PREHEAT OVEN TO 375 F
INGREDIENTS:
1. 5 sliced apples placed in bottom of baking dish.
2. Use Pastry Blender to combine: 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp cinnamon, and 1/4 to 1/2 cup butter. (1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt if you use unsalted butter). After reaches crumbled texture sprinkle on top of apples.
3. Bake for 30 minutes, serve warm or cooled, with sweet sour cream, ice cream or whatever you want.
This recipe varies according to the apples. Basically it is brown sugar and cinnamon, oats and flour, some baking soda over apples dotted with unsalted butter. I will get more specific soon. Unfortunately my email account is disintegrating quickly, hopefully temporarily so the photos are not in yet. I apologize, also because I have been posting from my cell phone, so the writing and neologisms are a result of a small screen and poor editing while using HTML.....as I become more accustomed to the different formats I will go back and correct the errors..... I made it to Fergus last night, but Bellas is actually Bello Cucina found in Fergus and Morris. The restaurant Bella is in Alexandria, and I was quite disenchanted with myself when my GPS "Lady" redirected me 49 miles east on I 94 back to Alexandria when I entered the wrong name. I was not disuaded by the error and looked for the website once I turned around and reexited into Fergus, much better, on Lincoln Avenue going north and on the left hand side of the road as you near the center of town. Downtown was kind of "glowie" like a Kincaid painting, yellow lights, sidewalk glowed from store lights, marquee lights bright for some type of venue. Quiet, homey, calm people walking in, and sitting to eat. I ordered a classic recipe from the menu. The special was all you can eat crab legs for $24, I wasn't that hungry and was suspicious about crab legs in Central Minnesota, as in how could they be fresh. I still remember the experience of eating scallops in Park Rapids, unfortunately they dug them out of the bottom of a freezer and to make up for it they cooked them in end of the day grease on a grill (freezer burnt and coat your mouth oil), I didn't ask. After all I wasn't Gordon Ramsey, and nothing good would come of it, I wasn't getting paid to ask questions, I only want to find good local restaurants that have taken their time to create a menu and food that would delight the palate. It was a comfortable evening. I had already been out and about for a few hours, spent an hour in Dunn Bros in Alexandria finishing some work that needed to be done, so I was actually slightly hungry and looking forward to this little place. The menu was a little overwhelming. Too many items. A lot of them had Alfredo Sauce, which I don't care for however I mused, that because it was in Minnesota, I thought maybe it would be from fresh cream. I had hoped the pasta would be hand rolled, quantity isn't everything, and a little pasta that melts in your mouth would be a treat. Some of the recipes had shrimp, some chicken, nothing jumped out at me until I saw a Wild Mushroom Pancetta recipe, now that sounded good. I was reassured that this item had been a favorite on the menu for a long time. A glass of water without ice and I was ready. I didn't want the Alfredo Sauce but I was hopeful. I was served bread that was soft with whole garlic pieces in it, and a freshly made dipping sauce with olive oil (not Fruttata, which is my favorite for dipping), cracked black pepper (hard to ruin) and some parmesan (unfortunately not fresh, precut, looked like from the grocery store). When the meal arrived, the shrimp were piled up on one side, like an afterthought, there was two large portabello mushroom slices on top and the rest were stuck in a gooey pale sauce, that literally glued it all together. The pasta was from a bag, not fresh, but cooked al dente which was ok. After the first mushroom, which was delicious, I had to search diligently to find the rest, most of them were cut up and small (like cream of mushroom soup from a can). The pancetta were 1/2 cm cubes and tough. The sauce ended out having the flavor of something that "smoke" flavoring had been added to. This time I did not force myself to finish it. I left no Kudos for the chef. I only like to emphasize the positive, so why be negative, at least in person. I left an appropriate tip for the waitress who was very helpful, but may not even like the dish I ate, who knows.
OVERALL: too much on the menu, pasta left something to be desired, Alfredo sauce disappointing, mushroom count in a mushroom dish really disappointing.
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