Second Book Club ~ A lovely meal and a lovely time!

Menu:
Drunken Chicken in the crock pot.

A fellow book club member brought
wonderful mashed potatoes and
a Chinese broccoli side with peanut sauce.

I made GF flour gravy from the
left over drunken chicken juices.
(Made just like any gravy but with GF all purpose flour).
We also had freshly chopped orange farmers market pepper
and the last of the fresh 2013 tomatoes.

A small bit of yummy cranberry sauce. 

The Apple Crisp!

 

We also had raspberry and pumpkin (hard) cider,
a little for who ever wanted it,
normal apple cider and water...
*
We had a wonderful discussion afterward of
chapters 3-4 of Orthodoxy
with many wonderful tangents to related topics
weaving into a lot of earnest and thoughtful discussion.
*
We are going to meet one more time for a meal
before the Nativity Fast
(our fellow members are new calendar so that means mid-November)
that will include meat
(I already have some menu ideas!)
and will do chapter 5!

First GF Apple Crisp (for book club) ~ {plus a lovely knitting pattern}

Mr. Husband kindly printed off
Katherine's recipe for her
Gluten Free Apple Oat Crisp
last week for book club
(great second meeting last night!)
as one of our guests is Gluten Free (GF).
*
I have a few GF cookbooks,
but only one had an
apple crisp recipe
and it did not have the oats that
I wanted...
*
So I did it mainly
the way Katherine set out.


I used apples from the farmer's market.

I had Canadian Maple Syrup...

 

I used more coconut oil and cinnamon than the
recipe called for.
Did about half cup of oats blended in my blender
to make oat flour.

When I mixed the syrup, the cinnamon and nutmeg,
the coconut oil... I snuck a taste of it raw
and it was really good! :)

I used brown sugar for the apples and
sprinkled on cinnamon and nutmeg,
not measuring. 

It was lovely to make.
Just put the topping on top :)

Baked at 350 for 35 minutes.
It had a nice taste.... if sweet things can be savory,
then this one was!
*
Afterwards I called my Grandma and learned that
she had made a GF apple crisp with just everything
she always used, save the oats as she did not have GF oats
(I have an Aunt who is GF who she was baking for).
None of the recipes called for plain
all purpose GF flour but that is what my
Grandma used and when I try it again,
I am going to try my normal apple crisp recipe
and then see what happens.
*
This one has a great flavour and I loved that it was GF...
but the oats baked a little too long; the oats were a bit dry and
fell apart instead of sticking together...
I am wondering if I used too many apples;
somehow they did not bake as thoroughly as I would of wanted;
but I see this as my fault entirely,
as I deviated from the recipe :)
*
I am so remembering the recipe for the flavour ... and for all of the above!
I love experimenting and see what happens...
this is the fun of recipes and baking!
You find a recipe,
even more fun when by a blog friend one knows,
and then experiment with it,
make it one's own while all the while
remember the original recipe that one began with,
with gratefulness.
*
Actually it's the best, isn't it,
to be able to experiment and take one's recipe
to do new things...
one of my long time blog friends has been
doing that with my Oma's Koek recipe
and it is so fun to hear about!
*
Using maple syrup with the oats was
genius and I am so grateful for
Katherine's recipe for this!
 

I must say that our book club people
all enjoyed it,
over 2/3rds of our 9x13 dish was gone in one evening
and it went perfectly with GF vanilla bean ice cream!
*
And the apple crisp itself is vegan, which means
that Mr. Husband and I are looking forward
to some for dessert today!
*
So yay for recipes, sharing and blogs to keep sharing them with!
*
On another note,
Katherine's Martinmas Sweater is up and here for
the offering ~ including her contest to spread the word!
*
So we have at least two things to thank Katherine for today;
this apple crisp and her sweater pattern!
How wonderful!