Apple Crumble

My latest favorite sweet thing to bake is fruit crumble, because it's fast, easy and doesn't make a mess. Aside from that, with oats and apples it's downright healthy compared to many dessert indulgences this time of year. 

This isn't a picture of the actual mixed berry crumble cooling on my stovetop at the moment - it has pecans instead of almonds - but it's the same thing: a BH (big handful - maybe 2/3 cup) plain flour, a BH of old fashioned oats, a half-cup or so of brown sugar (use either light or dark), and a half-cup or so chopped nuts mixed with 6 tablespoons of butter that's been melted in my favorite skillet. 

Into the buttery skillet I toss a pound or two of fruit - the one in the picture has a pound bag of frozen mixed berries from WalMart with the remains of a couple of bags of frozen strawberries and blueberries thrown in for good measure - a tablespoon of lemon juice, a quarter cup'ish of white sugar, and a sprinkle (or fifteen) of cinnamon. 

When I use apples, because apples ARE wonderful under this topping, I use 3 big ones or 4 medium-sized ones, brown sugar, fifteen times more cinnamon, and maybe a sprinkle of allspice.

Add the topping and pop everything into a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes, and you've got dessert. 

I've probably made a dozen crumbles since mid-fall when the The New York Times published their version, which can be found *here* and makes enough to feed an army. I split it and have wiggled it back and forth enough time that the version written out above is truly my own official version. 

Fall into Gumbo

 All I can say about the first frosts and freezes of the season and their resultant devastation of our remaining hot-weather garden, is "Thank y'all!" 

I've never liked tomatoes before, and suddenly I love them. My experience growing them was nearly zilch, and the garden produced like wild, wild weeds. 

Okra and peppers and several fantastic pots of beans were THERE. Not everything Jack and I started back in the spring amounted to anything, but overall, what a wonderful summer of work we did.

Nothing but grateful from this gardener.

We finished the season with flouish in some of the most beautifully velvety gumbos to ever be created. Our okra - especially the late "Motherland" variety, which didn't start producing until 5 or so weeks ago - was creamier than any okra either of us have had before. In gumbo, it transformed into silky perfection with hearty chicken and rings of andouille sausage. 

I'm not blowing it up, either. This stuff (with a light dusting of file on top) was every bit'a that good. 

COVID19: Chicken Pot Pie

Saturday, we got our bi-weekly box of produce from Misfits Market, and I should have taken a picture of the inside of the box to show you how pretty everything looked. 

After a couple of glitchy deliveries - one box got lost in transit and one was missing a couple of items - we're back on track. This order had mostly familiar things that we use on a regular basis - salad greens, sweet peppers, big round onions, small red onions, and cabbage. We also got bok choy, Bosc pears, a couple of avocados, a bunch of radishes, a bag of pearl onions, and a small head of radicchio. The gold beets Jack had wanted were apparently not a go, so our box contained two celery roots as a substitution.

We've not had celery root before, but I've seen them used on cooking shows in savory dishes where potatoes, turnips, and other root veggies go and had no reservations about cubing-up one of those puppies and adding it to this huge and delicious chicken pot pie.

I normally use a potato but substituted the celery root, and it was fantastic. The flavor was very subtle and mostly appeared as a bright, nutty note. The cubes were creamy but didn't lose their shape or get mushy like some potatoes are wont to do. If I hadn't known what it was, I probably would have guessed it was a mild variety of turnip. 

The pearl onions were fun to prep. I made an "x" at the bottom end of each one then plopped them into boiling water to blanch for a few minutes before getting shocked in a bowl of ice. The beautiful little "pearls" blip out easily with a pinch and squeeze from the top and are what you need in a pot pie. The recipe I loosely reference whenever I make pot pie is one by Ina Garten, my kitchen spirit guide, who strongly suggests using pearl onions, because they're sweet, tender, and have a gentle flavor. 

Before the pandemic, Kroger could be a reliable source of inexpensive pearl onions in the freezer section. Fresh ones tend to be priced as a specialty produce item, seasonal, and not particularly in demand by cooks in this part of rural Middle Tennessee. When pearl onions were offered in the "pick six" section of our Misfits Market options, I selected them first and said, "Ooooo, pot pie" and made other choices accordingly.

The substitution of celery root was happenstance and well-fated. We'll put that in the box again. It would be great in all kinds of soups, a mash with beef or pork, roasted in the oven like potatoes. A new thing to taste and explore.