The True Tale of the Ring

Want to know, truthfully, how I nabbed such a wonderful guy? It all has to do with a simple magic recipe for apple crisp. Here's the story behind it, courtesy of Joy the Baker.


Sit and Stay Awhile Apple Crisp
Some recipes are good enough to serve at the church picnic. Some recipes are fine enough to take to the family barbecue. Other recipes you know will satisfy your office coworkers. Those savages will eat just about anything.

Then there’s the recipe that you pull out of your back pocket when you’re looking for love.

This beautifully simple Apple Crisp recipe is that “get a man (or woman!) and hold on to him (or her!) recipe”. If you already have that man, consider this your “it’s time for a ring” recipe, or your “sorry I scratched the bumper of our new car” recipe, maybe even the “thanks for working so hard today honey… I made the house smell like warm apples with this apple crisp just for you” recipe. See, I’m looking out for you.

This recipe is the perfect balance of warm memories and good love. The warm apples tossed with sugar and cinnamon beautifully collide with the toasted, crunchy topping.

It’s a dream come true.

So the Bake a Warm Apple Crisp and Get a Man experiment hasn’t yet worked for me. That’s mostly because I haven’t tried it yet.

But Ann, the generous lady at Fidget who was kind enough to share this recipe with me, has had oodles of success. She wooed her husband with this very recipe and still has requests for the apple crisp from Mr. Fidget six years later. It works!

Sit and Stay Awhile Apple Crisp recipe from Ann of Fidget

bake in an 8×8 baking dish or double the recipe and bake in a 9×13 dish

Filling:
5 to 6 medium-size apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch slices. (About 7.5 cups)
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1.5 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, well-softened
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
1/3 cup quick oats

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease an 8×8 baking pan with butter.

Place a layer of apple slices in the bottom of the pan and dust with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Continue layering apples and dusting with cinnamon/sugar until done. Toss the apple mixture until evenly coated in cinnamon sugar. The apples should be just about to the top of the pan (they will cook down).

For the topping, place the flour, brown sugar, nuts, cinnamon and oats in a large bowl and stir well with a wooden spoon. Work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until evenly distributed. Take one full handful of the topping and toss it into the sugared apple mixture. Spread the rest of the topping evenly over the apples. (I usually end up with a dough-like topping that I just lay on top of the apples).

Bake the crisp in the dish on a baking sheet on the center oven rack until the topping is crunchy and the apples are bubbling, 55-60 minutes.

Serve hot; it’s excellent with vanilla ice cream.


Honestly, I made this recipe on a Saturday (adding pears and pomegrantes with the apples--because I never could follow directions exactly). Dave loved it so much he downed three big servings. On Monday he took me ring shopping and bought the ring! It was that simple!




And so the old adage proves true once again:
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.