Apple Crisp

Apples are usually a Fall thing. Every Fall, we go apple picking and make lots of yummy things out of them. But this week, apples happened to be on super-sale at the supermarket, so I picked up a bag. Even though I already had some in the house... Now, apples are both good and good for you, so it's not like I was upset to have them, but I did realize that I should probably do something with some of them, just for variety.

I didn't want to make a pie crust, nor did I want to use all the apples, so that ruled out pie and applesauce... so apple crisp was the answer.

I never use an actual recipe when I make apple crisp. I mean, I am sure I base what I do on some recipe I must have seen somewhere at some point, but I don't actually use the exact same measurements of everything every time. I mean, not on purpose...

Little miss thought it was fun to be using oats for something other than breakfast, so was all game to help. And, of course, permission to mix the topping with her hands was just a bonus.

That made and set aside, I also had to make dinner. On our plan this week, my husband requested "artichoke chicken" for dinner one night this week. I am not a huge artichoke fan, and therefore don't have an "artichoke chicken" recipe anywhere... so I didn't really know what he had in mind... but oh well, as long as the finished product contained both artichokes and chicken, I figured it would mean I'd delivered what was requested. Right? The other trick was that, despite the fact that little miss is a total rock star when it comes to tasting new foods, I was pretty sure that she wouldn't eat artichokes, so had to ensure that whatever I made could be three-year-old safe, also. What to do...

First I cut the chicken (boneless, skinless breasts) into about 2 inch strips and cooked that in a pan on the stove until it was done, using just some garlic sea salt for flavor. Pulled that out of the pan. Then made a butter-garlic sauce in the same pan, adding artichokes and halved grape tomatoes. That's it. Most of the chicken made its way back into the pan, though I kept some separate for the kiddo. Served over pasta, with a side of broccoli, it actually looked like I knew what I was doing! And I have to say, this was pretty tasty, even to a non-artichoke fan. Not too shabby for a punt, huh? I would even make this again.

Once dinner was done, though, we could get down to the real business of the evening - dessert. The apple crisp was ready and waiting for us, and it definitely did not disappoint. The topping-to-apple recipe was a little higher than usual, meaning more topping than I'd intended for the number of apples that I used, but, hey, there are worse problems to have, so I won't complain. And definitely know that this picture was taken before the scoop of double vanilla ice cream was added on top. Yum.