Preventing food waste with Ina Garten

Do you have a chest freezer? Is it full of raw ingredients you bought because you had every good intention of actually cooking something with them? Have some of those ingredients been in your freezer for, oh, a year maybe? Did you suddenly lose your job and realize maybe you should investigate some of those frozen mystery foods and actually use them? Welcome to my world.

First of all, I should have prefaced this entire post with my tale of woe - a few months ago I purchased a gallon of apple cider for my uncle who lives in Louisiana. The plan was for me to freeze the quality Ohio cider so my brother could take it down to my uncle on his next visit (apparently you cannot get good apple cider in Louisiana, shocking, I know). So I poured some of the cider out and popped it in my chest freezer. A week or so later, I opened the freezer up to a frozen volcanic eruption of apple cider. There is a part of me that wishes I had been around to personally witness this scientific explosion - I am sure there was a lot of air pressure meets cold air meets potentially fermenting liquid. It is still in my freezer. I am slowly working my way around the frozen explosion of apple cider, and I swear I will clean my freezer soon!


So one of the frozen mystery items that I have encountered are apples. Lots and lots of apples. I found 4 cups of diced and peeled apples that were over a year old! I decided to whip a crisp up and eat them despite their dubious age. I am happy that I did! I tried a new-to-me Ina Garten recipe that was delicious. I had a couple servings and actually sent the remainder of the pan home with my best friend who is a sucker for my desserts. I believe she said it was the perfect breakfast. So what makes this crisp special? The zest in it. Who knew adding some orange and lemon zest to an apple crisp would be so special and amazing!? Why didn't you tell me sooner if you knew?! I will definitely save this recipe and make it in the future to impress J.

Hopefully your stove top is cleaner than mine!

Old Fashioned Apple Crisp
Ina Garten
Copyright 2002, Barefoot Contessa Parties!

Serves: 10 servings

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds McIntosh or Macoun apples
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 14 by 2-inch oval baking dish.
Peel, core, and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apples with the zests, juices, sugar, and spices. Pour into the dish.
To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal, and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the apples.
Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for 1 hour until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm.

(I halved the recipe, and it worked very well.)

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