Last weekend Mom visited to help with wedding stuff. We found the perfect dress and set our date. September 17, 2011 can’t get here soon enough!
To celebrate, we brought together a few friends and cooked a big Saturday dinner. The spread was impressive to say the least. We had flat iron steaks, chicken breasts and asparagus on the grill; a tomato and cheese salad topped with smoked filet mignon slices; a salad packed full of veggies from our neighbors garden; and a creamy macaroni dish.
Dessert was my responsibility.
Strawberry and Blueberry Crisp
I decided to make one of my favorite recipes. It’s fairly quick and easy and always a big hit. I originally found the recipe in a Fine Cooking magazine a few years ago. I’ve made changes to it over time.
After posting the picture above to Facebook, a few friends asked for the recipe. So here goes it- my first blog post about cooking.
Ingredients
4 Tbs. unsalted butter (room temp works best)
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup of light brown sugar (don’t be scared of too much- this makes it good)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 lb. room temperature blueberries (scruba-dub-dub)
1 lb. stawberries (washed and sliced into edible pieces)
1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Cooking directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Give your 9 inch baking pan a good once-over with butter or Pam.
In a small bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. of salt. Take your butter and cut it up into little chunks. Work the butter into the flour mixture. Work until the mixture clumps together. If for some reason it’s not clumping, add a little more butter.
If your butter is cold, your fingers will probably start hurting a little.
Combine the strawberries and blueberries in a big bowl.
In another small bowl, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg and 1/8 tsp. of salt. Make sure this is mixed well. Toss the mixture with the fruit.
Spread the fruit mixture in the baking pan. Press the streusel (the first flour mixture) into small clumps in your hand. Spread those clumps over the fruit mixture.
Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the streusel topping is browned, 40-50 minutes. Cool. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
*Optional- run an extra 3 miles tonight.
I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate National Ice Cream Month.
