Yearly Archives: 2013

Fruit Crisp

I do enjoy making (and eating!) desserts, but I’m not one of those precise bakers who construct architecturally correct cakes. Nor do I like pure sweetness. What I love are fruit desserts that balance acidic tartness with sweetness, and that have texture and bursts of flavor. Although I’m a pie baker, for everyday quick cooking I make crisps because they fit into my crazy schedule – I can bake one up on a whim right before dinner. I make up a large batch of the crisp topping and what isn’t used in that first crisp goes into the freezer and is pulled out whenever I want to make another. I rarely use a recipe, but this week I made crisp and I wrote down what I did to share it with you.

This is rhubarb season, which makes me do a happy dance, because it is my absolute favorite fruit to put in a pie (I know it’s not a botanical fruit, but I use it as a fruit, so I call it a fruit!) The rhubarb that I planted three years ago is finally mature enough so that I can get a good harvest from it.

rhubarb plant

 

The leaves are not edible, and are, in fact, poisonous, so before I bring the stalks inside, I lop off the tops right into the compost bin (the one that the chickens cannot get into).

rhubarb leaves

 

Once washed, I chop the rhubarb into 1-inch pieces. I like to add another fruit to the crumble, and I happen to have tree-ripened peaches in my freezer (bought from a local orchard and vacuum-sealed last fall.) I defrost them just enough to break them apart so they’re no longer in a block.

peaches

 

I’ll need 6 cups of fruit to fill a pie plate. Half rhubarb and half peaches is good.

Here’s the rest of the ingredient list for the crisp filling:

1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of sugar, preferably coarse organic (better flavor than pure white sugar)
1 tablespoon of quick tapioca or instant clearjel (to thicken the juices)

Universal Crisp Topping: 
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (less if using salted butter)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup sugar, preferably coarse organic (better flavor than pure white sugar)
2 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger (optional)
1/2 cup nuts of choice (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a baking dish or pie plate with non-stick spray.
2. Combine the fruit and egg in bowl. In a small bowl, mix the 1/2 cup sugar and thickener, then stir into the fruit.
3. Put the fruit into the baking dish.

fruit

 

4. Put all of the topping ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.
5. Evenly distribute about 1 cup of the topping over the fruit.

unbaked

 

6. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the crisp is bubbly and the topping is lightly browned.

crumble

 

This is delicious plain. It’s excellent for breakfast with yogurt. I happened to have a bit of heavy cream in the fridge, which I whipped by hand (which yields a better texture than when done in a mixer) and had it for dessert.

serving

 

Now I have enough crisp topping in my freezer for another three crisps. If I’m able to harvest my strawberries before the birds get them, I’ll be having Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp soon. Let me know what combination of fruit you put into a crisp.

Meet Veronica

Cuckoo Marans lay dark brown eggs, the color of a Hershey’s bar. Despite the fact that the eggs don’t actually taste like chocolate, they’re very pretty, and a good enough reason to have a Cuckoo Marans in your small flock. But, I’m discovering that there’s an even better reason to put this chicken on your list of breeds to have one day – what a wonderful personality!

I’m keeping one Cuckoo Marans, (the other has gone to the nursing home) and I’ve named her Veronica, after a story-telling hippo in a favorite book. Like her namesake, she’s a talker. Veronica chatters in a low, bup-bup-bup voice. She follows me around, constantly commenting on her world. What I really like about this chicken is that she is calm and yet out-going. When the chicks were two weeks old she was one of the first to try the baby roost.

roost

 

At a month old she ventured higher up the big girls’ roost than anyone else.

big roost

 

And now, at 2 1/2 month of age, she is confident and yet not bossy to others in the flock. Veronica is the only pullet not intimidated by Edwina and even eats near that Grande Dame hen. And yet I’ve never seen Veronica challenge Edwina or any other chicken. So, Veronica is proving, early on, to be a personable, even-keeled leader, something that all flocks (and societies) should have in their midst.

Veronica

New Home Construction

The window box on the porch outside of my office is thriving. This is the first year that I’ve planted a hanging cherry tomato plant and I’m looking forward to snacks while working!

window box

 

There’s a lot of bird life in the front yard. I frequently see bluebirds, and a hawk perches in a neighbor’s pine. The other day, though, I saw more activity than usual. I stopped writing and stepped onto the porch. A robin yelled at me and flew at my head. I hurried back inside. Robins were building a nest between the petunias and the tomato plant.

robin

 

After several hours their beautiful home was finished.

nest

 

However, once all of the work was done, the robins looked around and decided that they didn’t like their new neighbor. She had been there throughout construction, but somehow the robins had overlooked her presence. Lily had ignored all of the construction hubbub, but she was still gauged by the robins to have brought down the value of the neighborhood. All of their work was for naught. They decided to relocate. As they say in the real estate business, it’s all about “location, location, location.”

Lily

Names & Bios Up!

Now that Mr. Grumpy and his girl have gone to their new home, and the five friendliest and most easy-going hens are at the nursing home, it’s become clear that my remaining six pullets are an active and rowdy bunch. Talk to an experienced grade school teacher, and she’ll tell you that every few years a group of kids comes along and the classroom takes on an energized personality. My son was in such a class once. It was filled with competitive sports kids and hyper-focused learners. The teacher, who was a nice laid-back man and folksinger during the summers, tried to teach the fourth graders how to self-calm through meditation, but to no avail. I feel that way about my six new pullets. They all have great personalities, which somehow, all together, become amplified.

pullets

I’ve named them and identified each breed on the who’s who page. It will be interesting to see how the social structure settles out. So far, Edwina, the grande dame of the coop, is maintaining her top hen status. Despite age and arthritis, I’m sure that will not change, as her attitude is as domineering as ever. It’s all in the mind.

Veronica

This Cuckoo Maran is friendly yet calm, and gets along well with others. I named her after a book that I loved as a child – Veronica by Roger Duvoisin. It’s about a hippo that looks like all of the other hippos, all of whom live boring lives in the lake. Veronica goes to the city, has adventures, and when she comes back she is not like the other hippos. She is a storyteller. This Veronica hatched March 29, 2013.