Celebration of Summer

Here's a celebration of the summer that's saying goodbye. I hung on particularly strong to this summer, not wanting it to end, partly because it was wonderful, partly because goodbyes have always been hard. But this fruit crumble made with summer fresh blueberries, peaches, sour cherries (cleverly frozen from their abundant peak in the markets in July) and sprinkled with lemon verbena leaves, isn't my usual Labour day weekend lament. It's a celebration of a summer that marked a painful but happy change, and a reminder that summer will always come back again next year, no matter how far away that seems ...

Summer Celebration Fruit Crumble

2 ripe peaches, diced
1 cup of blueberries
1/2 cup of sour cherries (frozen is fine, or replace with strawberries .. they're still in the markets!)
2 large sprigs of lemon verbena leaves (a good substitute would be lemon zest)
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon of cane sugar

Place all these ingredients in a baking dish and mix well. Then make the crumble.

1/2 cup of oats
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of spelt flour
juice of and zest of half a lemon
2 tablespoons of grapeseed oil

In a mixing bowl, mix together the oats, sugar spelt flour and zest. Add the lemon juice and oil and mix to form a crumble. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the fruit and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until the juice starts bubbling up and the crumble gets a nice golden brown.

Enjoy with strong coffee, fun summer memories, and future summer plans.

Pie Day

 I'm poking my head out to say that's it almost spring. And also, Happy Pie Day! I heard on the radio that it was "Pi" day because it's March 14 (3.14) and that it's really special because it's also 2015 and the next two digits in pi are 15 and also that at it was especially special at 9:26 this morning because, well you know why.

So I made a pie. It's a vegan apple pie with love and it was labour intensive, but most things involving love are. I got help from (of course) Joy the Baker. She promised that pie crust wouldn't be so hard to make, and it wasn't. I pretty much followed her instructions to the T. I modified the crust, using only 1/2 cup of Earth Balance, and coconut milk + 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar instead of buttermilk, and a couple tablespoons of ice cold water. I also replaced 1 cup of the flour with spelt flour. The dough felt really nice and soft and was super easy to roll out.

Not sure how it will taste, but I'll find out later tonight when we cut it at my parents' house. I fear the crust might be tough because of the missing butter, but I'm crossing my fingers that it will be at least passable. I'm seriously thinking of getting some Coconut Bliss (which I've heard is great) to serve it with, but seeing as it's the first day of my March break and I just spent the entire day fussing over a pie, laziness will probably prevail, and we'll have it as is. Things are always better straight up anyway.

I'm burrowing back now ...
I encourage you to make a pie...

*** Update***
So, the pie got mixed reviews. My dad, who eats anything I bake and says it's delicious, said.. it was delicious. My mom had no comment, but finished her slice. My cousin said he liked the crust, then said, no, he liked the apples, but couldn't taste the nutmeg in it. The first thing my vegan-hating sister said was "Is this vegan? It tastes vegan." But she too, finished her piece. My husband ate it, said it was great and had seconds. I thought it was nice -- the crust was crisp and flavourful and not oily. But it was not a tender flaky pie crust -- the achieve that, I think you need to add that other 1/2 cup of butter. The apples, I thought, were perfect. :)