One of the things we like to do before Christmas takes place in November: Lithia Springs High School holds a big craft show called "Christmas at Lithia."

One of the "vendors" every year are representatives from a gourmet cooking supply outfit called Pampered Chef. You have parties for Pampered Chef products, like Tupperware, and the folks hand out circulars at the show and sell an irresistable treat. They have this gadget that cores, peels, and slices apples into spirals, and they do this with a Granny Smith apple, dribble it with warm caramel sauce, and hand it to you with a spoon. James and I love Granny Smiths and always end up getting one apple, sometimes two.

Last year we started to consider buying one of the gadgets for ourselves, despite the cost, which is about $40-$50. I love Granny Smiths--I love all sour apples--but the skin aggravates my acid reflux. Also, we had an idea about making sugar-free apple pies and tarts. The ones they sell in stores are hideously sweet; I've never figured out why one has to add sugar to apple pies at all. The moment you bake an apple you get sweeter. But peeling and coring all those apples is drudgery, as far as both of us are concerned.

Tonight we were tooling around the appliances and things at B.J.'s and came upon a similar gadget called The Apple Machine. It was only $14.95. For $14.95 I figure one can take a chance on anything. We brought it home, set it up, and merrily peeled and cored two of the big bag of Granny Smiths we'd bought in the produce department. Yum, even without the caramel sauce!

Not sure it will have the longevity of the Pampered Chef corer/peeler, but it was more in our price range and seems fairly sturdy.

Now to figure out an easy way to make a sugar-free pie crust. :-)

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:37:00 PM

Comments:

Sugar free pie crust? Well, my father and mother for years have been winning rainbows of ribbons at the NM State Fair with this old classic...

http://www.crisco.com/scripts/display_recipe.asp?recipe_nbr=5781

And not a speck of sugar in sight... (Grin.)

J.

# posted by  Jerry : 7:58:00 AM

 

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