Parenting tip of the week….A bag of 10 goldfish costs $2 at the pet store. Minnows are even cheaper and faster. Yesterday on a whim I went and got 20 goldfish, 10 minnows, filled up a few empty buckets, handed my son a cheap net and wa-la…endless entertainment! After he transferred all the fish to their chosen buckets, he relocated them a few more times. Even more fun, Tucker and I scavenged the yard and field for little “fish houses” and rocks to put in there. Goldfish are only 20 cents. I don’t know why I never tried this before!
It’s Sunday afternoon and my TV is tuned to the game channel. Even though I may not watch much of the game, I do enjoy the commercials. If you watched the game, I hope you enjoyed it and your team won! This past week varied between being busy and being quiet. I spent quite a bit time with my sister. She had business and appointments in different directions, and we had a great day together on Thursday. On Friday, her daughter took her to her doctor’s appointment, and she is now allowed to wear her neck brace as needed, which makes her feel much better. She has been wearing it day and night, since her surgery in November and was getting a little tired of it! My daughters were in for a visit this weekend, celebrating the retirement of the youngest one, who actually came in on Friday afternoon. After lunch and visiting, we were invited to my neighbor’s home for game time. We played numerous rounds of Rummycub® and then, her husband came in and joined our game and in the midst of much laughter and joking round, we played several more games and had a wonderful time. The other two daughters came in close together on Saturday morning and the fun began. We had flowers, balloons, cards and gifts and a trip to Victoria, TX to do some shopping. I think each of us found something we needed or wanted and had a great day checking out different stores outside the mall, and then quite a few that were in the mall. All I can say, is thank goodness for cell phones. We usually seemed to go in four directions and then all of a sudden were back together again. We lunched at a favorite restaurant and then did a little more shopping. Suddenly, it was nearly 5:00 and time to head back to the house. After a snack, the one daughter headed to her home, and the other two and I relaxed for a while, caught up on family gossip and just talked in general. Then, it was time for a few rounds of Rummycub®, yes, we’re all pretty crazy about that game. We have a few members of the family who are experts, but thankfully they weren’t around, and we were pretty casual with the game. Sunday morning after making sure everything was neat and clean around the house, beds made, and the kitchen clean, they both headed home. It has been a quiet afternoon for me, even though it was slightly frustrating. I had nearly finished typing this column, clicked on the space bar or something and lost everything I had done in the previous hour. After about thirty minutes searching various ways to find it, I gave up and started over! This morning, the weather changed from the bright sunny, slightly windy day we had Saturday to one with the temperatures in the mid 30s. Other than being chilly, the day has been beautiful. The following recipe is one that a friend served at one of our Pokeno parties. Since we had several members who were diabetic and she was diabetic herself, she made this, and we all loved it. Diabetics Delight 1 box yellow cake mix (now that sugar-free cake mixes are available, you might consider trying one in this recipe) 12 oz. diet soda (Sprite Zero® or your choice) 1 can crushed pineapple (16-oz size) (divided use) 1 large tub Cool Whip®, sugar free 1 large box of sugar-free vanilla instant pudding Empty cake mix into large bowl, add diet soda and mix well. Then add ½ can of crushed pineapple and stir well. Pour into 9×12 pan that you have lightly sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake as directed on package. While the cake is baking, mix the Cool Whip®, the remaining crushed pineapple and the pudding together and stir well. Chill thoroughly. When the cake has finished baking and has cooled, spread the Cool Whip® mixture over the top. Cut into squares to serve. Makes 12 to 15 servings. Cowboy Cornbread Casserole 2 boxes cornbread mix (8.5 ounces each) (the unsweetened type works best) 1½ lbs. ground beef 1 can Rotel (mild, medium or hot, your choice) 1 can whole kernel corn 1 can ranch style beans 1 cup shredded cheese 1 pack taco seasoning Mix cornbread according to package instructions then set aside. Preheat oven 425° Brown ground beef, drain. Add taco seasoning, undrained can Rotel, undrained ranch style beans and drained corn. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir into cornbread mix. Mix in shredded cheese. Stir completely. Pour into a greased 9×13 Casserole dish. Bake approximately 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean, you can top it with more cheese, sour cream, salsa or whatever your heart desires. Quick and Easy Shrimp Salad 1-pound boiled shrimp, peeled and deveined (Use one of the packages of peeled, deveined shrimp from the grocery store and boil them, it’s much easier, or even easier, use one of the bags of pre-boiled shrimp) 1½ large celery ribs, finely chopped 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped ½ cup mayonnaise Salt and ground black pepper Mix all together in bowl and stir well to distribute the mayo. Chill before serving.
