My mother had gone to her mother’s for a month-long visit, leaving my father, brother and myself alone to fend for ourselves. I was in charge of the kitchen and all the meal preparation, well at least dinner. I had recently started dating the man (really a boy) who would become my husband, I decided it was a good time to showcase my cooking skills. I invited him and planned the meal. It was nothing fancy, just a meat and potato supper but I knew from our dates that my guest liked desserts, apple pie in particular.

We had an old apple tree in the yard loaded with apples. They were still a...