Apple Crisp

I really should be posting the recipe for Peach Cream Pie. It is my best pie and I promised you the recipe back in the spring. The peaches are nearly gone now and I am not making that pie until Thursday, so, I'm sorry, you'll need to wait a while longer.

We are, however, smack in the middle of Apple Season. We were invited tonight to the beautiful home of my Genetically Perfect friends Brian and Jen. She made a very delicious meal of white chili, cornbread and fruit pizza. It really hit the spot on this, one of the first fall-like days. I offered to bring an apple crisp, since they are in season and I figured it would be a good ending to such a wonderful autumn meal.

When I was a school-aged girl and my mother went back to work, I was sometimes in charge of making the evening meal on Tuesdays, when Mom had to work until 6:00 PM. We didn't often have desserts for our simiple family meals, but I found this recipe of Mom's easy to manage and found the apples themselves on the tree in our backyard. I frequently made this dish to close the meal and today, my own family likes it alot, too. I didn't find any Granny Smith apples at the orchard across the river from my house, which is the type of apple I like to use for baking. I chose the tartest apples they had on hand, which was MacIntosh, and truly I didn't find the results all that favorable. I should have adjusted the sugar and cinnamon for this sweeter apple, but it would have been just guesswork without knowing how they tasted baked. I find this dish made with Granny Smiths to be apple-ier and with a crisper taste.

Please make this this fall:

Apple Crisp

6 c. peeled, sliced apples
1/2 c. sugar
cinnamon
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
1 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
1/2 t. baking soda


Mix apples, white sugar and cinnamon (to taste - my guess is that I use about 3/4 t.) and pour into a baking dish. In a bowl, make crumbs of butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and soda. Spread over the apples. Bake at 350 until apples are tender, about 30-45 minutes.

Here's a picture of the finished product, but I notice it's not the most interesting thing in the photo next to Jen's glamorous fruit pizza.

Squirrel Behavior

Perusing the fruits of my summer labor...

We should be set with green beans, tomato juice, salsa, grape juice, pickles, grape jelly, tomato chutney...


...also applesauce and a couple of loaves of zucchini bread. Those foil packages at the bottom are coffee beans from Michael's annual trips to the Dominican Republic.


And here are the meals I've made in advance, ready to pull out on busy days of teaching piano lessons. The freezer boxes have shredded zucchini in them so that I can make fresh loaves of zucchini bread, which is a favorite quick breakfast.

This is wealth.

Bluegill Parmesan

So today I (with the family) dug about 20 gallons of potatoes, picked tomatoes, did four loads of laundry, defrosted and organized the deep freeze, ticked Mike off by plugging up the garbage disposal, made three casseroles for the freezer and served the family Bluegill Parmesan from our fishing excursion yesterday. It was, for certain, a Labor Day.

My dad is an avid fisherman. Always has been. But, until this summer, I've never, EVER been fishing. Two weeks ago, we went with a church group to a nearby lake. Our hostess LOVES to fish and, when I told her I never had, she set about to rectify that situation. I caught three fish, all about the size of my thumb. In fact, I caught one of them twice. How do I know this, you may ask? Because my buddy/ teacher saw the worm from the last time still in his mouth! She took a video of me screaming and holding that tiny Fish Stick up and posted it on Facebook. If I were savvy enough to figure it out, I'd put it on this post. Stay tuned.

Yesterday, we invited Dad over for popcorn and dozing in front of the television, a Sunday afternoon tradition - both in my current home and my home-of-origin. I told him about my first attempt at my newest hobby and before I knew it he and my family of five were all standing on the shore of a friend's stocked pond with lines in the water. We threw back the bass and kept the bluegill. I was excited because I had a wonderful recipe which I hadn't been able to use for several years. We had 18 fish total, which Dad filleted and shared with us. I turned half of it into Bluegill Parmesan for tonight's dinner and flash froze the rest and threw them into a freezer bag to keep for later.

Here's the recipe:

Bluegill Parmesan
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. dry bread crumbs
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 T minced fresh parsley
1 t. salt
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. dried basil
1/4 t. pepper
1 pound bluegill fillets (perch or crappie may be substituted)

Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and seasonings in shallow bowl. Dip fillets in melted butter then coat with crumb mixture. Place in a baking dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20 minutes, when fish flakes easily with a fork.

In Which I Write Like a Lazy Person

Don't forget to make these before summer is over.

Before and After the Natural Disaster ( Canning Season)

I'm bold enough to show you what my kitchen looks like after days of canning and the mess that comes with it. With no shame... here it is.

I was actually already into the cleaning process by the time I took this photo. The sinks are full of soapy water and the "spiders" from the stovetop are in there soaking. But you can see burned on gunk on the range.... why bother cleaning it up when you just have another batch of tomatoes to do on Thursday? Green bean season is done, so I've put away the pressure canner. However, the weight from the pressure canner lid didn't make the trip with the rest of the gang, so there he sits on my countertop because it's too much trouble to take him downstairs. Every time I use up a freezer box of fruit lately, I don't bother to take them downstairs to storage, either, because I'm just going to have to do peaches next week.

