter.
Next, I washed, peeled and cut the apples. I mixed about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown and to make the pie more tart (I like tart rather than sweet). Next I mixed the apples with a tablespoon-ish of cinnamon (I don't really cook with measuring implements unless it's a new recipe) and about a 1/2 cup of brown sugar. I threw some flour in the mix because I was out of cornstarch to thicken it along with some vanilla and some butter.
Put the mixture in a pie plate between the two layers of pie crust. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter to vent the top layer and then made a design with the left over pieces in the center. I also brushed some egg whites on the top crust to make it shine and brown. Finally, I baked in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes and I got this lovely pie. 
Isn't it pretty?
