how 'bout them apples? (two cooking adventures in one post!!)

I went apple picking for the first time in my life last month. Apparently apple picking season is over come October, but Mike & I didn't realize this and got a stick and a bag (an expensive bag) and went about rattling the trees on Dr. Davies Farm.
We came right when a school was leaving. There were a lot of little apples in piles at the base of the trees.
The stick with the picker part was so long!  But I was able to use it!
Heck, we got a lot!
We ended up getting 52 apples. Whoa. Here I am with twins:
It was a fun day :)

Mike & I aren't huge apple enthusiasts, but you'd think we were, what with 52 apples and all. Neither one of us even likes apple pie, so we looked online for some alternative recipes.

APPLE CRISP

First, of course, you make a face on your apple with the peeler. And you put on your apple apron. Haha. Then you peel the rest of the skin off.
Naked apples!!
Mike begins a long night of chopping:

Pecans, then the apples.

And the pecans go in with the brown sugar.
Oh, gee! I needed a lemon.
How'd that get in there? Must have found a lemon tree among the apples ;)
Here I am mixing everything together with my clean hands.
We set out to make one pie. We had too much and ended up making two!


Butter this time. For the crisp!

Butter and flour, etc.... I thought it was a good idea to mix with my hands to really get the butter through.  Mike had to scrape chunks off my fingers, but it was fun. Then we sprinkle it on top of the pies!
Then they go in the oven!
And while you wait, I suggest picking up some caramel dip (Mike's idea):
We had some Reeses Pieces left over from another project and it was a great combination.

Yum!
Oh! Crisps are done!

We served ours with butter pecan ice cream and cool whip :)

Then of course we made caramel apples a few days later!

CARAMEL APPLES

This is what we used:
We made a little race out of unwrapping the individual caramels :)

Then I washed the apples.
We put wooden skewers into the 4 apples.

They look pretty fancy already:
While I microwave the caramel & a little bit of water (it looks gross)...
Mike crushes the Reeses Pieces (Chunks wants to help again)


We didn't have to de-wax the apples or anything because they're fresh from trees! Here I am happily covering an apple in caramel. It's harder than it looks!
The caramel was thick & I found it hard to twist the stick & distribute it evenly. Oh well! It looks pretty anyway!

Ta-Da!!
We had to cut the skewers so they'd fit in my cupcake courier to bring home. Later we cut them up and ate them in sections... and it was delicious!