Strawberry Apple Crisp

Y’all, my mom used to make the best apple crisp.  Actually she probably still does, but since I am over 1000 miles away from home, I don’t get it anymore.  Well I was at the farmers market last week doing my usual weekly buy of farm fresh goodies, and saw some beautiful apples.   So after a quick call to see which ones she would suggest I use (yes I still call mom all the time for cooking tips and ideas), I grabbed a basket of them and headed to the checkout.  Of course I had another full basket of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, garlic and the most beautiful egg plants I’ve seen in a while.

Well when I got home and put away all my fresh goodies, I found that I still had about 3/4 of a quart of strawberries left over from this past weekends making of strawberry infused vodka.  For any of you who do not follow me on Facebook, I made a flavored vodka with fresh berries.  Adding this to lemonade or the best adult style strawberry-lemonade drink imaginable.   Well back to this recipe.  Since I had these fresh berries left, and I didn’t want them to go to waste, I decided to add them to the crisp.

Y’all, I am so glad I didn’t use them all up in the drink because the strawberries added such a great layer of taste to the dish.  I think even mom would be very happy with this new twist.  Just another reason why I always say to experiment with your cooking.  We all have recipes we love and remember from our childhood, but every so often, give them a twist and experiment.  When you do you might find you love the new dish and guess what?  You just started your own family tradition that your children and grandchildren can remember and want to make as they grow up.

So enough of that, here’s the recipe: (I’m going to go look and see if there’s any of the strawberry vodka left, because I know I have lemonade.)

 

1 c. melted butter
2 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. oatmeal, not instant
8 c. peeled, sliced apples
2 cups strawberry’s, sliced

Sauce:
2 c. sugar
2 c. water
2 Tbsp. vanilla
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

 

Mix butter, sugar & oatmeal together well.; reserve half of mixture and set aside.

Take other half of mixture and pat onto bottom of 9×13 inch pan. Place sliced apples on top of crust then spread strawberries over the apples.

Take sauce ingredients and cook together in a saucepan until they start to thicken. Drizzle over apple-strawberry mixture, then sprinkle remaining oat crumbs over the top.

Bake for an hour at 350º. Serve warm with ice cream.