Cranberry-Apple Crumble

It was a great weekend: I saw Julian Plenti live and the Chargers beat the Eagles! You can't ask for much more. Well besides dessert of course. I made this dessert a few weeks ago when I had my Mom and Grandpa over for dinner and it was a big hit so I decided to make it again. First of all, I love crumbles, cobblers, crisps; whatever you want to call them, and I love fruit! My husband does too, so we gobbled half of this thing up in no time. It was a sweet end to a sweet weekend - and there are more sweet weekends to come! Next weekend is the New Moon premier and then Thanksgiving! Life is good.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds apples (about 3 medium), peeled and cored

1/2 cup fresh or frozen (unthawed) cranberries, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coarse salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for dish

1/2 cup pecan halves (2 ounces), coarsely chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

3 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Quarter apples lengthwise, then thinly slice. Toss in a large bowl with cranberries, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt until evenly coated.

Butter an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish. Mix pecans, flour, oats, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl until combined. Work in butter with your fingertips until topping is crumbly, with pea-size chunks.

Spread apple mixture in prepared dish; sprinkle with topping. Bake until filling is bubbling and topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

(From Martha Stewart Living, October 2009)

Bookkeeping

Maybe I have too much time on my hands... OK, I do have too much time on my hands. But that's a good reason to keep things organized. For too long I had kept all my ticket stubs in an old makeup bag kept inside a shoebox. But I'm one of those people who actually likes to look at all my old trinkets, so keeping them hidden away wasn't really working for me.

Who knew that you could buy albums to keep your ticket stubs in? Like this Ticket Stub Diary. Well, obviously not me. I bought this book for business cards and turned it into my own ticket stub keeper. At the time, I thought it was a pretty ingenious. For some reason it only occurred to me afterward to see if such a thing actually exists.

I filed away all my little ticket stubs by year: concert, plays, comedians, and authors in one, and movies in another. As you can see, I went to see the band Incubus a lot in 2002. I was a little obsessed.

Turns out, I really love books... and magazines. But a couple of years ago, I realized I didn't like combing through dozens and dozens of magazines to find that one article, picture, or recipe I liked. So I turned my magazines into a book. Well, two books now. I call them my "magazine books." I know, imaginative, huh? A lot of the content is from my favorite magazine, Bust, and the now defunct Jane (so sad.) It seems like all the magazines I like eventually shut down: Jane, Blueprint, Domino.

I love having all of my favorite magazine clippings in one place. And because it's all stuff I love, I never get tired of looking at it, and I reference it frequently. Here are a few pages.