Caramel Apple Crisp

This is a recipe that I just made up.  I had some apples that were needing to be used.  We were not eating them fresh, so I thought I would put them into a crisp to see if I could tempt my family to eat them.

As I opened the fridge to get a drink of water, I spied the partial jar of caramel ice cream topping we had left from a recent ice cream party.  I grabbed it on a whim and decided to add it to my crisp.  I took it to church this morning, and many people gave rave reviews to this new crisp.


8 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 jar caramel ice cream topping
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
2 sticks butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss sliced apples with lemon juice, spread out into a 1 quart casserole dish.

Drizzle caramel ice cream topping over apples evenly.

 In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, salt, and pumpkin pie spice, mix well.

Pour melted butter over oat mixture and mix well, until all ingredients are wet.  Sprinkle oat mixture over apples evenly.

Bake, uncovered, about an hour, until top is evenly browned, and apples are tender.  You can serve hot with ice cream on top, or at room temperature with a dollop of Cool Whip.

Serves 12

Nedra's Cheesecake

Since I bragged yesterday about getting to choose between 2 great desserts on Nedra's Christmas table, I thought I had better share the second one with you today.  That way you can make both for your upcoming holiday feast, and face your own grueling decision about which one to eat.  My bet is that you will take some of both.

This is not what one normally thinks of when thinking of cheesecake, but that is not a bad thing at all.  This cheesecake is tall, airy and light, with a faint lemon note that is fabulously refreshing.  Simplicity at its finest.

1 small box lemon jello
1 cup boiling water
juice of 1 lemon
1 8oz package of cream cheese, brought to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tall can Milnot (evaporated milk), chilled
1 box of graham crackers
1 stick butter, melted

Using food processor, crush graham crackers into fine crumbs.  Pour into a mixing bowl.  Add melted butter and stir until all crumbs are moistened.  Reserve 1/2 cup crumbs.  Press remaining crumbs into 9x13 baking pan.  Set aside.

Dissolve jello in boiling water.  Add lemon juice and cool.  In mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese with sugar and vanilla.  In separate bowl, whip Milnot until it stands in peaks. In a large mixing bowl, Mix jello, cream cheese, and whipped milk, stirring well.  Pour into prepared pan.  Sprinkle reserved crumbs evenly over top.  Chill several hours.  Serves 16.

Nedra's Lemon Cake

Today's recipe comes from my aunt's sister-in-law.  Though she is not my blood relative, she was frequently at family dinners, and we always spent part of Christmas Day with the extended family at her house.

I have wonderful memories of sitting at the big table with the adults, as she didn't pawn the kids off at a side table.  I always felt so grown up eating at her house.   Another big plus was that she had an awesome aluminum pitcher and a set of those bright, solid color aluminum tumblers to drink out of; and instead of coasters, she had little socks that you slipped onto the bottom of the glasses so they didn't sweat on her table.  It's funny the weird things you remember from childhood!

Anyway, it was always hard to choose between her light and airy cheesecake and this fruity lemon cake.  Most of the time I'd go ahead and have some of each!

1 yellow cake mix

1 small box lemon instant pudding

3/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup water

4 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9x13 inch cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, instant pudding, oil, water, and eggs.  Beat with electric mixer on low until cake mix is moistened, then beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.

Pour cake batter into prepared pan, bake for 30-40 minutes, until toothpick inserted near center of cake comes out clean.

While cake is baking, in another mixing bowl, combine lemon juice, powdered sugar, water and melted butter, mix well.  Warm this mixture in the microwave for 1 minute.  Pour over warm cake.  Cool.  Serves 16.