Here is the latest news from Lytle PD for the week ending January 29th, 2023. Lytle PD officers managed 54 calls for service and conducted 106 traffic stops. Those traffic stops resulted in 89 citations and 17 warnings. There was only one arrest last week and it was a cite and release. A traffic stop for an expired registration resulted in the driver being cited for possession of drug paraphernalia. Officers took 4 reports for property crimes: #1 – A resident on Cottage St. reported that his push lawn mower was stolen from his driveway, he valued it at $125. I knew it, we get a little rain and now every crook wants a lawn mower. #2 – Criminal Mischief: A window was broken on a vehicle at the Best Western Plus, the damage was estimated at $400. #3 – A suspect attempted to get away with $207 worth of merchandise at H.E.B. Plus. The property was recovered by H.E.B. The suspect left before the arrival of the officers. #4 – A 2010 Ford Econoline Van was stolen from the 19300 Blk. of McDonald St. It was recovered, abandoned up the road in Bexar Co. The 2010 Ford 1-ton Econoline van just wasn’t any van, it belonged to my mom! Yep, mom called Saturday morning yelling that somebody stole her van. It was located later that night in Bexar Co. The lock was busted, the steering column was busted, etc. They drove it for a little bit and realized the gas mileage is terrible, parked it, and walked away. Our officers assisted with two “bailouts” involving human smuggling. One was north of the city, where we assisted the Atascosa Co. Sheriff’s Dept. The other was south of the city, and we assisted the Texas Highway Patrol with that one. Last week I was in Huntsville for my week of required police chief training, I am required to attend a 40-hour block once during every two-year training cycle. There were about 50 chiefs in attendance for this session. Lots of municipal chiefs, followed by many ISD police departments, and there were 4 university/community college chiefs as well. I rubbed elbows and chatted with a bunch of big city chiefs….like Eddie Garcia (Dallas PD), Neil Noakes (Fort Worth PD), Claudio Trevino Jr. (Laredo PD), and David Gonzales (Leon Valley PD). One would think you had to be pretty smart to achieve such a high position….. those guys had all week to ask me for advice and never did! So, I guess that is proof that they are pretty smart.
Lost another local icon last week. Bubba Hanson took off and left us without an electrician. He did all the County work during the last 12 years. Granted, it was on his schedule..had to always remember that there is Central Standard Time and there is Bubba Hanson time. Believe it or not, he will be missed. Seems its Rodeo weather time and it has seemed to set in already. Cold, wet and borderline miserable. We did get a good start to 2023 last Tuesday when we got 7 tenths of an inch of rain. Probly cause I washed my truck. Nickie and Jason got 5 inches in Magnolia…traffic in front of their house was causing waves of water to wash into folks garages when they passed by. Retirement is pretty good so far. Forgot what day it was once…a week or so ago. When I retired from SAPD in 2006, I said that I wasn’t gonna do nothing for a month…that lasted bout a week. Took to trimming trees and stayed busy. This time, I stuck to it…ain’t done nothing much beside trim a tree, build a picture frame and fix a cabinet door for Sandy. Gonna get active in February. Still getting calls from our new Commissioner but, they are few and far between now. Think he’s got this under control. Lotta good things happening out there. Got a few ideas for your President…we can fix the Border by enforcing the laws ALREADY on the books. Quit sending our Strategic Oil Reserve to Russia and elsewhere overseas. Stop financing other countries with our tax dollars. Keep our money here and there probly would not be a debt ceiling that needed raising. If stopping pipelines sending oil to Russia will cripple their economy, why did he stop the ones in our country? Quit blaming high gas and grocery prices on outside factors..take responsibility once in a while. Watta maroon..please run in 2024…cheese and rice dude. There are more but, KK ain’t gonna give me that much space. Please be sure and put the author of this column at the top cause I don’t wanna listen to Sammy Smith complain about not knowing who wrote it. Keep praying for rain least until Medina Lake is full. Didn’t see anything on the Medina County Agenda to comment on but, did not look at Devine City Council Agenda. City folks need to get involved.
