Autumn Splendour

Ah - another gorgeous day in Guelph - and a forecast of at least another four days just like it!

I had a really good social work-y day.  All my clients had great outcomes, or are moving forward with whatever particular issue we are working on.  But I had kind of a crappy, rest-of-my-life day.  My landlord called me at work -- and he is LIVID that I have a cat.  I'm not sure how he found out.  As much as I know it's really not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things (it's not like he can DO anything about it) I'm still upset about the confrontation.  It was very uncomfortable.  UGH!

I did something very unusual tonight - I BAKED!  I don't bake.  I really rarely cook.  I prefer the "eat" part of the whole food thing.  But, since this turned out SO GOOD, even for someone with such limited skills I had to share.

I picked up some magazines at the library book sale the other day for a dime a piece.  One of them was a Oct 2010 issue of Create & Decorate.

Every issue includes a feature called "For Your Country Kitchen", and this time they included a recipe from Charlotte's House B&B in Bolton, MA. for "Apple Crisp Bars".  This recipe takes the flavours and sweetness of apple crisp and turns it into a very portable bar. And there are no weird ingredients or scary techniques. I gotta admit - I wasn't sure how this was all going to stick together.  But they do - and they are YUMMY!

Apple Crisp Bars

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a 9x13 pan

Crust
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (I used margarine)

Mix the flour, sugar, and butter together -- you can use a pastry blender, but I just used my hands.  Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan

Filling
4 tart apples (I used Spartans)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup white sugar

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Peel, core, and chop apples into 1/4" - 1/2" pieces.  Blend with dry ingredients, coating apples completely and pour into crust evenly.

Topping
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
12 (twelve) Tbsp melted butter (I used marg.)
Mix together until everything is moist.  Sprinkle over apples, and press topping down with the palm of your hand.

Bake 45 minutes.  Let cool completely before cutting into bars.