Bark At The Art

100 Days Until I Turn 30: So I made Mini Pies...

After a horrible headache in the morning, I got this idea that I should try my personal pie maker I bought this past December.  I followed a small recipe that came with the pie maker.  My Grandma pealed and cut the apples for me, but I did everything else. Below is a photo of the yummy filling I prepared.

The recipe actually told me to microwave the filling for 11 minutes.  I didn't know how well it would taste after being in the microwave, but it was very sweet and tasty.  I let the filling cool in the refrigerator while I prepared the crust. I used "ready-rolled 9-inch pie crust", which made the process easier.

Because I am an Artist, I felt the need for my pies to have interesting tops.

I did the "M" crust in honor of Memorial Day.  I placed the bottom crust into the pie maker, and put a couple scoops of the filling in.

Then I placed my beautiful lids on.  I only did two pies first, because this was the first time I was using the pie maker and wanted to experiment with techniques.

I baked/cooked them for 10 minutes.  The photo below is what they looked liked after they were baked.

Unfortunately, the bottoms were not thick enough and some of the sticky filling leaked onto the plate that I had placed the pies to cool.  One pie's bottom fell out a bit, and the pie's home had to remain on the plate until it was eaten.

I ended up making 3 more pies.  I even added some blue dye to make a couple of the lids more creative. See my creative pies below.

For the first pies I ever made, I think they didn't turn out too bad.  They weren't perfect, but they were fun to make!  The mini pie maker is so much fun to have, and I can't wait to make more tasty pies with it.  They didn't taste too bad either!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

 

Do You Use Coupons?

I use coupons! On Sundays, I use to only clip out A.C.Moore coupons to help limit my costs on art supplies. Art supplies are expensive and any type of discount can be helpful on art supplies. I never  would cut out any of the manufacture coupons because I never thought the savings would add up enough for it to be worth my time. Before I go further, let me tell you how stupid I was to neglect the manufacture coupons out their for other products!

This past Sunday, I decided to clip out all the coupons for items I would use, or eat. Then I took those coupons to Acme. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up saving after I used my Acme savings card and my coupons!

Here is how much I saved:

• Saved $9.16 by using my Acme savings card.
• Saved $5.00 by using some of the coupons I cut out.
• Total savings= $14.16
• Total bill= $14.64
• Left store with three plastic bags full of products!

I saved almost 50%! My bill would of been $28.80 if I didn't use my Acme savings card or those coupons. If I had only used my coupons and not the savings card, I would of been just as happy saving $5.00. To me $5.00 can go towards more of my expensive art supplies. It is worth the little time it takes to clip out coupons!

Conclusion= I love coupons!