On Friday we went to one of the most successful fruit and vegetable stands in our area. They have everything you can imagine: peaches, tomatoes, nuts of all kinds, local honey, beans, peas, potatoes, lemons (and lemon trees!), etc. etc. etc.

It was the Granny Smith apples, however, that caught our attention. Suffice it to say that our mouths watered at the sight. We love these tart, crisp apples and it’s a treat whenever we get our hands on a few.

But Mom had a new, ambitious idea: buy a BUSHEL of them and put them up for the fall! It would be cheaper, after all, to buy a big box and preserve the apples than to use canned fruits for our various baking projects

So we bought a whole bushel, and on Saturday morning, after weeding our jungle of a rose bed (I’ll leave that to your imagination), we went to work coring, peeling, and slicing every blessed apple.

There were probably about 40-50 apples in that box.

Emmy cored them all. Anna and I peeled them. Then Carolyn and Katie helped us slice them.

Baby Sis took off all the stickers. (Not sure who filled the role of hairdresser that morning…)

After all the apples were sliced, Mom put them on the stove with a little sucanat and cinnamon.

Apples don’t take very long to cook down, by the way. They get soft very fast and then all the spicy juice starts boiling over. Trust me, I know. I was panicking trying to get these pots off the stove before we had a flood of apple juice!

Cooked apples smell like Thanksgiving. Thanks to the fact that we also had our first cold front this weekend, we’re positively giddy over the first hints of autumn!

When the apples had cooled off that evening, Mom and I poured them into Ziplocs and she put them in the freezer. (We’d like to can them next time.) We got 19 bags of cooked apples, and would’ve had more if I hadn’t made one of our favorite desserts…

I figured I ought to cook up something delicious that we could enjoy after a hard day’s work in the yard and the kitchen. “Apple Slump” is one of our favorite fall recipes. It’s similar to a cobbler.

I took six cups of raw, freshly sliced apples and added a cup of firmly-packed brown sugar, a teaspoon each of nutmeg and cinnamon, a half-teaspoon of ground cloves, and a half-teaspoon of salt.

I mixed it all and poured it into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. This went into a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. While those were cooking, I prepared the crust.

First I melted two sticks (1 cup) of butter…

Oh, excuse me, you don’t believe in using that much butter?

I’m just kidding I mean, no, I’m not kidding that I used two sticks of butter. But if you wanted to cut down on the butter, you could probably use coconut oil, or just use a little butter and a little applesauce, or however you like to substitute butter. You could easily cut the sugar in half, too. But in my own defense, this was a “special occasion” and I was feeling like Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman. She believes in butter, too.

Besides, it probably irritates Michelle Obama.

Fellow conservatives, you may now feel free to buy stock in butter.

Ahem. Back to the crust.

Mix 3 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of brown sugar, and 2 eggs…

Then add 1 cup of milk and the melted butter and MIX!! I use a KitchenAid mixer, by the way.

The resulting batter is pretty thick, so I carefully spread it over the hot cooked apples, which are done by the time you get the batter prepared. Pop it in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden-brown and DONE.

I beg you, be sure to stick a toothpick in it to test the crust. It might look done on the top but the inside might still be gooey. Just so ya know.

TA-DA!! Apple slump, complete with spicy Granny Smith apples and a buttery, flaky crust–and best of all, enough for us to each have a nice steaming slab plus a tiny second helping.

Nothin’ like a good homemade dessert every once in a blue moon. It’s ten times better than a processed package cupcake that won’t expire until 2035, or one of those little flimsy excuses of a dessert our Beloved First Lady so ardently promotes.

As Paula Deen says, ”I have always said that I don’t care for uppity food and I can’t cook it.” I agree and would simply add this piece of advice: Just don’t eat something like this every week (or consider making it a little less fattening WITHOUT sacrificing the flavor) and your waistline should be fine

Last but not least, full credit goes to my sisters Emmy and Carolyn for the beautiful pictures! They took the time to capture the beauty of an industrious day in the kitchen. Thank you for letting me use the photos, girls!