Hurricane Sandy Skillet Apple Crisp with Granola (or Kashi)

Hurricane Sandy Apple Crisp with Kashi Go Lean
and Butter Pecan Ice Cream

What do you do when you know a hurricane is coming?  If you’re me, you cook. 

I was at my sister Meryl’s house and we were prepared for a big dinner.  We knew there would be a lot of people to feed, so we had that part all planned.  But what would we have for dessert?

Meryl asked me to use some apples she bought at a local farm market.  They were small, windfall apples of all different sorts and they didn’t look so great, but what the heck, they were there, so I’d use them. 

I wanted something easier to make than an apple pie, but something just as comforting.  Maybe even more comforting, and then I the idea popped.  An apple crisp, cooked in a cast iron skillet.  What could be more homey than that?

We had the cast iron skillet, we had the apples, we had really great cinnamon that Meryl got in Morocco, but I didn’t want to use the typical bread crumb topping.  Granola would be great, but she didn’t have any and the winds were picking up so there was no way I was going out to buy any, Then I saw it!  Kashi Go Lean Crisp! Perfect (I hoped). 

I had to hurry because we needed the stove and it is electric – we could lose it at any minute. 

I toasted the Kashi with some butter in the skillet, and then added the apples sugar and cinnamon.  The house smelled like a you'd imagine a house would smell in the 1950s.  Like home. Delicious.

Then into the oven it went.  Everyone who walked into the house asked what I was cooking that smelled so wonderful.  We took it out of the oven to cool, sat down for dinner, and perfect timing, we lost electricity. 

Marc, my son and toughest critic said it was the only apple dessert he really liked.  Yay!  It was a winner, and the best part is, you don’t have to follow the recipe specifically.  If you don’t have one thing, use another.  It’s an old time American recipe and I’m sure there was a different version in each home.  This will now be my standard.

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