Under no circumstances do I want you to come to this blog, read it, and leave with the sense that I have my act together. I don’t have my act together. If it looks for a moment like I have my act together… I’m just barely holding on. Hear these words.
I was reading a website last week, and the writer posted a picture of her nightstand. Perfectly mundane. Perfectly innocent. Except… the nightstand had three things on it. Something fancy made by Steve Jobs, something that probably smelled like roses in heaven, and a perfectly placed tube of designer lip gloss. Perfect layered on perfect, with a dash of perfect. Maybe I freaked out a little on the inside. Maybe my nightstand is a dusty clutter of books that I’m currently ignoring. Maybe I can’t find my lip gloss… and if I could it surely would not be designer… and it surely would have cat hair on it.
I’m not much for comparing myself with others… but I am for comparing nightstands apparently.
Mine is not put together.
Also… while we’re here… you should also know that I have to throw my phone in the back seat of my car to keep myself from texting and driving. All the way in the back. Otherwise I can’t help myself.
Oh. Sometimes I daydream about running into the boy I used to date earlier this year. In my fantasy, I look fantastic… like fatally fantastic. I’m also with my new (majorly amazingly tall) new boyfriend…. thus making this dummy dude feel like a total shrimp. I so so so wish for that to happen.
See? I’m fickle, and messy, and texty… AND I CAN TOTALLY COOK SOME APPLES!!!! So there…
Apples are just bonkers right now. I say we take advantage of this!
What follows is the most simple recipe for warm, soft, cinnamon-y apples. I started with crisp Fujis.
Essentially, what we’re going to create is the inside of an apple pie… without all the hassle of pie crust.
One might argue that the crust is the best part of an apple pie. Fair enough. Fine. You’re not entirely wrong.
But pulling these apples out of the oven might change your mind.
You might also consider baking these apples instead of lighting a scented candle . Your house will smell exactly like heaven.
Why don’t spas smell like warm cinnamon apples? Someone really should take this into consideration.
I love these apples on yogurt with granola. I love these warm apples on cold ice cream. I love these apples on breakfast oatmeal. I love eating these apples, piping hot, standing over the sheet pan with a fork.
Some things are just simple and delicious.
Super Simple Roasted Apples
makes 4 small servings
4 Fuji apples, peeled and sliced thin
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 or 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons cornstarch
sprinkling of ground all spice
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread sliced apples across the baking sheet. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch, all spice, and salt. Toss with fingers. Top with cubes of butter and bake for 15 to 25 minutes, until golden and bubbly to your desired doneness. Remove from oven. Allow to cool slightly and serve on top of ice cream or oatmeal. Store in an airtight container for up to up to 3 days. Reheat in a small pan over low heat on the stovetop.
Emma
Lovely! I can just imagine the warm spicy apples and cold ice cream.
I am always comparing my cluttered, book filled, dustyish, messyish, sentimental, filled-with-old-furniture flat with other people’s lovely, minimalistic homes. Then I just figure they’re showing off on the internet and I feel better.
;)
Alicia @ Treble Tart
Aww Joy! Don’t worry, my nightstand is a giant mess of dusty clutter and books and cat (and dog) hair too! I don’t even know if I own lip gloss. But I do know that I love apples, so I’m thinking I might just have to make these.
Also, I totally have to lock my phone in the glovebox when I drive. We are awful. XOXO!
Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga
The apples look wonderful.
And I love the picture of them unbaked…with those lovely hunks of butter. That butter just POPS and makes me want to dig in even more. I bet your house smelled Amazing!! while these were baking!
Danni
We still love you Joy.
If it’s any consolation my bed-side table has a pile of old rocks on it [I kid you not, this is 'sentimentality' at it's most extreme] and a used make-up wipe.
Classy bird.
x
Hannah @ Sparrow + Spark!
Oh yum! I regularly do this to have with yogurt for breakfast. I must check out your recipe!
