Grandma Herbert's Apple Crisp

I had an abundance of Pink Lady apples at home that needed to be used so I decided to make a quick apple crisp for dessert. I didn't have all the ingredients for the oat-topping recipe I usually use so I searched my drawers for an alternate one and came across Grandma Herbert’s simple recipe that hardly had any ingredients to it. This sounded kind of bland but I went for it anyway. You do nothing to the apples except
slice them and put them in your baking dish. Did that. Next, you take melted butter and toss it with flour, sugar, cinnamon, maybe some baking powder and soda. A pinch of salt. I tossed the ingredients together and spread it over the boring apple slices and with more than a hint of weariness that this will taste anywhere near delicious, I put it in the oven for the required 50 minutes and let it bake.
After a while, wafts of warm cinnamon danced in the air as I washed dishes nearby. When the timer went off, I peaked in the oven and saw the apples were bubbling under the thick crust. The topping wasn’t nearly crisp enough, though, so I closed the
oven and let it cook for a few more minutes. I don’t recall Grandma being a bad cook,
especially when it came to desserts, so I was optimistic magic was going to happen
between the dull apples and hard as a rock topping.
After another few minutes, the dessert was perfectly crispy on top and bubbling over so I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool on the island in the middle of the kitchen.
The rest of the day the entire house smelled euphoric between that delicious warmth
cinnamon offers any environment and the slow-baked Pink Lady apples that are the perfect mix of sweet and tangy.
As I moved through the house all day tending to chores I found myself finding excuses to pass through the kitchen to get a closer whiff of the dessert. Would it taste nearly as good as this succulent aroma it’s putting out as a teaser? A mystery I had to wait hours to unravel.
Later that evening, it was time. The dessert sat on the counter still warm and oh so ready. I scooped a generous portion in to a bowl and dove in.
Oh. My. God. I couldn’t believe the flavors in my mouth. The rich, savory apples melted in to the sugary, crunchy topping and in to my mouth in a way I can only describe as decadent. In that moment, I felt slapped in the face by memory. The
memory of Grandma. My time growing up at the Herbert Ranch all in one bowl of flavors.
Like fireworks, the taste of Grandma Herbert’s kitchen was popping all throughout my
mouth and it was unlike any moment of recollection I can remember. For all the cooking and tasting of food I do in my job and at home, I realized in that moment I have been missing the most important piece of good food experiences – the connection to times in your life that could be so simple in that moment but is stored in
your memory.

All one needs to do is revisit the food and a recollection of a dear relationship can be conjured up to warm your heart, fill your belly, and inspire you to dig for more of them. Grandma Herbert had a green heirloom apple tree in her front yard and she would make this crisp at the peak of harvest when she was inundated with fruit and was expecting her large family for dinner. I’d often go to her house after school while Mom was working and Grandma would let me help her make this crisp. She’d use a small pairing knife to peel and slice the apples while she directed me to scoop out
the flour and sugar in the two drawers she had in her kitchen that held bins of each of them. I felt so special when she would hand me the measuring cups and task me with going in to these drawers that were my height. We’d mix everything together with a wooden spoon and she’d spread the topping over the apples she just peeled.
She had two ovens that were yellow and side by side each other in the kitchen. She’d slide the crisp in to the one not being used to roast the big hunk of beef she was cooking with carrots and potatoes for our dinner.
The tree still sits in her front yard though she has passed away 18 years ago now. These pink lady apples were a treat in this recipe but now I cannot wait when it be time to harvest the fruit - very soon! - and deliver bags of these green apples that taste like time with Grandma in a way nothing else can.