Friday: baked apples

Baked apples are one of those comfort foods here in our house. Always good on those cold winter nights or for a breakfast treat when you have a long lazy morning.

Take four medium sized tart apples and core them from the top and then the bottom. Running a very sharp paring knife around them slowly from the top and bottom will do the trick.

Put them in a small pie plate which has been smeared with butter to grease it.

Then mix up:

1/2 cup of rolled oats

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1/2 stick of butter

1 tsp cinnamon or a little more if you like

1 tsp ginger

and a lot of freshly grated nutmeg

Take this mixture and stuff it into the holes you made in the apples. It's ok if the crumbles fall around the pan as they will bake right along with it all. If you are wanting something more sweet you can always:

drizzle a 1/4 cup of maple syrup over this to finish it off.

Bake the apples at 350F for an hour or until a fork pierces the side of the apple easily.

Top with a little cream, a small scoop of ice cream or whipped cream. We even just pour a little milk over the top when we are out of the other fancy milk products!