Susan Wildeboer

What is better when the weather is cold and rainy than something hot and tasty from the oven? That’s what we all enjoyed at this month’s au pair meeting. Most of my au pairs, from Mountain View and Los Altos, had heard of apple crisp and a few had tasted it, but did not know how to make it. So we made my families “secret” recipe and had a great time eating hot apple crisp and ice cream! As an added treat we made fresh lemonade from the “sweet” lemons in my backyard.

First, we used the “apple - peeler - corer - slicer” to prepare the apples. Several girls had a “turn” and it was a lot of fun. Then we made the oatmeal and brown sugar spice topping. Others tried their hand with the electric juicer to extract lemon juice. Viviana didn’t really want to try. I told her she would find it fun. Then she said, “Ok, just one.” Four lemons later, she let someone else have a turn. A little sugar, water and a few stirs to make fresh, refreshing lemonade.

While the apple crisp baked in the oven we played dominoes. I taught them a game called Mexican Train, which everyone enjoyed and hoped to play again. When the apple crisp came out of oven we served it up with ice cream and everyone decided it was a deeeeelicious! They all want the recipe, so my secret recipe has now gone international!