What I am ashamed of is that I gave up on making it clean between projects because it seemed hopeless and more mess was coming. Therefore, I just added to the mess and it really did become almost insurmountable in my neglect. The kitchen's a mess, but I needed to bake cookies, so I got out my red Tupperware bowl and mixed up the cookies in a messy kitchen. Ava picked some green pears and I left them to ripen on a messy countertop. One of the kids made a glob of clay and painted it. They made it with their own two hands and I didn't know what to do with it, so it helped to clutter up the counter, too. The salt and pepper shakers were left out, the mail accumulated and a pair of swim trunks purchased in the wrong size laid there waiting to be returned.

But where there is gumption, there is hope. Eventually I just put my head down and did the hard job of putting things to right. I decided that the painted clay glob was not particularly beautiful or useful, and, since there is no shortage of precious things made by my children, I threw it out. I put the freezer boxes away knowing I will get them out when the peaches are ready. The swimming trunks were put in a shopping bag in my trunk. The mail was sorted and purged. I did the time-consuming organizing (which I hate) of lone paper clips, pens, barrettes that are always at the bottom of junky piles.

And I felt SO HAPPY making dinner in my beautiful kitchen.

Macro-Planning

I am a piano teacher and sometime substitute teacher in the local public school. My piano students are on break right now between the summer session and the fall term. I haven't gotten any work yet as a substitute teacher because the school year just started. The kids are back to their routine and I have "time off." I'm definitely making time for lunch with friends, but the "time off" isn't as leisurely as I always fantasize it will be. There are always plenty of things to do.

Like stockpile food. I don't know how many would agree with me, but according to my piano studio, I have to say, "What recession?" My studio has grown by about 20% every year for the last four years. This fall, I have to add a third evening of teaching to my schedule. This is both good and bad. I'm happy to have a reputation that grows my business without any advertising on my part. I'm happy that I get to contribute financially to my family and that I can do it without leaving home. I'm blessed that I can teach about five hours of lessons to homeschooled students during the school day when my kids are in school. But with the rest of my 31 students, my work day can't begin until MY children are home from school.

At this point, the third day of teaching looks like it will just be two hours between school and dinnertime. My work hours will be cutting into my food prep time and I'm making extra meals as I can and putting them in the freezer. I thawed a whole heap of ground beef this weekend and made four meatloaves, one which we ate that night and three that I put into the freezer. Last night I made a favorite chicken and rice casserole and made three extra for the freezer. I can pull one of these out in the morning of a busy day and have it baking during my lessons. Won't my students wish they were staying for dinner when they smell it?


Here is the recipe for Chicken and Rice Casserole, as given to me by my Mother-In-Law, Karen.

1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2/3 c. water
1 package of dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 c. Minute Rice

Mix these ingredients together and spread in a greased casserole dish. Lay chicken pieces on top of the rice, cover with foil and bake. This is a good dish to have baking while you're at church because it can either be baked for 2 hours @ 350 or 3 hours @ 275. It smells and tastes great.

Tomayto, Tomahto

Once again with more tomatoes to use, I came to the decision that we'd have spaghetti with homemade sauce for dinner tonight. I always have an abundance of ground beef in the freezer. I HOPED I'd have everything onhand for spaghetti sauce from scratch.

Whenever I want to make a basic "something" and don't have a recipe to which I am faithful, it is becoming my habit to turn to The Basics and More, a cookbook that BFF Rebecca gave me. It has recipes that everybody should have, basic bread, pound cake, buttercream frosting, cinnamon rolls, and, thankfully, spaghetti sauce.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am with this recipe! It's sweet and spicy. My family thought it was a bit too spicy, and I even left out some of the called for spicy ingredients. I'm all too pleased to pass this on. Here's the basic recipe, though it makes a ton - it's meant for canning - so I reduced it tonight and left out the Tabasco and hot peppers. (And it was STILL too hot. Can you imagine!?)

Spaghetti Sauce II
11 qts. thick tomato juice
6 cloves of garlic
6 medium onions
1 c. parsley, chopped
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. salt
3 T oregano
A few bay leaves, optional
2 T basil
1 t. red pepper
2 t. chili powder
1/2 to 1 T Tabasco
1/4 c. olive oil, optional
A few hot peppers, optional
1/2 clear jell (I found I didn't need this. It cooked down to be thick enough on its own. - DBC)

"Put juice in big heavy saucepan. Save some to put in blender with onions, cloves and parsley to shop. When chopped, add to juice and add spices and simmer 4 hours or until thick. Put into jars and process" - Rachel Ramer, Goshen, IN