Cranberry apple crisp

'Tis the season for cranberries and apples, and so I was super excited recently to come across this recipe for cranberry apple crisp. Sweet and tangy and bursting with color (I know, now I sound like a commercial), this is the perfect dessert to enjoy on a cool fall day (perhaps topped with a bit of vanilla ice cream!).

Cranberry apple crisp

3/4 cup orange juice

2 cups white sugar (the second time I made this, I reduced the amount of sugar to about 1 1/2 cups)

5 cups fresh cranberries (I think I probably only used about 4 - 4 1/2 cups)

4 Gala apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup butter (the original recipe says the butter should be softened, but personally, I think it works better if it's cold -- but that's probably because I use a pastry blender to cut it in)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x12 baking dish.

Heat the orange juice, sugar, and about half the cranberries in a saucepan over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil. Simmer until the cranberries pop, stirring occasionally.

Mix in the apples and the rest of the cranberries. Remove from heat, allow to cool for several minutes, and then pour into prepared baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and oats. Stir/cut in the butter until thoroughly incorporated. Pour over fruit mixture.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling and the oat topping has begun to brown.

Enjoy it warm (with vanilla ice cream!) or cold.

"Delicious Autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns!"

-- George Eliot