Meat and 16 Veg

A traditional Australian dinner is the "meat and three veg" - literally, meat (usually a roast) of some kind, plus three vegetables (usually potatoes, and two overcooked boiled limp used-to-be nutritious veg.) Tuesday nights in our house have jokingly become "meat and 16 veg" nights because our weekly fresh veg and fruit delivery comes on a Wednesday morning. Usually Tuesday night finds me or DH rooting around in the fridge, trying to come up with a way to transform some lettuce, one tomato, a few stalks of celery, a head of bok choy and a limp carrot into a gourmet meal for five. Being as clever as we are, we often succeed. Tonight was no different except that instead of veg we had a whole basket full of just-past-nice pears and a couple of just-too-wrinkly golden delicious apples to use up.

Solution? Pear and Apple Crisp!

Start with somewhat dodgy fruit:


Make sure to enlist the kids....especially any cute 6 year old boys who might be hanging around the place:



Don't forget to take the close-up of just how damn SCRUMMY it all was:


...and then take the shot of how much it was a hit, with yet another six year old who happens to roam around the house


Lastly, go to blogger and post about it:

APPLE (and/or) PEAR CRISP
(Note: Method edited from original to reflect emzee's inherent laziness.)

Bunch o' apples or pears (about 8 pieces of fruit), sliced
2 T sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter

To serve: ice cream, custard, or whatever

Preheat oven to 375/180. Take a large round casserole and spray with oil spray. Throw in the fruit, sprinkle the sugar on top. In a separate bowl add the remaining ingredients. Cut the butter through with a knife until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (note, this is when child labour comes in handy.) For the lazy among us, whizz it in a food processor. Throw (okay, gently scatter) on top and bake for 35-40 minutes or until crisp and smelling totally divine. Eat with accompaniments (I recommend 3 x six year old children and vanilla custard.)