Mom's

So I have been craving CRAVING a Mom's apple pie for YEARS now.  Growing up we would get to Julian, CA (where my aunt and uncle live) at least once a year.  Julian is home to Mom's pie house, which is home to the worlds best apple pie.  They have lots of other kinds of pies, but I can't tell you if they are good, because I've never even tried one.  Only apple for me... and only crumb top (again, haven't tried the flaky top, but why, WHY would you after tasting the 'French crumb??).   They have...

"American Flaky top"

aaaaand, "French Crumb top"

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I even have stories I could tell about this pie.  Like the time my brother David bought his own so he wouldn't have to share/because he thought he could eat an entire pie in a few days (totally possible).  Well, one morning before heading down the road to San Diego, which is a very, very, windy, windy road, David ate a large portion of his pie... I think you know what came next, on that windy road.

I have even gone over in my head how I can get one of these pies shipped to me or brought out to CO for me (Mom's doesn't ship, they do however, make a drop off in the San Diego area before Thanksgiving.  If that applies to you, I will be personally offended if you do not take advantage.)

Hopeless story?  NO!  This past Saturday night we had Amy and Danny Vogt (and Brady) and Julie and Mikey Foster over for dinner.  I had many apples so I decided to make an apple crisp.  Fail.  I got distracted and didn't start putting it together until just after we ate.  I enlisted the help of Julie (apple duty) and Amy (crisp duty).  I passed out ingredients and changed my mind 500 times.  Fail.  We decided to use more apples and make it bigger, so we needed more crisp, so we added here and there.  At one point Amy said, "If this turns out amazing you will never be able to figure out how to make it again!"  Famous last words, right?  Well after it cooked and didn't get crispy (fail) and we turned on the boiler and it burned (fail) we ate.  It wasn't bad!  Amy scrapped off the black part and we served it with ice cream.  At the time I didn't think it was bad, but not a 'keeper'.

WELL, let me tell you... I had that crisp for breakfast AND lunch again today and I wanted to cry.  It tastes as close to Mom's Crumb Top apple pie as I have tasted in over 10 years!  I don't know what happened in the fridge in the past 36 hours but I think Jesus gave Amy and Julie the perfect amount of cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, flour, butter and oatmeal... and apple, combined with the right amount of 'soak in' time, just for me : )  Heaven!

Oh, and if you have Mom's super secret recipe... I would really appreciate it, as I have NO idea how to duplicate the crisp in my fridge.  Thanks!