Making an Apple Pie

I have to give the Cool Science Mom credit for this one since all I did was watch from the kitchen table and write up this post.  :-)  We recently read Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie book to our kids.  At the end of the book is a recipe for making an apple pie.  Our kids wanted to make the apple pie, so they did, with my wife.  I took a few pictures of them in action, but basically I stayed out of the actual pie construction.

The kids had a lot of fun, especially when it came to peeling and coring the apples using a special apple peeler/corer.

This isn't our apple peeler, but looks very similar to ours.  The kids loved turning the handle themselves, and even my 3 year old was strong enough to do a complete apple peeling.  The apple peel stays intact as one very long strand which was kind of cool.

Then came the point where I learned something about making apple pies.  Once the filling was poured onto the pie crust and the top half of the pie crust was placed on top of the filling, my wife used a cookie cutter to cut out a small portion of the upper pie crust.  I asked her why she did this and learned that if you don't there's no way for the hot air to escape.  The pie crust will bubble up and potential make a mess in the oven.  Makes perfect sense.  Never thought about this before since I've never made an apple pie.

So there you go, a great activity for the kids, and the Cool Science Dad learned something too!!!