Falling for the Weather

The past few days of weird, rainy Colorado weather have been devastating to some. As I mentioned, my family has been spared, and for that I’m grateful.

One thing the rainy weather brought with it was a cool down, something I think many of us anticipated with eagerness. We have had a very hot and dry summer. And it seems like late August and early September were particularly hot.

I am not a fan of cold weather. I am sad every year when I have to turn on the lights a bit earlier and my pretty summer flowers start to dry up and the tomato plants begin to crumble. Even when our kids were younger, I really didn’t look forward to school starting as did many of my friends.

I suppose if I had made it a point to participate in some winter sports I might feel different. I really did give skiing a try, but it just never worked for me. Despite taking a lesson, I never got good at it. I was always just thiiiiis shy of being a danger on the slopes and careening madly down the hill. And this was on the bunny slope. It’s not a good idea to careen on the bunny slope. There are all those 3-year-olds happily skiing down the hill, their skis in a perfect pizza shape. I have always meant to try cross country skiing, but since I’m nearing 60, I’m not sure it’s necessarily going to happen. And I just don’t like being out in the cold weather.

My dislike for cold, wintry weather (a dislike that is shared by my husband) is the reason we bought a house in Arizona a couple of years ago. Somewhere just after Christmas, we head south and spend the remainder of the winter into May in the desert. That makes me very happy.

Having said all this, however, I am ready for the weather to cool down a bit and the rain to stop. While I don’t like winter weather, I do like winter cooking. Nothing tastes better to me than a tough piece of meat cooked slowly to tenderness in a Dutch oven with a lovely gravy to put over noodles or potatoes. And don’t even get me started on chili. Yum.

I laughed the other day when my sister, who lives in Arizona, texted me to tell me that they were eating chili because the weather had turned cool. It was 86 degrees.

This week I’m going to feature some fall recipes, starting with Apple Crisp.


Apple Crisp

Ingredients
10 c. apples (I used 4 Granny Smith and 4 Honeycrisp)
1 c. sugar
1 T. flour
1 t. cinnamon
½ c. water
1 c. quick-cooking oats (I only had regular oatmeal, and it worked fine)
1 c. flour
1 c. packed brown sugar
¼ t. baking powder
¼ t. baking soda
½ c. butter, melted

Process
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the sliced apple in a 9X13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 T. flour and cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water over all.

Combine the oats, 1 c. flour, brown sugar baking powder, baking soda, and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.

By the way, if you use a lot of peeled apples in your cooking, I recommend you purchase an apple peeler from your local hardware store. Old school, but so effective.