Heed the wisdom of your mother.
When I was younger, I thought good cooking meant finding the fanciest recipe that required trips to three different grocery stores and multiple hours of prep.
My mom, with her decades of cooking experience, espouses a simpler approach: have a few trademark recipes in your arsenal and then know how to use what you have in your kitchen and pantry to make a meal.
I volunteered to make dessert for a Super Bowl party, and had originally envisioned making something like cookie dough cupcakes or chocolate mint brownies. However, I wanted to make sure that I completed my lesson plans for the next day rather than leaving them for after the Super Bowl.
So I looked at what I had in the kitchen and pantry and decided on Apple Cherry Crisp because we had all the ingredients on hand. I doubled the recipe and used two foil cake pans (the only new thing we purchased).
Must give a shoutout to my amazing fiance, who cut up all the apples
Ingredients
4 c peeled apple slices (used Granny Smith)
2/3 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c oatmeal, uncooked (used Kirkland Ancient Grains cereal)
3/4 tsp cinnamon (used Victoria Gourmet Pumpkin Pie Spice)
1/3 c margarine, softened to room temp. (left it out 5 hours in advance per the tips in my cupcake class)
VARIATIONS
1 can(s) cherry pie filling (instead of apples) (added a handful of Nature’s Touch frozen cherries)
OR
29 oz can of sliced peaches, drained
OR 2 1/2 CUPS APPLES & CHERRY PIE FILLING
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mist an 8 x 8″ square pan or dish with cooking spray.
3. Arrange apples (or other fruit) in the pan.
4. Mix all other ingredients together until crumbly & put over the fruit.
5. Bake around 30-35 minutes, until apples are tender & the topping is golden brown and feels crunchy.
6. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or ice cream.
7. NOTE: Recipe can be easily doubled. Bake in a 13 x 9″ pan with the same baking time.
We packed up the two trays to take to the party.
Thankfully our Super Bowl party host let us bake the apple crisp while we were eating dinner, which saved us even more prep time.
The finished product was well received after a delicious dinner of lasagna and spinach salad.
All gone!
