Surprise Treat: Poached Apples

The other night my lovely wife said, "I wish we had something special for dessert."  Perfect timing, as usual, since I'd been thinking about something with apples for a while and had found this recipe.  I modified it a little to come up with this:

Poached Apples:

Ingredients:
1 apple, peeled and cut into 16ths.
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 cup sugar
1/2 lemon

Instructions:
Put the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and apple pieces in a saucepan and add just enough water to float all of the apple pieces.
Cook on high heat until it just starts to simmer, then reduce heat and simmer until apple pieces are tender, 10-15 minutes.
Remove apple pieces and continue to simmer, on slightly higher heat until the liquid is reduced to about 1/3 original volume.
Squeeze the lemon through a strainer into the pan and return the apple pieces.
Heat through and serve over vanilla ice cream.

Notes:  Brown sugar next time?  It's almost like an "Apples Foster."  The original recipe called for it becoming a "light syrup."  I never got there, but the hot liquid mixes with the melted ice cream so very nicely that I really don't think it matters.

Wife's rating:  **** (out of 5)  "Oh, Honey!"
My rating:  ***1/2.  Brown sugar.