Wow, I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is almost here!  And it’s only Monday and I already feel like this week is getting away from me.  I spent my Sunday evening watching season 3 of 30 Rock on Netflix and trying to get through an early 1940s (or is it late 1930s?) dress for the holiday festivities.  Yes, I still get excited, just as I did as a little girl, over the prospect of having a new dress to wear for a special occasion!  But the sleeves - oh, the sleeves!  The puffed sleeves were really trying my patience.  I guess I can’t do puffed sleeves no matter how much I try to convince myself.  It remains my goal, however, to finish this dress but now the sleeves have been pared down quite a bit.  We shall see how it goes!

Anyway I have a couple of recipes to share with you.  The first is a Berry Crumble.  The crumble topping is similar to what you may find on top of a banana or blueberry muffin.  There’s no egg and it’s very crumbly.  I think the trick to making a good crumble is to make sure the dough clumps are not too big  and are spread out evenly over the fruit (so they can cook thoroughly).  I also don’t like my fruit too sweet or syrupy and I don’t use much sugar in the filling.  This recipe is so easy it’s great to whip some up after a trip to the farmer’s market.  (Which is were I got these beauties!)  You can vary the amount fruit depending on how much you have and how deep you want the crumble to be.

Jen’s Berry Crumble

Dough:

6 T unsalted butter, softened

1/4 t light brown sugar (or white sugar)

1/2 c all purpose flour

1/4 c instant oatmeal (the plain, unflavored kind)

1/8 t. salt

2 t. water (Optional)

Filling:

2-4 pints berries (I like to combine blackberries with strawberries)

1 T sugar

> 1/2 t. lemon juice (Optional - I usually leave this out)

Cooking spray or melted butter

Cinnamon or nutmeg, ground

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees F.  Spray a 9″ baking pan with cooking spray (or brush with butter).
2. Cut up fruit if desired.  Spread fruit out in the pan and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Mix all dry ingredients for the dough.  Mix in butter - this might be easiest to do this with your hands.  Add a little water if dough seems too dry.
4. Crumble dough evenly over fruit filling.  Sprinkle with cinnamon or nutmeg.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.  Sometimes I flip the broiler on for a few minutes to brown the top without overcooking the fruit.

Jen’s Pumpkin Pavlova

My friend Michelle introduced me to pavlova many years ago and has since been one of my favorite desserts.  It’s so light it hardly seems sinful.  (Hee hee!)   This recipe is fairly easy as well (a recurrent theme in my kitchen).  I originally planned to make some today but at this point I probably don’t have time with all the other pre-holiday planning (including finishing up some work!).  SO, here it is, in pdf format.  Perhaps I’ll be able to update this post later with a photo.

» Download Jen’s Pumpkin Pavlova Recipe

Enjoy!