Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Guess what we are cooking today (actually, I made this on Wednesday)???  Cranberry Apple Casserole by Cel Bailey - this recipe is also available in our Trinity UMC cookbook - Temptations!  I think this recipe is both satisfying and a little sumptuous!!  The recipe that I'm going to give you is for ONE RECIPE!  I will tell you what I did to it at the end.

3 cups chopped, unpeeled apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 cups raw cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup real butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix apples, cranberries and sugar.  Place in a 2 quart baking dish.  Mix oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans and butter together; spread over the top of the apple mixture.  Bake for one hour.

Well . . .you see . . .our family doesn't make many dishes in a 2 quart casserole.  That is not usually big enough.  You would think we would all be overweight - not just me!!  So, we always double this because it is a holiday favorite - both Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

So I doubled all the ingredients - 6 cups apples, 4 cups cranberries, 3 cups sugar (goodness gracious! - it needs it though).  So far . . .so good.

Isn't it pretty??  Those were some of the most gorgeous cranberries I have ever purchased!!

I used my cranberries straight from the freezer.  You can buy them when fresh in the grocery store and then just chunk that bag right in the freezer and use them as needed.  That is why the sugar looks kind of clumpy - the cranberries were cold!!

This is where the problem occurred.  I told Mark last week that I HAVE to purchase some new reading glasses.  I've been wearing 100's, 125's, and a pair or two of 150's for years.  All of a sudden, I can't read everything.  Dadgum - getting old is not for sissies!!  So when I read the recipe, I thought it said 1/2 cup flour (rather than 1/3 cup) so I had already mixed in a cup of flour rather than 2/3 (cause I was doubling, remember?).  There was nothing I could do except start over OR . . ..WAIT FOR IT . . .I HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA.  I would just triple the topping.  Everyone loves the topping.  It is like a giant oatmeal cookie on top of cranberries and apples.  So that is just what I did.  I tripled all the topping ingredients -- the oats, the flour, the brown sugar, the pecans and the butter (well - actually - I didn't triple the butter.  I just couldn't imagine three sticks of butter in anything . . .so I only doubled the butter (that is still TWO STICKS OF REAL BUTTER - LAND 'O LAKES SALTED BUTTER IS MY FAVORITE) . . .I may have added just a tad more - if you are ever tripling it, you can decide -- you have to be able to spread it.) . . .I just typed parenthetical information inside parenthetical information - there is probably some other punctuation I should use . . .or there is probably some hard and fast rule that says NEVER DO THAT . . .but heck - my blog, right? hee hee!  I always use way too many "dot, dot, dots . . ." and way too many parenthesis - I think I even talk that way!!
 

I baked it for an hour but because there was so much of it, I actually put it back in and let it back a little longer.  Then we reheated it on Thanksgiving day.  This casserole is what was cooking when Mr. Stanley Steemer (see last post) was here.

 

Cranberry Apple Casserole is wonderful - it is so versatile - you can serve it for breakfast on Christmas morning or for Sunday lunch - I think it would be great with pork tenderloin . . .maybe I'll make it for Tuesday night???.  It is especially great on Thanksgiving.  My sister-in-law, Alice, usually makes this dish but they went out of town for Thanksgiving.  We love it so much that someone else (that would be me!) has to make it when she isn't here.  (we sure did miss them but they were where they needed to be!!)

 

I'm not having a lot of success with folks linking up to share recipes . . .but I'm going to keep on.  When I went to that conference (She Speaks) this summer, they said, "don't give up."  so . . . link up and share a recipe with us!!  What dish does your family love so much that you cannot have thanksgiving without it?  Or you can just share any recipe!!