Nancy Naigle's Blog, page 41

Apple Crisps – bite-size delights

On Sept 9-11, 2011 Emporia, VA hosted the Great Peanut Bike Tour and Ride. For four days cyclists enjoyed the beauty of Virginia and Carolina on a series of rides.

Volunteers throughout the counties provided water/rest stops for the participants. This is the first year I hosted a water/snack stop. My sweet husband went the extra mile to help me prepare. He fogged the area to save us from the crazy number of mosquitoes that have take residence since Hurricane Irene, and even set up a pen with a few bottle baby goats and our 2 month old calf for riders to visit and catch a photo opportunity. My best friend, Pam, drove up from Virginia Beach and helped me meet and greet cyclists from from VA, OH, FL, GA, SC, NC, MD, DC and from up North, too. I struggled with what to serve. You see, this bike ride is known for it's fabulous treats. Everything from fresh watermelon, watermelon pickles, cucumber slices in a variety of dips, tomato sammiches, banana popsicles, home-made ice cream…my goodness I was impressed.

Serving sweet tea was a no-brainer and we went through over 6 gallons of it, along with as many gallons of Gatorade and ice water. I served up trail mix and made home made Apple Crisps with the apples from this years plentiful bounty from the tree out back. I made them using my mini-cupcake pan so they were and convenient handy bite-size snacks.

Here's the recipe — easy and delicious:

You'll need::

FOR THE FILLING

Apples (our tree offers small apples so I used as many as it would take to fill a 9″ pie plate as my guide)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

2 cups water

a little shake of salt

cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (start 1/4 tsp each and go from there)

Peel, core and then dice up your apples. These are small tartlets so you'll want your apples in little chunks. Toss the apples in the lemon juice. Then, add the sugar, brown sugar, salt and corn starch and mix.

Bring your water to a boil on the stove top. Add in the apple mixture. Toss in your cinnamon/nutmeg and bring to a boil. Taste and adjust (Yes! One of the best parts!) The mixture will thicken and bubble.

Remove from the heat and set aside.

FOR THE CRUMBLY CRISP CRUST

2 cups oatmeal

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups salted butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Use a pastry cutter to mix in the butter until you have a dry crumbly mixture.

NOW YOU'RE READY!

Spray non-stick butter cooking spray in your mini-cupcake pan. Take a heaping spoonful of the crumbly crisp crust mixture and drop into each divet. Now go back and press the mixture to form the crust in each cup.

Spoon the apple mixture into each crust form.

Bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes. The mixture will be bubbling and the crust golden.

ENJOY … the riders sure gobbled them up!

I made 182…and we had 10 left over…well, until my husband got home and devoured those!  Then, I joined the cyclists over at the campground for a delicious barbecue chicken dinner and banana split bar and signed copies of SWEET TEA AND SECRETS. It was a wonderful day and I made lots of new friends.

Say Yes to the S – Giveaway!

9/9/2011::

Join me over at the Romance at Random website for some September Fun and giveaways. Here's the link Say Yes to the S – Giveaway!. or visit www.RomanceAtRandom because it's always a great place for readers to visit and hear about new books and bookish stuff.

Have a wonderful September morning.

Nancy

Hurricane Irene : A messy guest

I flew back in to the Norfolk International Airport on Sunday night and was back in Southampton County by midnight. My husband had warned me about the trees in the road, but boy was it surreal in the pitch black and so much foilage on the road I wasn't sure I was ON the road at some points.

I idled slowly through the slices the locals had chainsawed just wide enough to get a car through hoping I wouldn't bump into anything or edge off onto the soft shoulder.  My little CTS did just fine but I sure did miss my GMC Canyon 4×4 a lot this week.

Mike took me out on Monday morning to get a picture of what I'd navigated through the night before.

The last picture is of a huge cedar that fell onto the power lines across the street from Mom's house. I'm so happy it wasn't her Magnolia that came crashing down.

We're thankful that other than some inconveniences things are getting back to normal. All the goats did just fine, too. The fire in the Great Dismal Swamp is slogging down and that's a good thing. One more good rain and we might put that behind us.

My thoughts and prayers are with those still without power and who met with true devastation from the unwelcome visitor, Irene.

Hugs and Hasta Lavista, Irene!!

Nancy