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bhanesidhe is having an art sale, and she certainly doesn't have them every day, so go check it out!

I'm experimenting this winter with pie-like deserts like cobbler and such; I made my first cobbler the other day and though the recipe needs adapting it was quite good. In that spirit, at the request of

wordplay, my mother's apple crisp recipe:

Blend:
1 c flour
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg

Cut in:
1/2 c butter
You should have a loose crumb, like pie crust before you add the water.

Slice some apples into a glass baking dish and cover with the crisp topping about 1/2" (1cm) thick, though you can certainly go thicker. Bake at 350º until the apples are cooked and bubbly and the crisp topping is melted and crunchy, about 30 minutes.

This recipe should make more than enough topping for a 9x13 baking dish. Leftovers can be put in a jar in the fridge and keep for quite a while since it's just butter. You can make a big batch of topping and then make little containers of crisp—even one or two apples in a little disposable loaf pan or something, whenever you want.

The topping also works nicely for other fruit like rhubarb (which I like on the sour side anyway) or peaches.

Another tip: Two years ago I was hosting Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust was requested, but when I went to the store there were no graham crackers to be found. (My local market is a little random.) I substituted ginger snaps for the graham crackers and it was so good, I'm never going back. They aren't any sweeter than graham crackers and that little bit of spice in the crust is excellent.