Trial And Error

So lately I've been having this strange sweet tooth for apple crisp, one of my all time favorite deserts! My mom and I used to go to this restaurant that served the best apple crisp on planet earth! Let me just say it was DIVINE! And they served it a la mode! I'm talking rich creamy smooth ice cream on a bed of topping that was perfectly perfect aahhhhhhhh............ but any who... back to my sweet tooth... I have tried to perfect this dish 4 different ways in 2 days! each time the same thing. The apple comes out good but the topping won't cooperate. The first time I made it my peeler didn't work so i had to go back to barbaric ways and use a knife as my peeler. Diced them up and seasoned them with cinnamon nutmeg vanilla extract and white sugar. Then for the crisp i used graham cracker crumbs and vegetable shortening(because i thought we didn't have any butter) .Put the apple mixture in the a muffin pan and Topped it with the graham cracker crumbly and baked it... FAIL! The apples were dry and the topping was too crumby. but the flavor was on point. trial# 2 I used the remaining apples and some more topping and microwaved it . IDK what i was thinking on that one. IT BURNT! I didn't know you could burn things in the microwave until then! trial #3 I finally decided to go with a recipe and not freestyle it. It called for flour, oatmeal, brown sugar cinnamon and of course apples , then I opted for microwave since my mom said not to use the oven because the weather was hot. It was OK... i didn't like the oat meal it added that YUCK factor. and today I tried something new instead of oatmeal I used graham cracker crumbs and again trial and error . the crumble was too soggy. I realized that not everything I make will turn out perfect the first time i make it especially if I'm free styling. But thank God for my mom who lets me keep trying until i get it right. But the point is to learn from your mistakes and if you don't get it the first time dust yourself off and try again(a phrase which I have epitomized), See where you went wrong and take notes, and try again ... you'll get it sooner than later.