Cook With Us #32 - Nutty Apple Crumble

Having a big social conscience has kept me busy over the years, so when the Cook With Us team announced this week's theme of Pot Luck Dinner to benefit @adollaraday Charity, I knew that this was a week not to be missed, especially seeing our masterchefs @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama are cooking with us this week :)

I forgot to let you know what I was going to bring to the Pot Luck Dinner, but I think everyone knows by now that I have a sweet tooth and dessert usually is my department when it comes to charity dinners.

I will tell you about some of our local outreaches.
Ethelbert Children's Home which is just up the hill from our home, was started after a tragedy struck Francis & Tom Corbishley in 1896. Their little 16 month old son, Ethelbert, drowned in a storm water drain where he had gone to retrieve a ball. His grief-struck parents decided to erect a living monument in his honour, and so they approached the Durban Methodist Central Church and undertook to donate the land and money towards the building of a children's home. They wanted this to be as real a home as possible for the children. It was agreed that the church would support them monthly and the couple further undertook to donate a large sum for the next five years.

Our church circuit still subsidises them and regularly collect and help with fundraising efforts. Further, the entire Christmas day collection throughout South Africa is given to the home, with many giving generously. This certainly helps towards running costs as the children get excellent care.
Many success stories come from this home, which today operates a cottage system with a house mother/ father.

Our women's group held annual Theatre Dinners with the ladies and daughters taking on theatrical roles and some like me, just doing the cooking as I much prefer the kitchen, definitely not the stage! We would have little skits between meal courses and it always went down very well. The funds were used on various projects.

Cost was kept very low to at least raise a decent sum with many of the ladies donating whatever they contributed, be it food or decor.
As it was on a large scale - we catered for around 100 diners - menu planning and quantities were carefully calculated, but it was huge fun, and we had fabulous fun themes.

I'm sharing with you one of the mementos I have from those years - a menu for a Centenary celebration and the theme was Shall we dance
QMC centenary.jpg

Of course my job at fetes/bazaars was Pancake maker, hard work but really rewarding and that's where I really came to understand the phrase Selling like hotcakes, the queues never ended at the pancake store! Sore feet and sore backs were the order of the day, but nothing that a soak in a fragrant bath tub could not fix!

Our favourite charity was a home for physically challenged adults.
It always is a problem for families once these unfortunate people reach adulthood as the parents are too old to take care of them properly, and this is where Cheshire Homes excel.

Thank you to @adollaraday for the work you do and wish you much success with future projects. A huge thank you to @cookwithus for having the proceeds of this week's challenge going towards this worthy cause and for creating awareness!

Back to the kitchen, I'm baking a Nutty Apple Crumble for our Pot Luck Dinner - fresh Granny Smith Apples, cubed and spiced, with an Oats & flaked Almond crumble topping, absolutely scrumptious on its own, or served with cream, Custard or thick Greek style natural Yogurt.