Halloween is passed and it is scurry time on the home-front. There is much to do as we prepare for the colder temperatures and Thanksgiving! Today I made a good batch of stock for the holiday week. With dressing, gravy, noodles and the like you can go through a huge amount of quality stock. I have my lists made and the next 10-12 days are going to be packed with a great deal of food prepping.
My good friends, Willis & Irene, just arrived from Minnesota, and they’ve brought me a 5-gallon bucket of ‘fireside’ apples. A good portion are going into making more apple butter. I’ll start the first batch tomorrow night. In fact, I may end up canning apple butter a couple more times this week. There could be a few pears coming, but they may have to wait just a little while. Then I’ve got a batch of sour dough biscuits to roll out and freeze, for later consumption. Noodles, pie crusts, fried sausage and a few more items need to be prepared so the Thanksgiving week is a breeze in the kitchen. Hm…. chicken crepes sound good too. The filling is a breeze if the shells are made and in the freezer! Yep, need to do that one too.
Today was a busy day on the home-front, as you can see, I’m on quite a roll as I prepare for the holidays. I actually gear up more for Thanksgiving than I do for Christmas. It is my favorite holiday, after all.
This evening; for our dinner guests, I whipped up a 9 x 13 pan of apple crisp. We served it with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, it was just perfect. The chicken casserole went over well, and we have another whole pan of casserole to enjoy. That means I can goof off one evening, and not cook, yeah, leftovers.
As I look at all the desserts for the fall season apple or pear crisp are probably my favorites. Sometimes I prefer them over pie! There are multitudes of ways to dress them up a bit: caramel sauce, chopped pecans or walnuts, additional dried fruits could be added. Sometimes I think a warm sauce would be good over the top. It’s the flavors of fall and the smell of a wood fireplace that make it all so very special. Whatever you do stop and enjoy this season, it’s one of the best times of the year.
Enjoy the simplicity of the crisps and if you have a unique way for preparing this recipe, I would love to hear about it.
Pear Crisp
Fruit Layer
6 pears, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup broken walnut halves
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon dry cinnamon
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon syrup*
Topping
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup quick oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Gather an 8 x 8 baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
For the fruit layer prepare the fruit, cherries and walnuts in a bowl. Sprinkle the flour, dry cinnamon, brown sugar and cinnamon syrup together and combine with the fruit. Pour into the bottom of a sprayed 8 x 8 baking dish.
Topping: Combine sugar, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Using a pastry cutter cut cold butter into the mixture, until it is evenly crumbled. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees until topping is golden and the pears are tender. This usually takes ‘around’ 30-40 minutes. Time will vary depending upon how ripe the pears are.
*Cinnamon syrup can be purchased at specialty stores. If you cannot acquire it add 1 additional teaspoon of cinnamon to the fruit bottom and 2 additional tablespoons of dark brown sugar. Dark brown sugar simply has more molasses than light brown sugar, rendering a deeper flavor.
Apple Crisp
6 medium apples, cored, peeled & sliced
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick rolled oats
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sliced apples in greased 8 x 8 baking pan. Blend remaining ingredients and put over the top. Bake 30-35 minutes until apples are tender when poked with a knife and top is golden. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Betty Dance (my mom)
