By the time you read this, I will be in Amman. We’re finally going home for a 3 week visit. To say that I have been counting down the seconds is such an understatement. It’s been a whole year since I have last seen my friends and family and I miss them all terribly .As an added bonus the weather forecast predicts 46 C in the UAE while it Amman it will be 27C in the day and 19C at night! Yay!

I will be posting pictures of my trip on Instagram and I will share pictures and tidbits in my upcoming posts, do stay tuned.

Since it is the first Monday of the month, that means it is time for our secret recipe club reveal.My assignment for this month was Thyme for cooking by the lovely Katie. I loved going through Katie’s blog. She spent 1 year in Ireland,  7 years in Andorra  and 8 years in France. Her travels gave her a unique outlook on food and life in general .

Katie shares recipes, food, insights about life in France and the trials and tribulations of restoring a French farmhouse.

When it was time to choose a recipe, I was honestly looking for something cold and refreshing or something that involved as little cooking as possible because of the smoldering heat here in the UAE . I bookmarked her spinach mushroom and garlic salad but as it so happened , I received a basket of apples to celebrate the European bicolor apple day . As a result the plans changed and the kids and I decided to find an apple recipe for this month’s secret recipe club.

 

After some searching we ended up choosing  her apple crisp recipe.

Soft and slightly caramelized apples infused with cinnamon, earthy oatmeal and a crunchy crumble topping is the very definition of heavenly  in my book. The smell alone of the apple crumble baking was worth turning on the oven for 🙂

Apple Crisp

Total time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4 apples

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon orange juice

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, plus a bit more for the pan

Instructions:

Butter and 8 X 8″ (20 X 20cm) square baking dish.

Peel and slice apples

Toss the apples with the lemon and orange juice and place them in baking dish.

To prepare the crumble

In another bowl mix sugar, spices, flour and oats.

Cut in the butter, using a pastry cutter, 2 knives or forks, until it resembles small pebbles. (You can use a food processor to pulse the butter with the other dry ingredients till it resembles small pebbles)

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apples.

Bake 30 minutes at 375F (185C), until top is bubbly.