This Easy Oatmeal Apple Crisp is worth making just for the way it makes your house smell! It also happens to be insanely delicious! A perfect dessert for an autumn wedding shower. Or as a Thanksgiving dessert. Or as tonight’s dessert!

My four-year old actually came home from school with this recipe. One of the moms had printed one for every kid in the class. Apparently, it’s one of her son’s all time faves and she wanted others to share in the joy. We made this last night – and I’m sure we will be making it again soon.

Easy Oatmeal Apple Crisp Recipe

Ingredients:

6 medium apples, pared and sliced

1/2 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/3 cup softened butter or margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oatmeal flakes

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease baking dish with additional butter.

Core and slice apples and arrange apple slices in the dish.

Cut the flour into the softened butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Then add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle the mixture over top of the apples.

Bake 30 minitues or until apples are cooked and topping is golden brown.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Heaven.

I love the idea of giving recipe books filled with favorite recipes as wedding favors – especially paired with a favorite treat like homemade brownies or truffles. You might recall the simple but sweet handmade recipe books that Lauren and Andrew gave to their wedding guests.

Here’s a really great tutorial from Emmy over at The Natural Beauty Workshop on how to make your own recipe books. And make sure you check out her site for oodles of recipes on homemade bath and beauty products. (The Red Apple Scrub looks so yummy!)

Handmade Recipe Books

Supplies
12″ x 12″ Card Stock
Newsprint Type Paper
1/4″ to 1/2″ Wide Ribbon

You Will Also Need
A Standard Sized Hole Punch
A Ruler
Scissors or a Paper Cutter

Directions
Begin with a 12″ x 12″ piece of card stock.  You can find an assortment of styles in the scrapbook section of most craft stores.  Using double sided card stock is optional, but a nice touch.  Trim any excess tags or salvages from your card stock, and carefully fold it in half.

Cut along the folded line, splitting the card stock in to two equal sized pieces.  Fold the two pieces in half again and then set them aside.

Next, take two piles of five pages of newsprint and stack them neatly.  If necessary, secure the stacks together with paperclips.  Carefully cut and measure the stacks of newsprint to create 5.5″ x 11″ rectangles.  After the stacks are cut, fold them in half.

Place the stacks of newsprint inside the folded card stock, keeping them as centered as possible.  Again, use some paperclips to keep the paper in place if you need to.  Using your hold punch, carefully punch two holes in the fold of each pile.  Make sure that you punch one hole straight through the entire stack of newsprint and card stock.  The holes will need to line up in order to be bound correctly.

Measure and cut two 18″ lengths of ribbon.  Thread the ribbon through the holes inside the books, and tie a knot and bow along the outside of the books folded edge.

Now fill your books with your favorite recipes!

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

We had family style dining with a beautiful spread of food made possible by some fantastic people! We first snacked on appetizers – fruit, nuts, olives, cheese, and the best wings you could imagine! Nathan and I wanted family influences and so we asked both our mothers to contribute to the food. My mom made southern potato salad, southern brown sugar baked beans, pecan pie and another southern fave chess pie. Yum!! We devoured the tater salad! Nathan’s mom baked so many pies – apple, cherry, blueberry, blackberry! And, the main event was catered by Nathan’s wonderful cousins – Robbi and Krystal. They did such an awesome job. The night before the wedding they prepped the food – shucking corn, marinating wings, boiling noodles, and cutting up condiments. We had all our favorite bbq faves including burgers, hotdogs, tater salad, boston baked beans (made possible by Robbi’s mom and Nathan’s aunt!), macaroni salad, green salad. I was in complete awe at how much delicious food there was, and the amount of work Robbi, Krystal, and all of our guests put in.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I’ve been asked a few times now what was my favorite part of the wedding, and I have to say it was the ceremony. We were so happy to have Nathan’s father, Mr. Bob Griffin, marry us in front of our friends and family. My father-in-law can weave a story together so naturally that you can’t help but be inclined to give your undivided attention. Nathan and I always knew that we wanted him to tell our story and bring us together on our wedding day.

The ceremony was perfectly us – sweet, loving, awkward, funny (I cannot believe how many laughs were had), honest – and just beautiful. We asked Bob to say a bit about the importance of love, marriage, and family (where he spoke to his long and loving marriage with his wife Debbi), and then we read our vows to one another. Nathan and I have always written to each other – even before we  formed a romantic relationship. We created a journal space where we could write to each other; we leave notes (on Post-its) for each other around the house; and we have a box filled with correspondence. The funny thing about Nathan’s vows is that he lost them the night before the wedding and had to rewrite them hours before our ceremony!! Well, technically he lost his iphone which the vows were saved on. But even still he did a great job at writing them again last minute.

My vows:

Nathan, I think we are rare. Pure. But even moreso I think you are. I think all of these things you do daily are so true, and wonderful. The motions you have made to be present for us. The ways you love me. The million-billion-gabillion ways you let me know. I think about our love today, our love tomorrow. And, even when I think it’s impossible I love you more.

Because I love you I promise to be your best friend.
I promise to encourage you, your endeavors – and all 300 of your art projects.
I promise to listen to you, and love you the way you need to be loved.
I promise to laugh with you often – in the kitchen when we are making dinner, at the bus stop when we are trying to forget how cold Chicago is, and all those moments in between when nothing but a laugh will do.
I promise to be patient with and for you – I promise to live in the moment with you.
I promise to be your loving partner in all our adventures, and I intend to keep my promise that I made to you the first time we met.
Because I know I will love you for the next 85 years. And, then some.

 
Nathan’s vows:

There are few relationships in life which simply make sense; peanut butter and jelly, wine and cheese, hot chocolate in winter and you and I. Days after we met, I wrote to you and said, “I think I may be falling in love with you. I don’t want to let you go. I feel close to bursting. I don’t want to leave here, this place, your company.” And two years later, standing here beside you, nothing has changed. I am still falling in love with you and I still don’t want to leave your side. We are lucky, you and I.

So my one promise to you is this… with each passing moment, my love and devotion to you and our future together will not waver. It will only grow as we grow, tenderly nurtured through constant dialogue, great sex and the occasional moment when the courage to say “I was wrong, I’m sorry” makes all the difference.

I love you.

We ended up hugging and kissing quite a bit during the entire ceremony. At one point I remember saying: “I don’t think we are supposed to kiss this much.”

And, then we were Nathan and Carey Griffin!!

It was such a beautiful moment.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I just need to take a moment to praise my little brother Drew who took the photos at our wedding. He just booked his third wedding this month (and ever)! I am so proud of him, and so lucky to have been the first.

I love you buddy.

More photos from our wedding:

Nathan knew from the beginning he wanted to wear a bowtie! And, I just love it (though now he keeps saying that he looks like a nutty professor). We found his bowtie on etsy from Xoelle. She creates bowties and other cute things like aprons out of vintage materials – Nathan’s tie used to be an old shirt. Neither of us knew how to tie a bowtie, nor do any of our friends or family! Can you believe it? I tried really hard to learn the week before the wedding through the use of a you tube video but couldn’t figure it out perfectly. Nathan fooled around with the tie for a good thirty minutes before the ceremony and actually figured out how to tie it!

His ring is custom designed from Wood-Rings.

I think he looked just dapper.