Summer Fruit

Over the last few months of living in Simi with my parents again I have discovered something. I have a NEED to bake. Or at least cook. As soon as I start baking all of my stress goes away and I am happy. I first figured this out about a month ago when I made Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake, which I will post at some point.

This week Albertson's has blueberries at $2 for 18oz! I couldn't pass that great a price up so I bought 2. If my parents don't buy any I might have to buy one more container so I have a lot to freeze. Now usually when I buy blueberries, I make muffins, pancakes, and eat a lot of yogurt and cereal. This time I wanted to make something different.

After two days of searching for a good berry recipe I found this. A Triple Berry Crisp recipe with over 500 great reviews! After reading the reviews, I knew I had to make this.

Most people who reviewed the crisp advised to add more fruit, closer to 6 cups than the 4.5 cups the recipe called for. That was great because I knew I had about 3 cups of blueberries left in one container (I of course had been eating them in my cereal.) I didn't want to only use blueberries and I have totally been on a peach kick since my mom made this amazing Peach Pie (if I convince her to make it again I will post it here) and thought that would be yummy. I ended up using white peaches because I like them more than the traditional yellow.

As I sit here and finish a plate of this crisp for my breakfast, I can tell you this is one of the most delicious things I have ever made. My family loved it too which is always nice. I made it last night and it is almost half gone already! It probably won't last another three days. What will I make next?

Here is the recipe, enjoy the fruits of summer in a delicious dessert!

Fruit Crisp
adapted from here

Ingredients:
6 cups fruit
4 Tablespoons white sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons spices (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

Heat the oven to 350°. Grease or spray a 13X9 inch pan.
Toss the fruit with the white sugar (I also added a little PPS to the fruit)
Whisk together all other dry ingredients.
Using your hands or a pastry knife, or 2 forks, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and holds together when you squeeze it.
Press a little less than half of the crisp mixture into the bottom of the pan. Spread the fruit over the bottom layer. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit until mostly covered*
Bake 30-40 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbly.

*I had extra topping and didn't want to completely cover the fruit. I pressed it into a loaf pan and baked with the crisp for about 15 minutes. It is a great ice cream topping.

P.S. I am only uploading one photo and it is sitting at the top because ScribeFire is not working again. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.

Brownie Goodness

I know I said I wasn't going to do any more posts until after we moved but I made this dessert tonight that was too delicious to keep to myself!

Brandon and I had a hard day today. Go here to read why. So I was feeling upset and thought chocolate might make me feel better. I had a box of brownie mix and decided to make them. As soon as the thought hit me I had another: I should heat up some bananas and blueberries in brown sugar and put that on top of the brownie. And I should top it all with whipped cream!

For some semblance of a recipe here are the steps:

Make brownies according to box or make your own.
Once the brownies have mostly cooled start on the fruit:
Slice however much banana you want and toss in a pot with about the same amount of blueberries.
Add brown sugar and vanilla to taste.
Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until berries pop, about 5-7 minutes.
While the fruit is cooking make the whipped cream:
Beat cold cream until frothy and then add powdered sugar to taste (you don't need much.)
Beat until stiff peaks form.
Slice a brownie, top with fruit and whipped cream.
Enjoy!

I have no photos because I was too focused on the food. Maybe I will make this again and be prepared. As a side note: the fruit would make a great pancake or waffle topping!

Cheesecake Yumminess and Some Random Thoughts

Finally there was an update for ScribeFire and I can now upload photos! This is a post I tried to do right after Easter but because of the technical difficulties, was unable to post. Here you go!


This year my family decided to celebrate Easter more than usual. In the past, my mom has made little baskets for us and I remember, years and years ago, going to a church service for Easter. That is usually about it as we predominately celebrate the Jewish holidays.

This year, however, my mom thought it would be nice to do an Easter dinner at my house. This was fine by me as it meant that I got to eat lots of good food with minimum effort and spend time with my family. So we came up with a menu and decided who was going to make and buy what. I of course was going to do a dessert. I wanted something light and Spring-y and I thought of cheesecake. And when I thought of cheesecake, I thought of these. When I first read this post I knew I would have to make them soon. Now I had a perfect reason.

I followed the recipe exactly as she posted so I am not going to post it here. Instead I would suggest heading over to the site yourself and checking out the other recipes and fun stuff.

I did get some pretty nice photos that I am going to share with you.










These were so good! I cannot wait to make them again. One thing that was not mentioned in the original post that I think is important is that these need to be refrigerated before you eat them or they fall apart. When I served them to my family they were still warm and very hard to eat. When I had them the next day they were perfect!

Some random thoughts: I don't think I can buy strawberries from the supermarket anymore. I bought the berries for this recipe from Vons because they were on sale for under $1. They looked ok but they had no flavor. The berries from the farmer's market are so incredibly sweet and tasty that I can never go back!

So I guess it was just one random thought. Oh well!

Sam

Spring!

Spring is finally here! In the middle of winter I was lamenting that I was sick of citrus and was craving fresh berries. The only blueberries that were available were from South America. Don't get me wrong, they were good, but I knew the berries from the Farmer's Market would be better. And don't get me started on the horrible strawberry prices! Who wants to pay $5 for a pack of unripe berries? Not me!

Saturday I went to our Farmer's Market and the strawberries smelled so good! I know their season really doesn't start until April but they were so tasty now and I couldn't resist!

The little old lady with the best prices on produce at the market had 6 ounces of blueberries for $3.50. I could of course get them at the grocery store for less but they might not taste as yummy and I would not be supporting my community.

Here are some photos of my beautiful spring produce:


Just look at how lovely they are!


The strawberries are finally ripe!


I love the market stand carrots! They are so sweet.


OK, so maybe theses aren't very spring-like, but they are the best shitake mushrooms that I have ever had!


In other, related news: You know how everyone keeps saying, "Buy meat from your farmer's market. It will taste better." I have always been annoyed at this statement because my market never had any meat beyond sausages (very expensive, DELICIOUS sausage.) This past Wednesday I went to the market and lo and behold, there was a gentleman selling all sorts of cuts of beef! I thought, "Finally, I can join the masses in buying local meats!" I purchased a breakfast steak as the prices were a bit out of my price range. When we eat it I will do a review of the taste and such.

I guess that about wraps up today's post. Hopefully more yummy foods will start appearing at the market and I can get some healthy, delicious cooking in!

Sam