My favourite thing about any holiday is that we always get together with family. Clinton has asked me many times if we can choose a holiday where we just stay home, and perhaps even have people at our house. I say no to this every year because a) I LOVE getting together with everyone, b) we could not fit everyone in our house, and c) Molly would ensure nobody would ever come back. I would love to host a big dinner, but in order to get everyone in, it will have to be in our next house. As a happy medium, we started a tradition on Thanksgiving (being Clinton's favourite holiday) where we have a dinner at home on the Saturday of that weekend. We eat dinner at home every day of course, but for this we make a big meal, and we spend all day prepping and getting the house and food ready, as if we are actually having company. Ashley comes over, and it is always one of Clinton's most looked-forward to days of the year (and mine, too).
Clinton usually does the ham, but this year I asked if I could take on the meal. I've actually grown fond of cooking (when Clinton met me, I couldn't peel a potatoe, let alone make an entire Thanksgiving dinner), and wanted to try this one on my own. I really enjoyed it! It felt great to put together a big meal for my little family.
Okay, now that I have rambled on a bit, my true purpose for writing this (my first blog post since April- yikes) is to share the dessert we had after dinner. In March of this year, Clinton decided to cut gluten out of his diet. He's always had stomach problems, and his doctor has never been able to pinpoint the issue, so Clinton took matters into his own hands and began a gluten-free lifestyle. So far, it seems to have made a difference, so we're sticking to it! However, when it comes to desserts, that is where the challenge lies. I am not a baker, so anything we do have as far as sweets go is store bought. Baking terrifies me. Here's the crap end of gluten-free...everything is SO expensive. Cookies at the grocery store are about $3-5. Gluten free cookies are like $7.00 and you get half as many. It's ridiculous. So, for Thanksgiving I was kind of stumped as far as what to make for dessert. I had bought a pie, but Clinton couldn't eat it. Being a non-baker and a self-proclaimed tight ass presented a problem. The morning of our dinner, I was Googling some recipes for apple crisp, and came across and very easy one that I could modify on my own to make gluten free. Here, my friends, is the recipe:
Four apples- peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C all-purpose flour (I used quinoa flour)
3/4 C white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt (I skipped this- we didn't have salt, and I don't like to add it to much)
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbs butter, melted
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place apple slices in 9" square baking pan and toss with the brown sugar (I just stirred it all around with a wooden spoon until it looked even)
3. Mix flour, white sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl
4. Stir beaten egg and melted butter into dry mixture. The key here is not to make a dough. Leave it crumbly, but just make the sure the liquid is all mixed in. I used my hands a little to blend it all together
5. Spread mixture over apples and brown sugar evenly
6. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes (I did 35)
7. Top with whipped cream or ice cream (we used whipped)
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| Ready to serve! |
Again, I am not a baker but had all the ingredients in my cupboards- so you should too! This was so incredibly easy- I was able to prepare it while dinner was cooking, and when we took the ham out of the oven, in went the dessert. This made the house smell soooo good while we were eating, and the cooking time was perfect, as it gave us time to eat and relax a little before dessert. I am ashamed/proud to say that the three of us ate the entire pan in one sitting. If you have a larger family with insanely big appetites like ours, you may want to double the recipe and use a larger baking pan. Also, you could easily add walnuts/raisins to this, should you so desire.
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you're having dinner today and are stumped for dessert, I highly recommend this one- it's very sweet (very), but a great way to end a meal!
Gobble gobble!
