Warren, Connecticut. My wife Anne and our friend Joy Brown finishing up the first batch of what turned out to be ten apple pies (ten more to go). My job was already done, I peeled all the fruit and at this point my hands are so tired I can hardly hold the camera.

Some of the pies are our traditional pie mix and some have experimental supplements. As the wine flowed, the supplements got more adventurous: blueberries, cranberries, raisins, walnuts, and various combinations of these.

We’re scheduled to have another baking session here soon to use up the fruit we bought at our local orchard. Oh, we don’t eat all pies right away (tempting), we seal and freeze them for use at Thanksgiving and Christmas. When the turkey comes out of the oven (2 pm or so) turn the oven off and put the frozen pies in. By the time you’re ready to eat again the pies are defrosted and warmed up and great. Serve with high butter fat vanilla ice cream.

After dinner we ate one of the "experimental" pies. This one had our pie mix plus dried cranberries, raisins and walnuts in it. Anne was skeptical but we all agreed: killer pie. I’d say this particular pie was one of the best Anne’s ever made. Must have been Joy’s influence.