Late Summer, Early Fall

It was so hot two weeks ago. Our house stays nice and cool for a few days of hot weather, but after a week of temperatures in the mid- to upper-90s, it was not cool anywhere. The cabinets were hot. Outside was hot. Inside was hot. Nighttime was hot. It was hot.

The heatwave broke and temperatures returned to pleasantly warm, albeit still quite muggy and still. Friday the breeze started. Chris was all excited.

“Doesn’t it feel like fall??” he asked the kids and me at breakfast.

“The weather has definitely changed,” I nodded.

That day—the last Friday before school started—the kids and I headed downtown to see the iguanodon fossils at Brussels’ natural science museum. The first fall leaves swirled in the warm sunshine and drier air, collecting in fountains and ponds. Cooler night temperatures further convinced us summer was in fact at an end.

That’s how we knew it was time to harvest some apples! We have several fruit trees in the back garden but the apple is the biggest and most prolific. The only problem? Worm holes. So far we’ve icked out of plucking fruit from the tree for immediate consumption because the tree is pretty well populated with bugs of all kinds and apparently we are wimpy and squeamish.

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But Saturday morning the kids and I got to work. The kids climbed and picked. I sliced. We all peeled. Eloise chopped. It took all morning. It’s pretty much my favorite thing we’ve done at home.

I reviewed a few apple crisp recipes online. We had fantastic Normandy apple desserts the whole time we were in France in July, so I added a secret ingredient I didn’t see in any other recipes to try to achieve that same extreme deliciousness, and OH BOY WE SUCCEEDED.

“This is fall perfection,” said Isaac of all people. “This apple on this plate.”

With these kids. Just the best.

Krueger Belgian Apple Crisp

• 10 cups chopped and peeled backyard apples, worm holes and soft spots removed
• 1 cup mixed brown and white sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (this is my secret ingredient)
• 1/4 cup water

The kids tossed all that together and let it sit while we mixed up the crumble topping:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 cup flour
• 4 packets maple sugar instant oatmeal
• 1/4 teaspoon each baking soda and baking powder
• Brown sugar to taste (probably a half cup or so since the instant oatmeal we had—the only oats we had on hand—were already sweetened. If using plain instant oats, add more sugar)

Isaac dumped the soaked, coated apples into a 9×13 pan. Both kids sprinkled the topping on top. We baked it at 170 C for 45 minutes. Our house smelled so amazing the rest of the day. As soon as our crisp was done, we scooped it up and ate it for teatime alongside Lupicia apple black tea with milk.

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Good smells continues to drift throughout the house, joined by our sugary Belgian waffle candle smells. Chris woke up from his work-all-night-sleep-all-day rest to rave about the fruits our labor, and the kids and I tromped down to Place Dumon for a back-to-school haircut for Isaac and to buy Italian ice cream with caramel swirls to enjoy on top of the apple crisp for dessert! None of it lasted beyond Sunday, but fortunately we have a whole tree of apples for future crisps!

Last year we got some excellent fall weather in Texas while we were moving in November, but this is the first time we’ve lived somewhere with traditional AUTUMN since Eloise was one! I love summer… we survive winter… but autumn is MY FAVORITE. Even—or maybe especially??—when it comes in August.