The 2022-2023 White Tail Deer Season brought about some changes for me that had not occurred in a long time. A tract of land that I leased for decades sold in early 2022 and I had to vacate. While bittersweet in some regards, it gave me the motivation to set up a new hunting location on our Home Place as well as begin to “learn” a new leased property. Both those experiences have proven beneficial. Opening day found me in that new spot and one of the animals I observed was much larger, body wise, than our usual spike bucks. His antlers were simply two spikes but longer than generally found on that age class. Because my goal for the day was much more about gathering some “intel” than on harvesting, no shots were fired. As more deer sightings began to accumulate, it became clear that we had an ample supply of the younger class bucks in our area. In consultation with some game stewards that I respect the decision was made to not gamble this young fellow. Maybe he was a SUPER SPIKE but more likely an older deer that did not develop even one branched main beam or brow tine. The dilemma became that we no longer saw that fellow over the course of numerous hunts by guests and family. On the Friday afternoon before the spike and doe season was over, I put one of our favorite young friends out in that same location. He had harvested a nice doe already, but his young family could benefit from some additional venison. I reviewed the deer to watch for and those that were “off limits”. The final statement was to look for The Tall Spike as that deer had come to be labeled. Just about sundown he texted me that Long Spike and a couple of eligible does were at the feeder. I asked that he try for the buck but if an ethical shot did not present itself, take a doe. After some milling around the spike moved away and a well placed single shot created an immediate death. In reviewing the deer while field dressing him, we confirmed he was older than 1 ½. But further investigation showed an old wound of some kind on his back. All healed up it was difficult to determine if a bullet that was too high, a fence cut, or something else had caused the injury. But we agreed that he was going to be a fine addition to the table fare of his growing family. And the experience was another one to add the young man’s list of hunting memories. He reminded me his first doe, first mature buck, and now, his first spike had all come while hunting as my guest. With that perspective in mind, I am glad he was the one to harvest The Tall Spike. That made for a wonderful ending to yet another hunting season out in La Brasada.
Tucker woke up with a colorful thought this morning. “Mom, if you can get me and my cousins to the moon, we are gonna kick the alien’s butts!” I don’t know if he was having one heck of a dream or what, but this is one guy who doesn’t “come in peace” I guess. Life is always exciting with Tucker and he sure enjoys his “cousins.” Everywhere we go, he tells all the other kids he’s playing with about his cousins. He hit some big milestones this week. Best of all, he spontaneously decided to clean his room by his own free will, while I was cleaning the kitchen. I was so impressed! Number two, he volunteered to give me a foot massage yesterday. I don’t even know how to say how much I love that! He’s obviously not a big fan of aliens, but he sure does love his mommy. I love that kid–to the moon and back!
Last week was busy, but not just too bad! On Tuesday we had over four inches of rain which was badly needed. I worked in the gift shop as usual and as you can imagine, with a downpour going on, there weren’t many customers for me. Of course, the Dr.s offices were open and everyone who came in was pretty wet. On Wednesday, there was a “meet and greet” occasion for our incoming CEO, it was very nice, and I found out, that like one of my grandsons and his wife, she is a Star Wars fan! After the party, I headed out to Devine for my usual bunco, and the visiting that I do each month, beginning with the time I now get to spend with my youngest grandson and his family. Those little ones are so cute and I have so much fun with them. The trip was not bad and there wasn’t much traffic for me to contend with, and I am always happy about that. That area did not have the amount of rain that we did and the only place you saw anything other than sere and brown in the countryside was where someone was irrigating, usually winter rye or something like that. Bunco, that evening, was fun as it usually is and all of them said they had been in good health, and I got to catch up on everything that had been happening in the past month, and even won first prize! That always makes the evening more fun! As always, Thursday was my fun day, no traveling for hours, just visiting, either on the phone in person with a couple of friends, and of course lunching with my son! And then, getting to see my great-granddaughters in Castroville. Since it had dawned on me, during the night on Tuesday, I had a busy weekend coming up, I realized that I had to travel back home on Friday, rather than on Saturday and I met with my daughter and the little girls and had a delicious early lunch, before I went back to Devine for a hair appointment, so it was later than usual when I left, however, it was closer to dark than I like when I got home. No problems until I got to Floresville and hit some typical 5:00 p.m. traffic. Thank goodness it isn’t football season, then you really have traffic! Saturday and Sunday were both busy with a fundraiser for one of the organizations at church, my sister and I are in charge of the cole slaw and Saturday we made six gallons of the dressing that we use and helped cut up potatoes that are part of the meal and Sunday, we made over 200 hundred pounds of cabbage into slaw. We work well