My quest for culinary enlightenment.

Sure, I can cook. If you like scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers or spaghetti, your in luck. Now if you want something with a little more class or pizazz..... you are sure to be disappointed. But my novice skills in the the kitchen are taking on a new form. I am going to learn to cook.
I started this journey about a month ago. I bought two Martha Stewart cookbooks, two Betty Crocker cookbooks, Anita Prichard's Candy Cookbook, Patrick O'Connell's Refined American Cuisine, and the Complete Book of Preserving. I now have a collection of beautiful cookbooks.
I pulled Martha off the bookshelf a couple of weeks ago and proceeded to make the all-american apple pie.
I first made what Martha refers to as the "Pate Brise'e" (pie crust) and then made the filling.
I kept thinking that my bottom crust was too thick, but hey what do I know? So I put the filling in the pie and realized that it would dry out if I baked it without a topcrust.... so I made an entire recipe of Pate Brise'e again and put it on top. That works right? Yeah, guess not. I baked it for the alloted time... plus some. It still wasn't done. Finally, I pulled it out of the oven. The crust was one inch thick on the bottom and the strips covering it were about 3/4 inch thick . Unbeknownst to me, you are supposed to divide the crust in half - 1/2 for the top and 1/2 for the bottom. Maybe that would be obvious to most people...but I am new at this sort of thing.
Needless to say, it was one of the more doughy pies that I've eaten. My precious family ate it like troopers though. They even lied and said it tasted good. Such a brave lot.
I havent cooked since then, but I am not giving up. I think I'll start with Betty instead of Martha next time and work my way up to gourmet.