Recipe 56 - Caramel Apple Crisp

Before I say too much - it's my job to remind you sometimes of my fears.   Sure, I fear camel crickets ending up in my bed,  I'm kinda scared of upside down roller coasters, I'm a little concerned about the newest fads in hairstyles.. but most of all, people, I am darn afraid of veggie peelers. (recall?)

As I was feeding this following recipe to my mom and brother I had to explain to my brother my much ridiculous fear of peelers. (well I guess it was ridiculous to him)  But geez.  All you people that have promised me I never have to touch a peeler again, all of you who wanted to keep me safe from peelers - (heck I felt a little like princess Aurora - "The kingdom calls for every peeler in the land to be burned!!")  The Maleficent of peelers reared her ugly head again the other night..but I'm a tough princess, I survived.  I kicked it's peeler hiney.

So - let's start shall we?
I sit down, look at my recipe.  "AH CRAP" I said looking at the words 'PEEL and dice 6 cups of apples'.
I took a deep breath.
I texted the girl of my fear.
I took another breath.
Meditated deeply.
Pulled the peeler out and told it we were going to work together and it was not going to make me cry this time.

Fear fell upon me (I'm serious, you laugh, but I'm serious).  I wielded that peeler and peeled up 6 perfect granny smith apples, deep breaths, peel, deep breaths, peel.

*I SURVIVED*

Ok, so if I can survive that, I can survive anything.  
I can.
Try me.

So - a little stirred but not shaken, I tossed those apple chunks with all kinds of yummy spices, and prepared the 'crumble'.  Then realized that I didn't read the recipe fully.

(I do that sometimes, do you?)

Ah crap (once again, this was a stressful recipe, folks..this little apple crumble!)
The caramel was already supposed to be ready.
Mind you - I'm using an un-vegan recipe so it's all.. "melt your Brachs caramel"  etc.
Yeah yeah.

So, I finish preparing the crumble, put it into the apples and cover it and set it aside.
Time to make caramel.

Now, let's recall that the last two times I made vegan caramel two DIFFERENT things happened.  First time, it was more saucy.. made a great sauce in cider, and I'm sure I could have made one heck of a caramel sundae with it.   Second time it was firm, like I wanted the first time, of course the first time I wanted it the way it was the second time.  Follow? Good.

This time.. it was rubbery.  I would call it the consistency of rubber cement.  Ha!  Oh I totally just said that.  Now, yummy rubber cement, but still very seemingly like good ol rubber cement that boys in grade school used to make fake 'boogers' out of. 
Whatevs.  I think I'm ok with the fact that everytime I make caramel it's going to turn out different than the last time I make it.  It's just the way it is.  Same recipe and everything.  I accept that. I have to, let's move on.

Ok so - I took my just created rubber ce.. er, my caramel and drizzled it on top of my crisp and it was time to go in the oven.

*time elapsed*

Now, as I've said before, I've never been an apple person. I really only like granny smith apples, but even then I could care less.  PineApple is a different story, but that isn't an apple.  That's a bromelaid.
I digress.
I didn't eat any of it.  I sealed the pan shut and put it away for Monday.

Monday night after baking mac and 'cheese' for me and french fries for the rest of the family who was having some sort of 'great steak and fry' rehash (I had vegan 'chick'n picatta', a salad and obviously the mac.) we put the crisp back in the oven for a short time and then pulled it out in all it's lovely apple smelling glory.

I had also baked pumpkin chip cookies the day before so I took some of those over to the parents house as I didn't care much for them (too cakey for me).  For some reason my brother went for the cookies first and just like me, didn't like them, however he exclaimed that they had a very interesting after taste.  Hhmm?   Then he had the crisp and with undue abandon said.. "now THAT I like!"

Mom liked it.  Heck, even I liked it, but I left it with them.  I didn't want a whole pan of caramel apple crisp in my house.  It would have sat there in a silent stream of my fridge opening and closing and no one ever reaching out for it. 
Sigh, a lonely life for a caramel apple crisp I think, so,
it stayed.
But - it was impressive.
Great with a glass of almond milk!

So, what's next?
Halloween sweets on "sweetest day" for one of the sweetest girls I know - in a frigteningly lovely drink (sometimes you have to get the sweet ones tipsy after a night of ghost stories). ;)

Keep it tuned right here - I'll explain in a day or two!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Sheri's Shoobop on Pandora (It's kinda the coolest).

Current Craving:
Nothing, I've not really been interested in food the last few days.

Current Motivation:
Squelching this tension headache.