crisp air inspires a crisp dessert

Autumn has quite a bit going for it.

-It makes a fairly awesome name (though I do know gals named Spring and Summer, but oddly, no one called Winter).

-New TV!  I admit it: I’m a television fiend.  Dexter, Castle, Psych, Community—I’m hooked on ‘em all.

-The leaves and trees are the most beautiful they will ever be, particularly in my part of the country.  Fall foliage is fantastic.

-Baseball AND football games are being played everywhere you look.

-Mild temperatures…usually.  Those random 20-degree mornings here and there never make it easy to roll out of bed.

-Along those lines, three words: Daylight savings time.  Extra hour of sleep, anyone?

See?  Good stuff.  Another thing I particularly enjoy about autumn is the array of fruits and vegetables that come into season.  Apples, sweet potatoes, pears, cranberries, and each and every variety of squash are foods I eagerly await each year.

In thinking of delicious fall desserts, pumpkin pie, apple cake, and gingerbread immediately come to mind.  I wanted an especially colorful treat featuring the best of autumn, so a quick crisp using green apples, yellow pears, and scarlet cranberries was an obvious choice.

This dessert will punch you in the mouth (in a good way, of course…) with its combination of acidity and sweetness.  The various textures are also a pleasant sensation, whether it’s the crunchy, subtly-spiced oat topping, the tart, chewy berries, or the sweet, toothsome pomes that delight you most.  The most tedious and time-consuming part is prepping the fruit, and you can take care of that in less than 15 minutes (and that’s even if you’re distracted by the stunning and serene image of silently falling leaves or the cacophony of a football game playing on the tv in the background).