Individual Apple Pies and Peanut Butter Balls

Aaron's coming home from college this weekend, and I want him to have some treats to take back with him on Monday.  He's in the marching band, and between classes and practices he doesn't always eat enough.  He likes nutritious foods, so I don't worry so much about him making poor choices - I worry about him having time to eat at all.  Anyone who has a child on a sports team knows that during the season they need an amazing caloric intake to keep up with what they're burning - marching band is no different.

I started with some peanut butter balls.  He can throw a handful in a bag and eat them between classes or during a break at practice.  They are high fiber and high protein.  Here's the recipe on Southern Plate.  I didn't change a thing.  One word of caution, though,  She says this is a good recipe for the kids to help with, but her kids must be much more patient than mine.  I got John started forming the balls and as soon as my back was turned he ate half the ones I'd already made and turned the rest of the dough into fist-sized balls.  Uh-huh, that'll work. 

Then I made the individual apple pies. 

As good as that looks, it tastes even better!  I got the idea and the general instructions for the pies on Our Best Bites but for the pie crust recipe I contacted my friend Kelley - you know, the one that makes the fabulous chocolate raspberry martini?  She has always made impressive pies and I decided to be brave and ask for her pie crust recipe, even though I knew it was probably a deep, dark secret and well beyond my skills as a pastry chef, anyway.  Do you know what she told me?  Jiffy Pie Crust Mix.  I kid you not.  So I bought 3 boxes of the stuff and made sure to use ice-cold water like she told me and to manipulate the dough as little as possible.  It was PERFECT!
There are a few extra thing you have to know about the crust, though.  There are special jars you really do need to use for these.  I bought mine from Amazon because I didn't feel like running around town looking for them.  (See the link on the side there.)  Each box of Jiffy will do 4 jars.  The first time I tried I only got three, but I realized I was doing the crust WAY too thick.  And don't fill the jars up all the way to the top because then the top crust will stick to the lid and it won't look as pretty.
Use whatever you like for filling.  I mixed up an apple filling:
8 cups peeled, cored, chopped red delicious apples
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 Tbsp flour
Everything else I did exactly as per the Our Best Bites instructions, and these are DELICIOUS!  And of course there's no room to put a dozen jars in his dorm fridge, so Aaron's going to have some happy friends when he goes back Monday - Apple Pie Party at Cartmel Hall!