Apple crisp!

Yeah I’m just rattling them off, tonight.

I might not be if I’d had enough butter, because I really, desperately wanted to make more apple crisp tonight. It’s funny… I go most of my life hardly ever baking. Oh, mom, you are so good at it I didn’t need to! And I put too much rum in the rum balls last year (and I don’t even drink!).

I made banana bread recently, and, well, you can read about that disaster here. I’ve wanted to make apple crisp for awhile because it’s just so damn good. I’ve started to like and consume oats quite a bit, and I knew I had all the ingredients (except cinnamon, but I rectified that pretty quickly).

Horrified, of course, to discover that we bought artificial vanilla extract… sigh… but I guess that’s what ya do when you’re living paycheque to paycheque. Tastes fine. Anyway.

I made some a few days ago, and not enough because it was gone the next afternoon. Yup. And no more apples. Got the man to pick up 12 today. He bought Galas… yum. The ones I used the other day were, uh, early something or other. I’d like to think early girl, but that’s tomatoes.

Here’s the recipe, from the book my sister so kindly passed down called “Cooking without Mom.” No kidding.

Temp 350 degrees (F)

Cooking time 45 minutes

Preparation time 15 minutes (yeah right… make that half an hour if you’re not good at peeling apples!)

Makes 4 servings (which is, btw, not enough, yeah, so double it!)

5 cups sliced apples (approx. 5 normal-sized apples)

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oatmeal (ahem, rolled oats!)

1/2 cup butter

This part has been revised by me.

Peel and slice apples into a bowl. Add brown sugar and mix well, then put into a 1 or 2-quart (1 or 2L) casserole dish. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats and cinnamon. Add butter and mix until crumbly. (A wooden spoon will do fine if you melt the butter a bit, but it takes longer. I melted it with the bowl over the element most heated by the oven.) Sprinkle flour mixture on top of apples and bake for about 45 minutes.

* I used white flour… bad me.

* You do not need more than 1 tsp. cinnamon… really.

* Most nutrients in an apple are below the skin, right? So you may prefer to leave it on… I don’t think it’s a problem but what do I know. Mom???

* I found I needed the 2L dish.

* Boyfriend said to use a knife to peel the apples, but the potato peeler worked great, and I assumed its shape was meant to core apples. Works great. If you do decide to peel the apples, eat the skin, eh!

Sister says you can subsitute zucchini for apples, first soaked in cinnamon & sugar.

(Zucchini can also be used as a substitute for lasagna noodles, fried first, for those of you with wheat allergies.)

If anyone has a great recipe for making squares, bars, or cookies that are easy to take to work or school, please pass along. I have oats, chocolate chips, pecans, raisins, and peanut butter. I also love cranberries, almonds, and pistachios.

Mom, where’s that almond/pistachio biscotti recipe that turned out so beautifully last time? Mmm mmm!