Frugal Floozie Friday - Gabriel's Cheesesteak Hoagies

When I first met Mary Catherine Smith, the fabulous host of "Brazilian Sol" on WEMU (Saturdays at 9 p.m.), she recommended Gabriel's Cheese Steak Hoagies as a great place to visit for my Frugal Floozie Friday column: good, honest food served for good, honest prices.

Well, it's taken awhile to get there, but Craig and I had lunch at Gabriel's recently and it definitely proved to be a tremendous value!

It's easy to stay within our mandatory $5 per person budget, with hearty sandwiches that are readily split. Costing just over $5 each, you can supplement your half with a bag of chips and a cookie to make a complete comfort food meal and still stay within our financial limits.

The menu is small, focusing on what the shop does well. You can order a cheesesteak hoagie, a steak hoagie, a Lunchmeat Special, or a ham and cheese sandwich. Prices range from $5.14-$5.54, with extras (cheese, mushrooms, peppers, or Provolone) costing anywhere from 20-69 cents to add on. A bag of chips will set you back a whopping 89 cents.

A small, quaint, tremendously friendly diner, Gabriel's is welcoming to everyone but vegetarians - there aren't any options for you beyond the Garden Salad for $3.49.

But carnivores can celebrate at Gabriel's for not much money!

Gabriel's Cheesesteak Hoagies
2585 East Michigan Avenue
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
734-483-5846
Monday-Saturday: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.



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Caramel Apple Crisp Pie ... Oh, My!!

Two weekends ago, WEMU/89.1 FM in Ypsilanti -- where my friend Jessica Webster, head of the Food & Drink page for AnnArbor.com, is a DJ on Sunday afternoons playing "jazz and stuff" (as she once phrased it) -- was holding a pledge drive. (They still need to raise $300,000 to meet their Fall fundraising goal, so any contributions would be most gratefully appreciated; click here to donate.)

Somehow, before Tom and I tuned in, Jessica and others in the studio with her at the time had started a discussion of listeners' favorite pies. Well, that was easy -- Caramel Apple Crisp Pie! I had already been planning to make one, so the idea had been swirling around in my brain. First of all, it's just the proper thing to do in the Fall; but also, Tom is not an apple pie fan (gasp!), so I had to bake this in order to redeem the treasure that I believe the dessert to be.

Tom and I made a pledge to help the radio station, and I claimed Caramel Apple Crisp Pie -- combining a trifecta of desserts: apple pie, apple crisp and caramel apples -- to be my very favorite. It's apple crisp baked in a pie crust, topped off perfectly with a drizzle of caramel sauce ... an idea to which I give full credit to Jeremy, who suggested it several years ago in a moment of sheer brilliance.

And so, then it was necessary to bake this glorious specimen ... and bake I did. If I'd been at home rather than at Tom's, I'd have added a bit of cornstarch and a touch of cider to the apple mixture, then cooked it on the stovetop to give it a bit of a gel to bind the filling together better.

But since I didn't have either of those ingredients with me, I made it according to the instructions given below and that means the apple chunks have a bit of a tendency to fall out of the crust. Oh, well ... it hardly impacts the flavor, only the aesthetics. It's still luscious and sweet and slightly spicy and just wonderful!

So if you're tired of plain ol' apple pie, I invite you to bake this one. It's quick, it's easy, and it's absolutely divine ... :)

Caramel Apple Crisp Pie

1 crust for a 9" pie pan

Filling:
1 3-pound bag apples
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Topping:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 packet instant oatmeal (I used Maple Nut)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
6 ounces caramel ice cream topping

Preheat oven to 425F. Place crust into a 9" pie pan.

Filling: Peel, core, and chop the apples into 3/4" pieces. Place into a large bowl and mix together with the sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Place the apples into the pie crust and dot with the butter.


Topping: Combine the butter, flour, brown sugar, oatmeal and walnuts in the same mixing bowl that you used for the filling ('cause there's no reason to wash extra dishes, right???). Spread over the apples. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of the pie.


Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350F and bake for 30-40 minutes more until apples are tender when poked with a knife. (There's a lot of variation for this last step, depending upon the type of apple used, the juiciness, etc.) Check on the pie mid-way through the baking; if the topping is getting too dark, cover it with a piece of foil.


Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired.

(Entering this recipe into the Kitchen Corners November Cook-Off: "I Love Apples.")