Growing at the Speed of Life - A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden

APPLE AND PEAR CRISP

This is an opportunity to reduce portion size
because this dessert is so full of fl avor you’ll
only need a modest helping.
SERVES 9

For the Fruit

3 cooking apples ( Jonagold, Winesap,
Northern Spy, or other tart fl avorful apple)
3 Bosc pears
½ cup golden raisins
2 cups dealcoholized fruity white wine
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

for the Topping
½ cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup low-fat graham cracker crumbs or
whole-grain fl our
3 tablespoons sliced almonds
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons butter

½ cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Peel and core the apples and cut into eighths.
Peel and core the pears and cut into quarters.
Place in a large skillet; add the raisins, wine,
and cloves, and cover with a piece of waxed
paper cut to fit. Bring to a boil, lower the heat,
and poach gently 15 minutes or until tender
but not mushy. Drain, reserving the liquid, and
lay the fruit in a 12×12-inch baking dish.

Combine the oats, graham cracker crumbs,

almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg

in a bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture

holds together in a crumble. Scatter over the

fruit and bake, uncovered, 30 minutes or until

golden and crisp on top.

Meanwhile, pour the reserved liquid back

into the large skillet and boil vigorously until

reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Take off the

heat and stir in the yogurt. Cut the crisp into

9 pieces and serve with the yogurt sauce.

Per serving : 226 calories, 6 g fat, 3 g saturated fat (4%

calories from saturated fat), 41 g carbohydrate, 2 g

protein, 4 g dietary fiber, 72 mg sodium. Exchanges:

½ Fat, 3 Carbohydrate

BAKED APPLES

A fruit lover’s dessert. The spice is like a

perfume that makes the apple all the more

desirable.

SERVES 4

4 medium cooking apples ( Jonagold,

Northern Spy, Rome, or Winesap)

1 cup unsweetened apple juice or water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

Pinch ground cloves

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Core the apples with a spoon or apple corer

and cut shallowly in a line around the fruit

64 • GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE