Fig Pizza and Peach Crisp

Darn, I'm really missing my camera.

I was already planning to make fig pizza (though I didn't get to use any of those great figs we were given for it--summer camp intervened and I didn't get to them in time--ate most of them, though) last night, and when a. it was cool enough to turn on the oven without getting roasted ourselves and b. we had a friend over for dinner, I knew it was the perfect time to make pizza! I made fig, pecan, blue cheese, and carmelized onion pizza, along with tomato, basil and fresh mozzarella pizza. It was good, and it didn't even smoke up the house this time. I'll have to figure out what I did right this time.

Now, we love berries in this house. For years I've been thwarted from actually *baking* with berries, because they all get gobbled up before I can do anything with them. But I bought seven baskets of them at the farmer's market last Thursday, and the kids were still at camp until Friday, and we had a busy weekend, and....somehow, there were still a bunch of berries in my fridge on Sunday night. I knew I had to do something with them or they'd mold. So, I took the 1 1/2 baskets of blueberries, 1 basket of red raspberries, and a bunch of peaches, old ones that were going bad* (just cut off the bad parts--or more accurately, cut off the good parts) and threw them together to make a crisp. It was so yummy I knew I had to make another crisp for when our friend came over, so I just bought peaches and used those. It was better with the berries, I think, but the peach crisp was darned good. This is a recipe that was very easy to make vegan and non-vegan versions of--the only non-vegan ingredient is butter, and that's literally the last ingredient you add.

Fresh Fruit Crisp

Take whatever fruit you want to use and put it in a shallow glass baking dish. Add some sugar and some spice--the first night I used fresh ginger, but candied would have worked well, too. The second one I used cardamom and that was good but more understated. Stir those together.

In a bowl stir together maybe a cup of flour, half a cup of chopped almonds, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Cut in cold butter, about 3-4 tablespoons (my preferred method is with the fingers) OR oil or margarine or shortening. If you don't care about vegan, use butter. Really. You won't regret it.

Spread the flour mixture over the fruit and bake at 350 for, oh, at least half an hour, until the fruit is bubbly and the topping is beginning to get brown.

Understand that these measurements are guessed at--this is the first time I just made a crisp without looking at a recipe. And I just kind of threw stuff together. Seems to me that crisps are very forgiving.


*How in the world did peaches go bad in our house? Well, seems they were doomed from the start. First off, they were exceedingly ripe when I bought them at the farmer's market. Second, it was Zac's job to carry the bag they were in, and they got, uh, somewhat bumped around. And then, I bought them on Wednesday and found, on Thursday evening, that they were still in my car! Arg! A wonder they were still usable at all after all that.