fruit crisp.

i've always been partial to fruit crisp over fruit pie. while pie crust can be amazingly flakey and light, the crumbly brown-sugary cinnamony sweet buttery goodness of the crisp topping is my personal preference. each fall my family and i would go apple picking at least twice, sometimes three times in a couple of months. we'd drive up to a big farm house with dogs chasing each other on an orchard that to my twelve-year old self seemed endlesss in each direction. from macintosh to granny smith to cortlands and macouns, we had our choices ready and waiting to be picked like sides for a dodgeball game. my brother and sister and i would dash out out of the minivan and each grab a bright red plastic bag with a tough white strap. each bag was about the size of my six-year old brother david, but he and katie were tougher than most and took a bag with vigor before heading out to the field of apples. we'd take i-have-no-idea-how-many pounds of apples home about an hour later after munching bites of numerous while gathering. i always thought it was nice the farm owners didn't charge you for what you ate while you picked, but wondered if at times we may have abused it slightly:)

upon returning home, the apples would find a home in the cool garage in double bagged brown paper sacks.

huge pots of bubbly warm apple sauce, beyond the american classic apple pie and my favorite apple crisp were sure to arrive in the coming weeks.

a large silver mixing bowl was filled with slice upon perfect slice of apples dusted with flour, sugar and just the right apple spices before being dumped into a buttered baking dish. the apples alone were of course crisp and wonderful but the addition of the crumb topping brought them even more to life. butter, brown and white sugars, a little flour, oatmeal and of course julia's favorite butter were mixed coarsely together and dumped over the apples. the what-seemed-like 10 pound pan slid into the oven to bake for about 40 minutes before the entire house emitted a smell that should be bottled to make people come home each night.

i made apple crisp for the first time last thanksgiving for my husband's family. we're still on good terms so i rate that crisp attempt a success:) at this point its august and apples aren't really in season but any time of year is fruit crisp season. this afternoon i had about 2/3 of a pint of blueberries and 2 peaches in the fridge when i decided it was fruit crisp time.

after slicing the peaches and mixing them with the blueberries, i added the zest of half a lemon, about a third of the juice, 1 TB each white sugar and brown sugar and 1 TBSP of flour.

next came the crumb topping (read yummy here!). i melted about 2 1/5 TB unsalted butter and added 3 TB white sugar and 2 TB brown sugar, mixing to combine before turning the heat off. i then add about 1/2 cup oatmeal, little less than 1/3 flour and a pinch of salt. spread immediately on fruit mixture.

and bake at 400 for 35 minutes till bubbly and brown...let cool for about 5 minutes before topping with some vanilla yogurt and devouring.

the other lovely thing about fruit crisp: you can literally get it all together and ready to go in the time it takes your oven to preheat. how nice is that? and while your crisp cooks and cools, you can finally arrange the cluster of prints that you've had accumulating in odd spots around the apartment for months now....

as we gobbled up the comforting crisp, i showed husband what i did to which he retorted, "oh good i always wanted to live in an urban outfitters catalog." snark. some people just don't appreciate my many talents:)

happy weekend all!

Recipe: Fruit Crisp 

Ingredients:
2/3 of a pint of blueberries
2 peaches, sliced
lemon: zest of 1/2, 1/3 the juice
4 tbsp white sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup, plus 1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
2.5 tbsp unsalted butter
pinch salt

Method:
-preheat oven to 400
-add cooking spray to 8x8 square pan
-mix sliced peaches and blueberries with lemon zest and juice, 1 tbsp each brown and white sugar and 1 tbsp flour
-add fruit mixture to pan
-melt butter on stovetop, turn to low, add sugars, oatmeal, flour and salt, remove from heat
-add oatmeal topping to fruit
-bake for 35 minutes till bubbly and too gorgeous to resist