Apple Crostata

A crostata, for those of you who don't know (like myself until about a week ago), is a form of Italian pastry, or as defined by Dictionary.com- "A baked tart, either open-faced or topped with a lattice crust, that is filled with fruit, jam, ricotta cheese, or other ingredients." So that's exactly what I'm gonna give you- an easy recipe for a apple crostata that only requires a few simple steps. You can impress a lot of people with this pretty pastry, and they never have to know how easy it is to make! I imagine I will be making many more varieties of these in the future, and of course I'll share those recipes with you as well!

So, I kinda went at this blindly.. I watched someone make a cream cheese and prosciutto crostata on the food network the other day, and got the idea from her. So here we go:

Start with a few simple ingredients- Apples, pie crust, corn starch, sugar and cinnamon. Yum!

Peel and slice your apples into pretty skinny pieces, that way they bake quickly.

After you've added the cinnamon/sugar/corn starch mixture to the apples, roll out your pie crust, and lay the apples out on top, leaving about an inch or so around the edge.

Now you want to fold up the edges, overlapping where necessary. It doesn't have to be perfect (obviously), but you want to make sure you have sealed the seams well so the delicious appley juices don't run out.

Dip a butter knife (or pastry brush if you have one) in water, and spread a light coating of water on top of the crust. Then sprinkle lightly with sugar.

Bake.. and Voila! A beautiful yet easy Italian pastry. Be sure to tell all your friends its a crostata, and when they ask what that is, emphasize Italian pastry.. that'll impress 'em!

That's all there is to it! Yay! And let me tell you, it was soo tasty! It wasn't perfect, however, no one will care once they eat it ;)

Apple Crostata

Yields: 8 Slices

 

2 Medium Apples               2 tsp. Corn Starch

2 tsp. Cinnamon                  1 9-inch Pie Crust

1/2 C. Sugar + 1 Tbsp.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Peel and core apples, and slice into thin slivers

3. In a bowl, mix apples with cinnamon, 1/2 C. sugar, and corn starch until apples are coated

4. Roll out pie dough onto cookie sheet

5. Lay coated apple slices out on pie dough in a circle shape, leaving about 1 inch around edge

6. Fold up the remaining edges of the pie crust, overlapping where needed

7. Brush a small amount of water on crust edge and sprinkle with remaining sugar

8. Bake for ~15-20 minutes, or until crust is golden-dark brown and apples are soft when poked with a toothpick.

9. Enjoy!!

A New Perspective

When you're running the 3200 meter race during a track and field event, you're supposed to find a good pace and keep that pace throughout most of the race. This is a lot like writing a blog.. find a good pace, and keep it. Unfortunately, I started this blog like it was a 100 meter dash, instead of a long race, and hit that wall pretty quick. I haven't posted in a few weeks, mostly because school and life have caught up with me. Life is kind of funny like that, right? Some may even say its hilarious, especially when it sucker-punches you in the gut.

I think that sometimes, in order to stay sane, we have to take a step back and try to view things from a different perspective. Facing life's wrath is something that is unavoidable, but at times, it can feel like everyone and everything around you is moving so fast, and you're stuck struggling to take 2 steps forward without tripping. Trust me when I say that it's okay to trip, even if you fall. It's in those moments when you're picking yourself back up that you realize what and who is truly important in life. Over the past couple weeks, the sequence of events that has taken place in my life is a sequence which is hard to wrap my head around. Imagine yourself being pelted with snowballs by your friends, and you continually say stop, but they're having fun so they keep going. Finally, you reach you're breaking point and just scream, "STOP!" and everyone looks at you like you're nuts.. Yup, I'm that crazy person. Except life was the one pelting those snowballs- or maybe even rocks- at me. In that "STOP!" moment however, that moment when you feel like everything spinning around you pauses for a brief second right before you hit the bottom, I remembered something very important; 

Peter 5:7 - "Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you."

And in that moment, the snowballs suddenly became something I could dodge, catch, or handle even if they hit me. In that moment, I could breathe again. In that moment, I gained a new perspective.