Rhubarb-Apple Crisp

The artsy thing I usually do is take a fancy picture of the dessert by itself on a plate in a half attempt at food photography, but I only remembered to do so after I ate mine (with whipped cream. Always. Though of course it is just as tasty without). Instead, I leave you with a full view of the baking dish, with the a scoop taken out of it. Not so artsy--le sigh.

Why, it's a new recipe at last! And a crisp one, no doubt. More often than not, when I bake, I tend to put my own spin on whatever it is I make. Meaning, I don't exactly follow it to a tee' (usually combining different recipes together). For this crisp I made on the weekend, I followed this recipe, but as I didn't have enough rhubarb to make six cups, I just added chopped granny smith apple (about two apples worth) to fill however many cups I needed. I also made it with quick cooking oats rather than rolled, which I found didn't make too much of a difference from its counterpart. But just in case, I just let it bake for 40 minutes.

And it worked! In a food critique-y way so to speak, it made for an excellent tart/sweet combo. Not to mention I loooove the crunchy topping that goes on top. On any crisp, for that matter. I've never baked with rhubarb before; a family friend gave us a bunch of it, so I decided to put it to good use. And good use it was.

Post Thanksgiving Weekend

My Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good; despite having not been home (school work bound!) to enjoy a lovely home cooked meal of Turkey, a lovely home cooked meal was made here between me and my supa cool friend/housemate N! (Also credited for the drawing above. I get credit for the the words coming from the Irish(?) turkey)

Instead of cooking a turkey, we decided on a roast, because it was simpler to make, and there was only two of us having it. Along with the roast we had ratatouille, mashed turnip, carrots and to top it off, a fantastic apple crisp for dessert! Oh yes, and a nice local wine from a little place called Grand Pre.

On the Saturday, we decided to go to the Farmer's Market for locally grown veggies and fruits that we needed. Always a nice idea if you want to go sustainable/local! If I had time on Saturday mornings (and the will to get up early enough), I'd be heading down to the Market every time.

But on Sunday, we created our Thanksgiving masterpiece!

My wondrous ratatouille

Our fine roast, with turnip and carrots

My dinner plate (the ratatouille has grated parmesan cheese on it)

And lastly, my dessert of apple crisp, dolloped(!) with whipped cream

And following is the recipe used (Credit going to N)! We highly recommend it :) Enjoy!

• 3 pounds tart apples
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preparation:

Peel, core and chop the apples; toss in a bowl with lemon juice. In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg; add to the apples and toss to combine.

In another bowl combine flour, sugar and oats. Cut butter into 8 small pieces, and cut butter into flour with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture is crumbly. Stir in the chopped nuts.

Butter a 9-inch square baking dish. Spread apple mixture in bottom of baking dish then sprinkle with flour mixture. Bake at 375° for 30 to 45 minutes, or until apples are tender and topping is lightly browned.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with vanilla ice cream or a little heavy cream, if desired.

For the link, go here!

The countdown is on!

Oh gosh. Just a week from today, my trip to Italy with my parents and sister is coming! It's come up so fast, I can't believe it. (I could have sworn it was just October when my dad forwarded me the email confirmation of the hotel booking in Rome.) But I'm so excited-- the last time I went was in grade 12 for a school trip! We'll be visiting Rome, Venice, and Florence all in ten days time. As a result of stalling over the last week, all this week I will be packing, packing, packing. I did get myself a pair of nice sandals the other day, comfortable enough to walk around in for ages. I just hope the tan lines from the straps won't be too severe!

I, of course, can't wait for the food experience; what ever I may be eating over there, I can't fathom just yet. I love looking at the art and beautiful scenery, but I also will love sitting in an outdoor cafe sipping my macchiato and watching the world go by. It sounds corny, but there's nothing nicer than that!

Except for the gelato.

This trip will give me a great opportunity to hone my photography skills; I'll be sure to take some awesome food photography as well, because I have been lax lately. Well, except for this grilled cheese sandwich I made a few weeks ago:

I used cinnamon raisin bread and added sliced apples with (real) cheddar cheese, and it turned out to be pretty darn good. I found the recipe in a magazine a few years ago and scoured the net for it, alas with no luck. But it's easy enough to make solo, and how can one go wrong with grilled cheese?

The weather down here just can't seem to make up its mind as to whether (haha) it should stay warm or go cool! Some days it has been warm enough for shorts and iced drinks; other days it has been cool enough to want to stay in doors and drink tea! Aahh, silly Canadian weather. We've also been getting a lot of rain and thunder showers. The rain sounds lovely and relaxing, but the thunder that is accompanied tends to scare one of my pooches, and he hides in the basement. During the school year when things were getting ridiculously loud in the residence I was living in and needed to work, I put on my head phones and listened to this. It helped considerably! As did this to take me away from the dead of winter/school, and into a tropical paradise.

I took these pics outside of my bedroom window during a sun shower on Thursday, because I loved the colour of the sky.

I was fiddling around with my camera at the same time I took the pics further up, and these came out! How fascinating and mysterious. I believe I had my camera set to manual when I took these....

Before I sign off, I have to show this. Some of you may have seen this commercial on television waaaaaay back in the day.... But at long last IT HAS COME ON YOUTUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alrighty, take care now!

~M.

(and guard that sandwich with your life!)