June's Prapple Crisp

Sep 16

Written By

When I was 12 years old a family moved into a house on the hill behind us. They were from "the city", which was very intriguing to me. That certainly meant that they were sophisticated and worldly. Which I do think they were, but they were also very friendly for city folk. lol That was my friend, Sheila, and we are still very close today. Sheila's mom, June, could do anything in my eyes. She was very creative, had a great sense of humor, and was a great cook. I've mentioned before that it was pretty common for me to yell "I'm goin' up Heyman's", which meant that I would spend the rest of the day at their house.June always had something for us to do, but it wasn't to keep us out of her hair, most of the time she was doing it with us. And, while she spent time with us, she would play music and sing right along. She had a beautiful voice. Johnny Mathis never knew it, but she was his best duet partner. All the neighborhood kids ended up at their house. In the summer we would take long walks in the fields behind their house and in the winter they had the best yard for sledding.

She was always making something for us to eat that I had never had before. One of those things was Prapple Crisp. Well, it was just Pear and Apple Crisp, but Sheila and I called it Prapple Crisp and it stuck. I asked Sheila if she had her mom's recipe and she said that June never wrote down recipes, she just looked at a few recipes and then made up what she liked, taking things from several of the recipes. That's what I do too. I will usually follow a new recipe the first time so I know how it is supposed to come out, but then I play with it from there. As I have begun working on a cookbook, I have just been throwing things together. I have always had a feel for how flavors and ingredients work together. Sometimes I look up recipes to see what the basics are and then I will take it from there.

June passed away several years ago, so the only thing I could do was ask her for guidance as I played around with this and I told Sheila that I would give her mom credit for the recipe. Asking June for guidance is nothing new. She was also one of the most intelligent people I had ever known. Asking her about how to make something was nothing new either. I did get a recipe from her years ago for her Zucchini Bread. She also made a great Banana Bread, but I never got that one. As I looked over a couple of recipes I had already developed, I just made a few modifications. It worked! There is one ingredient that I don't think most would not use and I am not sure if June did, but it just came to me so I would like to think that she was whispering it to me. I heard her say apple cider vinegar, but if you want you can use lemon juice. It mostly keeps the apples and pears from turning brown, but it adds a great little zip to the flavor where lemon juice can brighten the flavors of the apple and pear, but not add a new flavor. I also made whipped cream to serve it with. You can serve it warm plain, with milk or cream, whipped cream, or ice cream. I have also included a recipe for the whipped cream. It is very easy to make, but you do have to follow a couple of rules for optimum success. Anyway, here it is!