Apple Crisp....Namaste

Happy official start of 2011!  I currently operate on more of a school year calendar than calendar year calendar.  So when Sara climbed in her warm CC (I went out and started it for her and picked up the paper out of the drive) it officially became the new year.  I marked the occasion by starting the 30-day Yoga Challenge at The Yoga Center of Indiana.  TYC opened in Clay Terrace two months ago and I am seriously hooked on hot yoga, preferably vinyasa but I'll take a slow flow too.  My challenge is to make time to attend one yoga class every day for 30 days.  I've bought an extra yogi toes towel for my mat and I'm ready to go (they are not kidding about the hot in the hot yoga, I have a very efficient cooling system and the towels are not optional).  Apparently, so are a lot of other yogis and yoginis.  Over the holidays there would be seven to ten people in a class.  Today, maybe 30 of us got our vinyasa groove on together.  The good thing about the resolution crowd is that the floor heater that was staring me down at the start of class had to be removed to make room.  Last week that little heater just about took me out.  Hot yoga in a 95 degree room with a heat source two feet from your toes can make you a little woozy.  Vinyasa yoga is a flow class and this studio takes it to a whole new level with the teacher running you through the poses in the flow two or three times and then the music cranks up and you are on your own.  This has resulted in quite a few "Twister" moments for me.  Lord help the person who glances over to my mat for some guidance.  I try to make a conscious effort to memorize the flow, but there are times where I know we are about to be set free and I know I'm going to have no idea what comes next.  The beautiful thing is that in yoga you just can't do it wrong.  It's a no judgement practice.  No scoring.  No boundaries.  This is turns out is just what I need.  I have been so surprised over and over that I am actually in the moment and not somewhere else in my head.  That is just not how I generally operate.  Love it.  So, Namaste.  The challenge is on!

So I've worked it out in the morning.  Had a nice salad for lunch.  Headed out into the big world and made a round of returns and grocery shopping.  Somewhere during the errand run I have decided on dinner.  I'm shopping today, but it turns out I already have everything I need for dinner.  This should not be a surprise.  I have two refrigerators, a big chest freezer and two pantries.  I should always be able to come up with something.  Greg grills two turkey tenderloins for us.  Sara helps me snap green beans that we roast and finish with a scant grating of fresh Parmesan.  I warm up some Costco whole grain artisan bread.  Sara trims some beautiful winter strawberries (I did go to Costco after all).

pretty berries in my new colander from the Sur La Table sale

I make that yummy pan roasted acorn squash because I have some wine better suited to deglazing than

drinking.  Everyone makes their own salad and voila, dinner is served.  But since this is my house and Kelly is still home on break and asks if we can bake some dessert, well sure we can and we whip up an apple crisp.  It's in the oven right now.  It smells delicious.  

Now we wouldn't have to assemble and bake an apple crisp, but I made two bumble berry jalousies (like strudel, but with a French name) for New Year's Eve and I'm pretty sure I ate one of them over the weekend.  That did not leave enough for Kelly, so instead of taking the ornaments off our tree after dinner I assisted on the apple crisp.  I looked up a recipe on King Arthur Flour's website on my cute new iPad and set it in my cookbook holder.  How cool is that?  Greg totally surprised me with that one Christmas morning.  There were tears.

Apple Crisp

Filling
1/2 C sugar
2 T Pie Filling Enhancer (a King Arthur product, delivers what it says) or 4 T flour
pinch of salt
5 C cored, peeled and sliced or diced apples
1/2 a lemon, juiced

Topping
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 C flour
1/2 C rolled oats (old-fashioned or toasted oats from Trader Joe's)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
6 T butter, softened

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a casserole dish, 8x8 dish or deep dish pie pan with cooking spray (mine is Pampered Chef stoneware so I do not need spray or butter).

Whisk together the sugar, filling enhancer/flour and salt.  Toss with the apples and lemon juice.  Spoon into pan.

apples from the storage refrigerator

tossed and poured in the deep dish pie pan

Combine all of the dry ingredients for the topping and mix in the butter until crumbly (your hands work best).  Sprinkle evenly over the apple mixture.

Kelly mixing up the topping

ready for the oven

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.



If you also have apples left from the farmer's market in the fall, make yourself a crisp.  MMmmmmm.....