an apple a day ...

it's apple season

I'm not a really huge apple fan with the exception of one variety - Gravensteins, only available for a short period every fall. Right now. I'm not sure what it is about this particular apple that I like so much. It's almost the only kind of apple that I really enjoy eating raw. Fresh and crisp, slightly tart and an easy to bite into, without being at all mushy, texture. It seems to me the perfect apple. Yesterday afternoon I made an apple crisp. My own recipe and with a scoop of french vanilla ice cream ... well yum is all I can tell ya.

Caramel Apple Crisp

5-7 large apples cored, peeled and sliced
1 cup of flour
1 cup of oatmeal
1/2 cup cold butter
3/4 cups brown sugar
good dash of cinnamon

Set aside 1/4 cup of brown sugar and mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl. I use my fingertips to smush up the butter into smaller pieces (like you would do if you were making pastry). Layer apples in a casserole dish sprinkling each layer with a bit of the remaining brown sugar. Pile on the crisp topping and bake in a 350 oven for 45 mins to an hour. You want the apples to be very soft and the topping to be brown and "crisp".

Serve warm with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

Did any of you watch Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live last night ? ... don't give anything away ... I taped it to watch this evening. Here's a skit from SNL - The Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview - too, too funny (I loved their take on Katie as well - she made me almost as nervous as Sarah did). I watched those original interviews on the CBS nightly news awhile back, and for the most part they made me so uncomfortable I had to look away.

Buddha Boy has just arrived atop the teaked topped desk, with sweet purrs and chirping mews and I'm now off to the lands of bubbles, with mint, rosemary, eucalyptus & lavender. And of course an itinerary must be prepared for this Sunday. A much nicer word than list. Wink.