Apple Raspberry Crumble

I originally made this recipe because I just happened to have every ingredient on hand, but after tasting it I think it will be a go-to for years to come! It's a super simple recipe that I got out of the September 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine in their "Mix & Match Crumbles" article.  The article explains how you can pick your nut (walnut, almond, pecan, etc), pick your grain (cornmeal or oats), and pick your filling (apple-raspberry, blueberry, pear-pineapple, etc) and you can mix and match from there.

These days when I'm so busy that I barely have time to cook (sorry boyfriend!) I love to have found another recipe that I can file under the "super fast and super delicious" category in my recipe box. Enjoy!

Apple-Raspberry Crumble

Ingredients

• 3 lbs baking apples (such as Macoun or Cortland), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
• 2 cups fresh raspberries
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup almonds, slivered
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 7 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, cold and cut into chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 2-quart shallow baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (or eight 6-ounce ramekins if you want to make individual desserts).

In a large bowl, toss together the apples and raspberries with the granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, combine oats, 3/4 cup flour, brown sugar and a pinch of salt and whisk. Add the nuts to the bowl. Work in softened butter with your fingers until evenly moistened.

Transfer the apple-raspberry mixture to the prepared dish (or ramekins) and dot with 2 tablespoons of cut-up cold butter. Squeeze handfuls of the crumble mixture and scatter on top of the fruit mixture.

Bake until golden brown and bubbly, 40 to 45 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Top with whipped cream or, as I did, homemade french vanilla ice cream.

*My apologies for no pictures.. I took a bunch but I think they somehow got deleted! I'll post them if they turn up.

Orange You Glad It's October

I have to say that I've never really won anything before, other than the one time that my sister hosted a jewelry party and I won the door prize (and you can bet I was excited about that). So you can imagine that I was very excited when I found out that I had won a pair of tickets to a brunch event through a blog that I read called Ramshackle Glam.

The event was called Orange You Glad It's October, and it was an all you can eat and all you can drink gathering hosted by brunchcritic.com. The idea was to celebrate October, so of course everyone had to wear at least a small bit of orange.

We noshed on items such as biscuits in sausage gravy, frittatas with brussel sprouts, and some seriously yummy yogurt panna cotta with granola. We sipped champagne and chatted with one of the other couples that won tickets to the event. We were even interviewed for the Brunch Critic website, and I may or may not have said the words "smooshey smooshey" while answering a question (hint: I did).

With Virginia, one of the other winners

We had to get a picture of George and his awesome pants

Enjoying the biscuits and gravy

Thank you again to Andrea from Brunch Critic and Jordan from Ramshackle Glam for giving us the tickets, we had a blast in our orange!