Apple Crisp

Alright, peach season is over...time to bring on the apples! Every year my family and I go up to apple hill to get apples to can them! And boy is homemade applesauce yummy! The whole process is fun too!!
   But this isn't what I made this fine summer night! We actually had some store-bought apples that nobody ate, so Laurie cooked them. Then she asked me to pull out our old Betty Crocker Cookbook (picture edition, 1956) to see if there was a crunchy recipe we could put the apples under/over. Well, just my luck, I found this wonderful apple crisp recipe!

And let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing! Very easy too!! Now, Laurie had already cooked the apples with some cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, but if you would rather not cook them you can just place them in the baking dish. That is what you should do in the original recipe, which I will place down below. But, if you wanted to flavor your apples, just cook them in a pot with some sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg!

Here are the apples, all nicely cooked! But, if you don't have a lot time or would rather un-flavor the apples, just cut them up and put them in the baking dish. Make sure you peel and core the apples, as well as cut them up. Both slices and cubed apples work fine, it is purely based on preference.

Then, you will make the topping! Just mix the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter into a medium sized bowl until crumbly. This is where the crispy top comes from! It is very simple, and almost a fail-proof recipe. I mean, someone out there might find a way to mess it up, and I would congratulate them. Just kidding, I'm not that mean!

Then you will want to crumble the mixture onto the top of your apples. It doesn't have to be perfect! And, seriously, before and after you bake it the topping will look the same!! The only way you can tell that it is done is if the topping is more of a golden brown color, and is crispy and hard-ish. I mean, if it was completely hard it might just be burnt and burnt doesn't taste so good!

But, stick this in the oven and let it cook for a while. And when I mean a while, I mean you can watch your favorite tv show, clean the kitchen, or even make a dinner! It will take a while for this to bake to perfection! And oh my goodness does this make the house smell amazing! This is definitely one of those desserts you wouldn't mind smelling forever!

Then, viola, it is done! This dessert is best served warm, and a little side of ice cream won't hurt either! If it isn't eaten right away, you can put some saran wrap over it and store it on the counter, it doesn't need to be refrigerated  But, if storing, don't do it for more than a couple of days, because then the topping will get soggy and a little gross. EW!

Recipe:

4 Apples; peeled, cored, and sliced

2/3-3/4 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c All Purpose Flour

1/2 c Rolled Oats (Quaker Oats are fine)

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/3 c Butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease an 8" pan (either square or round works).

2. Place the sliced apples in the baking dish, set aside for now.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients until it has a nice crumbly texture to it. Crumble over the apples.

4. Place dish in oven and bake 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown with a crispy texture. Serve warm for best results.

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Easy Caramel Apples

   So, every once in a while Laurie will find a recipe on the internet that she wouldd like me to make. And, knowing that I love to try new things, I do it! laurie tends to see recipes that are trending on the internet, recipes I  see but give no thought to. I mean, Pinterest has a whole page dedicated to  this recipe, yet it is hard to actually find written directions on how to make caramel apple slices! And if you have yet to see this recipe, this is basically what it is, no directions or links at all:

   Yeah, annoying right? Almost as annoying as this keyboard(which lags, then makes my words run together. Which means I have to spend extra time going back and making sure everything looks okay). Anyways, the picture above shows that you hollow out your apples, melt down some caramel sauce, and pour it in your apples. What it doesn't say is: how long to melt the caramel, when to put it in the apples, and the fact that you have to refrigerate them first to set the melted caramel. I mean, how could you get all that from one picture? You can't.
 So, once again I created my own little recipe, one that does make sense! And it is only two steps! Too easy, right? They literally take 10 minutes to take(mostly coring the apples) and 20 minutes to set. And they taste sooooo good! I mean, if my dad is eating them they must be good(he never eats what I bake, so it makes me excited when he does)! And I only used two apples since there are three of us, but it is definitely enough!