together, and the guys did all the lifting for us. We both came home tired, had lunch together around 2:00 p.m. (the plates were “to-go” only), and then went our separate ways for the afternoon, with naps on the horizon for both of us. She is doing well but is still unable to drive due to neck surgery that was done on November 1. She is hoping the brace will be removed this coming week but is still unsure. A couple of weeks ago, I gave you a recipe so you could make treats for the dogs in your life. Today, I’m going to include one to make for the precious feathered friends you may have at your feeders. Food for our winged friends is scarce at this time of the year, and my son-in-law gave me several similar recipes he found online for a treat for them. As he took it out of the freezer, I wondered what kind of treat he was planning to share with me, only to find out it was a birdie treat! He has a wonderful feeder set up that can be observed from their kitchen window and sometimes they have a large variety of birds there eating the grain he provides. Right now, however, all he has is an occasional ring-neck dove and lots of sparrows. Version 1 1 part peanut butter (crunchy or regular) 1 part shortening 1 part flour 3 parts cornmeal 1 part cracked corn (chicken scratch grain is what he used) 1 cup black oil sunflower seeds Mix all together and chill until firm. Version 2 Homemade Peanut Butter Suet 1 cup shortening 16 to 20-oz crunchy peanut butter Heat and stir together until melted. Add the following: 1 cup raisins 1 cup black oil sunflower seeds 6 cups cornmeal 4 cups flour Mix together with the shortening/peanut butter mixture and spoon into a 9×13-inch pan and chill until firm. Cut into chunks for suet feeders or do as he does and just cut the chunks and place on the feeder itself. Now, here is a recipe for you to make for the family, it is simple enough that the children can help you. I made this and took it to the group working in the kitchen at our fund raiser and it was a big hit, everyone loved it, and I hope you do also. Cinnamon Roll Delight 1 can Caramel Apple Pie filling 2 cans, (8-count each) cinnamon rolls (I use HEB brand) Preheat oven to 375ºF. Open the pie filling and pour into a bowl, cut the apples into smaller pieces. Open the cinnamon rolls (set the frosting aside, you’ll use it later), cut each cinnamon roll into four pieces, when you’re finished, mix the cinnamon rolls into the pie filling. Place the mixture into a sprayed 9X13 baking pan or dish and bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the cinnamon rolls are done, it should be lightly browned on top. Cool for about 10 to 15 minutes and then use the reserved frosting pouring it as evenly as possible over the cinnamon rolls and apples. Serve warm or cool.
One Sunday in January I was serving as a Church Parking Lot Attendant. My friend, The Turkey Meister, leads this effort at our Church. He calls that role The First Impressions Team. Which probably sounds a bit classier than the title I used. It was brisk that day, and the wind was probably blowing at 20+ mph with a pretty good “bite” to it. One of our older ladies walked up, kind of “leaning into” the wind and commented she sure hopes it warms up soon. This lady is small in height/ build and that NE wind was pushing her around pretty good. Upon the conclusion of the Morning Worship Service, the wind had picked up even more and after descending the stairs and rounding the building’s corner, it came close to knocking her off her feet! I won’t repeat her comment that time. Let me just say it did not reflect any improvement of her opinion of the weather conditions! Less that 48 hours later one of my good friends from Church texted me to say that the 80-degree mid -day temperature was just WAY too hot for this time of the year. Now this fellow is the physical opposite of the previous person mentioned above. A former Defensive Lineman in college who became a Football Coach, one of his legs probably weighs more than that lady. I commented I was going to write a story about weather and dedicate it to him. Those two extreme opposite perspectives reminded me of a Tale from back when I was spending a good bit of time out at the Home Place as a kid working with my Grand Dad. You could find me starting at a pretty young age glued to his side whether in the fields, pastures, or cattle pens. Of course, none of those places are much fun to be in come July and August or December and January. I was often either cold as an ice cycle or burning up and drenched in sweat. Not surprisingly, sometimes I would whine about the weather. After a complaint or two, Charlie Rosenauer would stop whatever we were doing, take off his hat, and look me sternly in the eye. “Boy”, he would say. “Do you really think the Good Lord needs your help with the weather”? Of course, such an admonition would put me back in the right frame of mind plenty fast and I would mumble “No Sir”. “Okay. Then get back to what you are supposed to be doing and let GOD be GOD.” That was the end of that conversation, and it was best NOT to bring up the topic again for a while! Far be it from me to speak in such a way to the fine lady or my good coaching friend. But the reminder for me is that any of us can spend a bunch of time focusing on stuff we simply CANNOT control. One of my finest Mentors in a long line of some excellent ones, had a saying that comes to my mind while writing this Tale. Long ago gone from this Earth, I still remember he would often tell me : “Don’t fret on trying to fix things you can’t fix. Just try your best to do the right thing as often as you can with those things you can do something about”. I reckon that is good advice even today. And last time I looked, one of those things we don’t have much say about is trying to fix the weather!
