As American as Apple Pie..that I didn't bake

When I read via AltDaily Food that another local food blogger had this inspired idea to host an Occupy event in the blog universe I was intrigued. When I visited her blog, Backstage Baking I was even more interested when I read that she wanted other food bloggers to post about apple pie along with the various Occupy and 99% movements. In her words: “Apple Pie: As American as Revolution”

Inspired I eagerly posted on her blog  about how I had this new pie crust recipe to try (courtesy of  my newly arrived and first issue of Fine Cooking) and how I was so excited because now it's cold, and it's fall and I should be baking...and...and

We had a loved family member visiting from out of town, the oldest had soccer, the littlest was tired and cranky, and hubby and his sister were at a race and I was out of all-purpose flour (wait, how am I out of flour?) Life happens. And that is sort of how I feel about the Occupy movements and the idea of the 99%. I don't think the politicians and Wall Street sat in a room and said let's figure out how to screw people...they made policies they thought would make them money, sure. They made assumptions about how markets and Global economies would operate...and then life happens. There are people who don't have good intentions. There are those who make bad decisions who make things hard on the rest of us. There are those who stand on the sidelines and wait for change to happen and there are those who decide to try and make a difference.

I will probably never pay off my student loan debt. My kids will probably have to take a few loans themselves. I made some bad financial choices when I was younger that I am paying for today..I don't blame anyone directly but I also think things need to change. We need to help one another. Be neighbors again. Be good stewards of our Earth and cloud parent all of the world's children so no one is neglected, unloved or unfed. And sometimes we just need to follow-through with what we said we would do, no excuses.

Now if you excuse me, I have a pie to bake.

Steal of the Week + Meatless Monday: Apple and Blueberry Crumble

My dear friend Zack recently took a trip to the Shenandoah Valley and asked if I would be interested in having some apples from his adventure in apple picking. Actually, I am not sure if I allowed him to finish asking the question, instead interrupting enthusiastically to shout "Apples! I love apples, yes, please!". Once the apples arrived I immediately cut and ate one and quickly remembered why store bought apples are lame (well, okay to be fair store bought apples are fine but compared ot picked off the tree to table...not even close!)

The next question was, now with a bounty of apples, what to make with them? My favorite dessert next to pecan pie is apple pie but anyone who regularly follows this blog knows I am a novice (see also "not good experiences") at baking and while I am working on getting better at it, not sure if I am ready for a scratch pie. However, baking or no baking, I am pretty good using mixes to make practically anything so when BettyCrocker.com coincidentally sent me an e-mail with recommended recipes for apples, I found the recipe for Southern Apple Crumble. Of course, as is always the case I made my own substitutions and instead of oatmeal cookie mix I used sugar cookie mix and I decided to add a cup of blueberries that I had on hand.

The recipe was very easy...I rough chopped 3 of the largest apples I had and mixed those with the sugars, butter and cinnamon right in the dish I used and sprayed with cooking spray.

The next step is adding the cookie mix which was mixed with the stick of melted butter (I used unsalted reduced fat butter).

After 40 minutes at 300 degrees, you had the chopped pecans and then I baked it for another 15 minutes:

Admittedly I cut into it too soon after taking it out of the oven so it was a little liquidy at first but it smelled so fantastic and I was so excited to top it with ice cream:

DELICIOUS! My co-workers were the beneficiaries the next day since I don't like keeping something like this around the house for just me and the little boy (Hubby not a big cobbler fan) and it lasted about 45 minutes in our break room. I love oatmeal cookies and I can totally see how that was good in the original recipe but something about the sugar cookie topping just made it for me! Happy #MeatlessMonday !