First, carve your apples! You can use any type of apple you want, but I just used these green ones since that is what traditional caramel apples are made with! But, any kind will do. You can carve out as much or as little as you would like, it all depends on how you like your apple to caramel ratio.
   You can either eat the apples "innards" or get rid of them. At my house, the chickens get them! They eat a lot of apples in the fall too, when canning season comes along! Heck, even my dogs love apples and apple skins!!

   Next, you are going to want to fill your apples with caramel. I just used this caramel that I had leftover from a catering gig I had at the beginning of summer. I only had 1/2 the jar left, which barely filled my two apples. I would say that a full jar would probably give you 3-4 apples.
   Then you would just refrigerate the apples for 20 minutes. cut them into individual slices, and enjoy!

Recipe:

2 apples, cored but not peeled

8 oz Caramel sauce, any

1. Cut your apples in half and scoop out the middle. This can be done with a spoon.

2. Pour caramel into apple halves. Refrigerate for 20min-1hr or until caramel has set.

3. Slice and enjoy!

Try this recipe? tell me how it went below in the comments!

Just a Little Hike

  Okay, so Laurie decided to take the day off so we could go on a hike! So we drive up Mt. Rose highway and get off at this trail head sign. We took the dogs with us too, they really needed the walk! And since there were three of us (Laurie, Macy, and I) and three dogs (KD, Lilly, and Spritze), it was perfect to go on this trail. The weather cooperated well today and wasn't roasting hot either, when we were walking it was only 77*. Pretty nice for a summer day!
   So we took the dogs out on this trail, and they loved it a lot! There was a lot of wildlife to see, and a lot of shade on the trail too. Sometimes it is nice to just get away from all the busy-ness and 

take a hike through the woods! It was also nice that it was fairly empty, then we wouldn't have to deal with our dogs barking so much! The one thing about this trail is that it is a lot of uphill walking, which isn't too bad since it was just a short trail. There were many littler trails connecting to this one, but we mainly stayed on the original trail. The last thing we want to do is get lost in the woods! 
   The colors in the forest were just beautiful. There is never a better time to go camping then when nature is in it's full glory. Speaking about camping, I am going next weekend to camp with Laurie and Macy! Anyways, all the flowers were in full bloom, and it was just a lot of greenery all around us!

    Sometime down the trail we came up to this little creek. How cute! There was also a lot of water going through it, which was a surprise due to the fact that it has been all heat and no rain here for the past few weeks or so. The water was definitely refreshing, as well as beautiful to look at! It was flowing nice and steadily  it even had a cute little bridge to cross over on! KD kept getting her hand stuck in the cracks between the boards on the bridge, but we made through!

I think the dogs liked it too! KD was in the water before anyone else! I actually took a slide down a tiny hill where I lost my footing, almost fell into the water myself! She would have stayed in the water all day if we didn't pull her out to move on! She was drinking the water too, and finally we got the other two dogs to drink some water as well. Lilly walked around in the water too, but she is just too fast to get a picture of!

   After the creek we moved forward on the trail. It was almost to an end! When we hit the end we crossed the street and went up to another trail that was quite close. This trail took us to an old Fish Hatchery and pond! The fish hatchery is no longer opened, but it is getting remodeled and ready to be re-opened as a recreational center. For boy scouts maybe? Anyways, inside the windows it was very spacious and looked like it had a mini kitchen or something. Totally cute and could work for a house if needed! It also overlooked this beautiful pond, and most of the forest as well. 
   This pond is man-made and stocked with fish as well. There were a couple families out fishing today, but we could all see the fish jumping in the middle of the lake, no where near the fishers! It's all in good fun, though, and that is what counts! KD also walked around in the shallow end of the pond, that dog loves her water!

After the pond we looped back around and went back to the car to eat some lunch. I had a turkey sandwich with grapes and a water, while Macy and Laurie ate ham sandwiches. The dogs even got their own little ham sandwiches! My dogs are soo spoiled, and they know it. It was nice to go on that hike, and the best part is getting to go home and taking a nap afterwords! All the dogs are tired as well, which makes everyone happy!!




Do you like camping or hiking? If so, comment where down below!