The Apple-Crisp-and-Beach-Trip Anniversary (#12, of course)

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary.

I’ll wait for the applause to die down before continuing.

Yesterday we drove out to Gloucester to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary by spending the day at the beach. We had 80-degree temperatures and clear blue skies. We found a protected little cove with lots of sand and bordered by trees, so while my sun-loving family played in the water, I reclined in the shade and read. I walked in the water for a little while. Collected some sea glass, took some photos.

Afterwards, we had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant where we determined that my daughter loves lobster and that my son is convinced that it’s hilarious to even suggest he might eat it. “I doan eat wobter!” he’d giggle every time we offered him some. It was a good dinner, but I’ve yet to eat blow-your-mind seafood since we’ve been in New England. I’m still looking.

At the restaurant, I asked my husband if he had anything to say about our 12 years as a married couple.

“I think we’re keeping it real,” he said.

We got stuck in traffic on the way home for some undetermined reason probably explained by wave theory. We were tired of our music and entertained ourselves for a while with the erratic “seek” function on the car stereo. The highlight was King Harvest’s “Dancin’ in the Moonlight.”

Everybody here is outta sight, indeed.

Actually, I think my husband would say the highlight was “Kickstart My Heart” by Mötley Crüe. The fact that we listened to both songs in their entirety happens to be our secret to wedded bliss. That and the fact that we both remembered all of the lyrics to “Wonderwall” by Oasis.

Today, we biked to church in the continued awesome weather. But before we left, I threw together a gluten-free, dairy-free apple crisp. Three out of four of our family members agreed that it rocked. The holdout was my daughter who’s decided that she doesn’t like apples.

With any luck, we’ll be able to finish out our anniversary with some spaghetti, an early bedtime for the kids, and a couple of episodes of “The Office.” If my husband doesn’t feel too weird about the fact that I dreamed about Jim Halpert last night. (It was totally G-rated, I promise. Well, PG.)

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

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Anniversary Apple Crisp

modified from the Pear Plum Crisp recipe from Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family, and is similar to her recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. (Follow the link for a much more attractive picture of a crisp than I took.)

Ingredients:

1 c gluten-free rolled oats

1/2 c gluten-free flour blend of your choice (I eyeballed a mix of rice flour, arrowroot starch, and buckwheat flour)

1/2 t sea salt

1/2 c dairy-free margarine, melted and divided

7 T maple syrup, divided

1/3 c chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

3 t cinnamon, divided

1/2 t nutmeg

2 t vanilla extract

5 to 7 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced (I used Cortlands. They worked great.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix oats, flour, salt, 1 t cinnamon, and nuts together in a bowl. Add 1/4 c of the margarine and 4 T of maple syrup and mix well. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining 3 T maple syrup, 1/4 c melted margarine, 2 t cinnamon, the nutmeg, and the vanilla, and set aside.

Put apples in a lightly oiled 8×8 baking dish. Pour the liquid mixture over the fruit and stir gently to distribute as evenly as possible. Spoon the oat-nut mixture over the top of the fruit. Cover and bake about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10-15 minutes to make the topping crisp.