An Apple (or six) A Day

So today's featured "Thing I love about Fall that I don't usually get to enjoy until it's nearly over" is baking. I love to bake. I love food. I love aprons, and making messes (not so keen on the cleaning up of said messes), and experimenting with new ingredients. Even on a hot day I enjoy cooking. When I was six my mom made me enter a cooking contest at a fair. She'd bought me a cookbook for my sixth birthday and I had been bugging her to let me cook. so she let me enter this contest and pick out a thing to cook from my cookbook. I made an Apple Crisp. I won First Prize. I still brag about this. Not because I am arrogant and can't move past age six, but because folks, it doesn't get better than this. I have become quite a Apple Crisp connoisseur and let me tell you, mine beats them all hands down. It's a good old-fashioned American treat. None of this gourmet stuff, or pre made-pop-it-in-the-oven crap, this is real, non processed, yummy goodness. I have never shared this recipe with anyone. Until today.

Over the years I have made probably 1000 of these things and no one has ever not liked it. This has become a staple for my family at Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and gives me a reason to go to Oak Glen (Post about Oak Glen to follow) and get fresh apples. When I was ten a fifteen year old boy proposed to me after eating it at a church event. It is that good. And now fifteen year olds can propose to you. You can thank me later. I give you:

Ashley's First Prize Apple Crisp

You will need:

Butter or margarine

3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I add a whole teaspoon)

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (I add a whole teaspoon)
1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

6 (or more) cooking apples

Pre heat the oven to 400. Peel and core apples. I use one of those table attachments that slice, peel, and core all at once. If you are without one of these quarter the apples and cut each quarter into slices. they can be as big or small as you want. Once they have all been cut place the apples in a casserole dish greased with butter or margarine. Set to the side. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a mixing bowl. I find mixing with my hands works best for this. Pour melted butter into mixture and mix until you have a crumbly topping. It should look like the top of a Dutch Apple Pie. Once you have this mixed, crumble it over top the apples. Sometimes I double the topping and give it a thick cover, but otherwise just sprinkle the topping until it's all gone. Bake for 35 minutes or until the apples are tender and the topping is brown. Best when served warm (though it tastes just as yummy the next morning after it's been in the fridge ;-))

Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a cinnamon stick.

Grab a cup of coffee

Eat

Commence letter to me dripping with gratitude.

For more fall baking you might like Sarah's recipe for Molasses Cookies. I haven't yet tried these, but being a fan of molasses I am excited to break out my aprons and get cooking!

Also, do you guys (the five of you who read) like seeing recipes on here? I've been thinking of posting some for a while (you would probably be surprised by the vastness of my cooking ability), but I keep second guessing the idea. So waddaya think? Should I post a recipe every now and then?

I'm off to Disneyland today! Enjoy your Apple Crisp!