What happened in Lytle last week? I’m glad you asked: Lytle PD officers handled 59 calls for service for the week ending on Sunday January 22. Your officers conducted 88 traffic stops, those stops resulted in 74 citatIons and 14 warnings. Property Crimes: We only had one possible property crime reported. A Main St. resident reported his .380 handgun was missing. Arrests: Officers made three arrests last week: #1 – A 16 year old male juvenile was detained for assault causing bodily injury (family violence). He was transported to the Atascosa Co. Juvenile Detention Center.
2 – Officers responded to a report of a driver that was asleep behind the wheel of a moving vehicle! Ofc. A. Lopez made contact with person and he woke up and sped off towards La Coste. After a short pursuit he was taken into custody. The suspect had four active felony warrants and was in possession of a loaded firearm (which is a no-no since he is a convicted felon). He was booked into the Medina Co. Jail.
3 – A traffic stop by Sgt. Hanson on S. Somerset St. resulted in the driver being arrested for DWI. The driver was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail.
In other news: On Monday, January 16, officers responded to a single vehicle accident on IH-35. Sadly, the driver did not survive. He was the sole the occupant. On Thursday, January 19, officers assisted Medina Co. S.O. with a pursuit that resulted in a “bailout”. Of the 10 that fled, 4 were apprehended. The incident occurred at IH-35 and FM 3175. On the personal side…… I took the three oldest kids over to Beaumont last weekend for a youth conference. In true Southeast Texas fashion it was cold and rainy, it took me a few minutes to remember what rain was.
This past week slowed down a bit by the time the weekend rolled around. My sister and I did a couple of things together, including having supper on Friday, with my niece and her husband. They had to leave early Saturday to return to their home in north Texas and we had a great visit. They had also invited my sister’s daughter and her husband; pizza was the order of the day and it was very good. My sister took fruit salad, her daughter brought a delicious chopped salad, and I took dessert. (Real simple, cake taken out of my freezer!). Saturday was noodle making time at the Family Center of our church. Our ladies’ group, Catholic Daughters of the Americas is having their annual chicken fried steak fundraiser this coming weekend and we always have a “Country Store”, where we have baked goods, canned goods and homemade noodles. All the bags of noodles always sell quickly, if you are working there and want some, we all know to have them on hold until we can pick them up. My sister and I with some help this year from others will be making the cole slaw, just as we have done for several years. It’s still hard for her to do some things, as she had neck surgery in November and has to wear her brace for another couple of weeks. My personal biggest news is that I have a brand-new great-grandson! He was born early Saturday morning in Colorado, and when I spoke with my granddaughter, they had not yet named him! This week will see me back on the road to Devine for bunco, I didn’t realize how much I missed bunco and seeing my friends until the pandemic hit us and now I think I enjoy it more than ever! We have talked about baking cakes in the past but hopefully there are a few new readers who will enjoy this weeks column. When is the last time, or have you ever baked a cake from scratch? When I was growing up, cake mixes didn’t exist. All cakes were baked from scratch. Cake mixes came out after WWII, with Betty Crocker bringing out a Chocolate Cake mix for the first time in 1947. The lady I talked with didn’t have any information as to whether they were the first to come out with a cake mix or not, but, I’d bet a nickel they were. Since I couldn’t find an 800 number for either Duncan Hines or Pillsbury, I couldn’t check any further. A cake from scratch is not hard to make. It just takes a little longer than a box mix. My two favorite recipes were in my Betty Crocker Cook Book. There were two which Mother had also used and I learned to make them while I was still in school. The recipes in this book give you a choice of two ways to mix the cake, one by creaming the sugar and shortening until light and fluffy, and adding eggs, one at a time and mixing well, then adding the dry ingredients alternately with the milk; and the other by sifting the dry ingredients and then adding the shortening and eggs. Each page also has several variations of each cake, using the main recipe and then adding nuts or fruit to the batter. The following two recipes are both from the Betty Crocker Cook Book, (ninth printing, first edition), which I received as a shower present before I married. The one is called Light Golden Cake and the other is called Rich Golden Cake, the main difference between them is the amount of eggs used.