Cathy
I think you should leave out the posts from FB as they can be rude and intrusive. I enjoy the comments made by Joy’s regular readers. We all love you and your quirkyness. When I tell someone about your blog, I always exclaim how much your photography means to your recipes. It really gives us a lot to work with. I know, I know, it is all about social media, networking all that phoney baloney, but I still pen notes and letters to my friends some of whom still do not use a computer, much less social media. But I really think people post outrageous comments just to see their name in print and know that many other people will too. Big ego trippers. It is 4:40 am and I have been awakened by a stomach ache at 2:30 because I went out to dinner last night with a friend and ate shrimp sauteed in butter with wonderful bread croutons then to a yogurt bar for dessert. I guess I deserved the interrupted sleep, but now I am grumpy and reading that comment from Susanna about your apples really set me on edge. I see she is from some High School, is she 16, hence the rudeness? I’m going to have another cup of freshly brewed coffee and pumpkin spice creamer and feel better. Thanks for listening.
booboo
ehrrm, uhm, I think Susanna was referring to the staged nightstand picture, not the staged apples. I think her point was to tell joy not to feel bad about her nightstand.
but on the other hand, it is lovely to read how many chicks you have here who would fight for you. I would. totally. all the way from europe. but not with Susanna. she is cool, people.
movita beaucoup
Agreed. Susanna was defending you. 16 year-olds are the bomb. Also, I think we should form some sort of nefarious street gang. We could wear pink glittery jackets with a huge cat head embroidered on the back. Also, leather wrist bands and purple nail polish. And our terrycloth headbands would read: Joy the Baker. And we’d dance. Like in West Side Story. Lots of snapping and fan kicks.
Who’s in?
Sophia Vojta
I’m in, I am SO in!
booboo
I’m in! Everything but the cat head. I am a dog person myself. maybe I can embroider a dog that looks bit like cat but only we know it is a dog really? it would put my mind at rest.
Elizabeth
Susanna was talking about the nightstand photograph, not Joy’s photographs. We love Joy. We are not going to come into her kitchen and home and say smack about her. No way!
Leni
Cathy, relax girrrrl
joythebaker
Cathy! I sure do appreciate how quick you are to defend me. That’s really lovely. It makes my heart feel warm. I think that Susanna was referring to the staged nightstand that I poke of in the post. Most people come here to say nice things. This is a happy place. Trust.
monica
awsome.
I’m trying reallly hard not to jump up right now and go baking some apples.
Sigh. I know resistance is futile.
helena
I love you. I love that you are brilliant and crazy and amazing and EXACTLY the kind of woman that I am. In every single way. I love that you get anxious and have real feelings and are not just a perfect magic shell. You’re a beautiful, flawed, REAL person and you still manage to do amazing things in the kitchen AND take gorgeous pictures of them AND write beautifully about it all.
Thank you. For being you, and for sharing that with the rest of us.
Kathryn
I thought I was the only person who compared my nightstand with other people’s. I hate hate hate that mine is so cluttered but I feel powerless to do anything about it. Also people with amazingly pretty nightstands never seem to have a box of tissues by their bed and I don’t think I would last long without one.
These apples look awesome.
Jessica Ann
You read my mind. Last night I fried apple rings in butter and cinnamon and ate them with a spoon with cream.
My nightstand is a horrible disaster. I think it shows you are living right.
Jess
Becky | Becky Bakes
Oh my…making treats such as this exonerates you from having a clean nightstand! They look beautiful AND delicious!
Nic
Just bear in mind that those layers of perfect might well be staged for the photograph. Most people, me included, would not want to inflict images of their messiness on the general public…
Blog is the New Black
Um, LOVE LOVE LOVE this!
Ann P.
What a crazy awesome idea– apple pie filling without the crust!! I would totally make these and make all my neighbors jealous from the sweet fumes wafting from my window… :) great job, Joy. And for the record, perfect people are boring! I like you much better. :)
Marie Baars
I love that you posted this at like..11:45 pm.
I wish I could take a picture of my nightstand and show you right now…It would comfort you. Dusty books – check, random jewelry/hair ties/bobby pins – check, hair – check, dust – double check.
PS. These apples are totally going to be breakfast.
PSS. My husband is snoring..computers are banned in bed…I waited till he was sleeping….shhhh : )
Shushmi
Hey! Have you been looking at my nightstand? Lol. totally the same stuff. and I dont know why I have so many hair pins and bits of jewellery scattered around (gathering dust as you said) when I have perfectly lovely jewellery boxes standing empty…*sigh*