Nothing tastes better on a cool fall evening than some warm apple crisp.   Warm apples with crisp cinnamon-y, oat-y, buttery topping. Mmmmmmm.  Don’t you think?  I just love it.  I wait all spring and summer to be able to get that fall-ish feeling in the air and it’s time to buy apples.   Honey Crisp apples.  Sweet, juicy, crisp.  The best kind of apple ever grown.

I used my tried-and-true The New Good Housekeeping Cookbook recipe from the cookbook my mom gave me when I got my first apartment in 1992 (oh my gosh, that was twenty-one years ago.  I feel old.).  The copyright date is 1986 and if you click that link, Amazon has them starting at $0.01.  A great basic cookbook with everything in it.  I also get my go-to meatloaf recipe from here.  And my go-to banana bread recipe.

After getting out my recipe, I got out my just-rediscovered-forgot-i-had-and-never-used apple peeler/corer/slicer and made quick work of getting the apples ready:

These peelers are so awsome.  Why have I never used it? I make apple crisp all the time!  It’s so quick. And easy.  And just plain fun to use. You can get them here: Victorio VKP1010 Apple and Potato Peeler, Suction Base  

A note on the apples:  I used honey crisp apples, which many will tell you shouldn’t be used because they are watery and get mushy.  Well, they kind of do.  But I love them in this anyway.

Then it was just mix up the topping ingredients – all four of them: flour, brown sugar, oats, butter – and spread it on top of the apples:

Then bake for 40 minutes and your house will smell divine:

I tried making this recipe with the doodlebugs the other day too.  What an experience.  Aside from no one wanting to get their hands “dirty” and a teeny tiny doodlebug fat lip from a Franklin-esque chair (you know, the one from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that kept collapsing), it went swimmingly…

On another fall-related note, I’ve been on a quest for Brach’s Candy Corn (only Brach’s. No other kind is as good.) and haven’t been able to find it.  So, in desperation the other day, I bought these:

They do not taste like candy corn.  At all.  Paul likes them.

And speaking of the kitchen – since we were cooking in it – we finally got our counter stools!

We have been waiting for these for twelve weeks.  They said it would take eight.  They are made at a small company in Massachusetts that apparently takes their time making them.  The wait was worth it because we love them.  They match our floors perfectly.  They swivel.  The fit nicely under the counter and don’t crowd the dining room table area.  Please don’t enlarge the picture, because then you will see I haven’t vacuumed lately.  What?  I’ve been busy.