Light Golden Cake 2¼ cups sifted Softasilk (cake flour) 1½ cups sugar 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup soft shortening 1 cup milk 1½ teaspoons flavoring 2 eggs Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two 9-inch round or square cake pans or a 9×13 pan; set aside. Sift together dry ingredients. Add shortening and a little over half of the milk and flavoring. Beat 2 minutes. Add remaining milk and eggs. Beat 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured pans. Bake until cake tests done. Cool. Frost as desired. Rich Golden Cake 2¼ cups sifted Softasilk (cake flour or 2 1/8 cups Gold Medal flour) 1½ cups sugar 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup soft shortening 1 cup milk 1½ teaspoon vanilla 3 eggs Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour two 9-inch round or square pans or one 13×9 pan. Sift together the dry ingredients, add shortening and a little over half of the milk and vanilla; beat 2 minutes. Add remaining milk and the eggs; beat 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pans; bake until cake tests done. Frost as desired. Easy German Chocolate Cake 1 box German chocolate cake mix 3 eggs 1 cup water (scant) 1 carton sour cream (8-oz) 1 can coconut pecan frosting Mix together cake mix, eggs and water, stir in sour cream. Pour into microwave safe tube pan. Drop frosting by spoons full into the batter. Microwave on High for 15 minutes rotating pan after first 9 minutes (unless you have a turntable). Cool about 3 to 5 minutes and then turn out onto serving plate. German Chocolate Upside-Down Cake 1 box German Chocolate Cake mix Eggs, oil, water to make cake 1 cup coconut 1 cup chopped pecans 1 lb. powdered sugar 8-oz package cream cheese 1 stick butter Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Cut waxed paper to fit pan and grease paper also. Sprinkle pecans and coconut into pan. Mix cake according to directions on package; pour over coconut and pecans. With mixer, mix together powdered sugar, cream cheese and butter. Drop by spoonfuls over cake mix. Bake at 350ºF until cake is done. Cool in pan about 5 minutes, turn onto serving platter. Peel off the waxed paper. Serve either warm or cold. The following recipe was displayed as part of our hospital décor for fall. I have made it several times, and everyone always enjoys it. Delicious Apple Pie Cheesecake 2 medium to large Granny Smith apples, peeled cored and sliced (you may take steps to prevent the apples from darkening, but I do not feel it’s necessary) * 1/3 cup granulated sugar ½ to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 package (8-oz) cream cheese at room temperature ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 large egg (lightly beaten) ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 prepared graham cracker crust (10-inch) ** 1/3 cup quick cooking oatmeal (not instant) Preheat oven to 375ºF. Whisk 1/3 cup sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese ¼ cup sugar together in a bowl until smooth, add egg and vanilla and mix until evenly combined. Place apples in the graham cracker crust, sprinkle sugar/cinnamon mixture over apples, sprinkle oatmeal over sugar/cinnamon mixture. Pour and spread cream cheese mixture overall. Bake in preheated oven until top is just beginning to brown, about 40 minutes. (If it seems to be browning too quickly, turn the heat down to 350ºF). Cool on wire rack for 1 to 2 hours, refrigerate until completely set, 3 to 4 hours. Also, if you rinse the apple slices with lemon juice/water or lemon-lime soda, be sure to drain them well before using. **I haven’t tried it, but I feel that a 9-inch crust would work just fine, because the apples settle a bit as they bake.
