Blueberry Apple Crisp

Yummy note: At a recent get together, I thought what would be perfect near this holiday week would be something festive including the red, white, or blue colors. I know, who color coordinates their food with the holidays, haha.. well I'm one of those nuts out there. It makes things more fun and lively! Not to mention, something fun to talk about! So I decided to go the all-American way, and first thought of making a nice apple pie to celebrate the Fourth of July season, but instead I opted for the crisp as I had no time to make a pie crust or to run to the store at that moment in time. I really love the "crisp" part, sometimes when I make my apple pies, I make only a bottom pie shell and add more crisp on top. I like how it is almost like having an oatmeal cookie on top. hmm.. ok, so back to the dessert, I decided to toss in some fresh blueberries into my apple crisp to liven the color up, not to mention it added some great flavor.

Blueberry Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

Fruit mixture:
4-5 medium tart cooking apples, sliced
1 cup of fresh blueberries
(optional, may toss your apples with a little lemon juice - maybe a teaspoon or so, if you'd like)

For the Topping:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour (can use all-purpose flour or self-rising flour)
1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oatmeal (sometimes in a pinch I will use the instant brown sugar/maple packets of oatmeal if I don't have enough on hand)
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of 8-inch or 9-inch square pan. Spread the apples and blueberries out in the pan. Sprinkle a little cinnamon and sugar over the apples with the lemon juice, if desired. Next, stir remaining ingredients until well mixed and crumble over the fruit mixture. Sometimes, I make an additional half-batch of the topping mixture to add on top of the fruit, as I really like my crumb topping. This doesn't really affect the baking time a lot, maybe add an additional minute or two. Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and the juice starts oozing and bubbling through a bit. Plus the apples should be tender when pierced with a fork. I really enjoying serving it warm, with some ice cream or whipped cream on top, or else I know others that love it cold. So serve as you wish and enjoy!