Novel Eats

I have a confession to make.

If it’s not already pretty evident, I’ve been fairly distracted these last few weeks. I’ve tried to post on a regular basis as much as possible, but sometimes life gets in the way. Unfortunately for me, the blog and you, my faithful readers, moving boxes have gotten in the way.

If you were to ask me what my favorite pie was, I’d probably give you a few answers like blueberry, cherry, and chocolate. But what usually comes up on top is good old homemade apple pie. Perhaps it is because of the spices, or the flaky pie crust, or that when I’m eating it I know that it must be fall.

I normally try to post at least once a week, but sometimes life gets in the way. I realized (with a nearly audible gasp) only this week that it was nearly THREE weeks since my last post.

Here’s my laundry list of excuses. First of all, I think I was lazy. Plain and simple. Then the in-laws (all of them) came to visit, and as much as they cooed over my blog, I didn’t lift one finger to type out a blog post in their presence. I also barely lifted a finger to cook for them aside from a fruit crisp.

And today, I am sick. My throat is sore, my face feels warm, and I have a headache. As such, I am not consuming sugar today except for what comes naturally in the fruit I’ve been eating (just look up “sugar and immune system” and you’ll see why I avoid it when I’m sick). So what better thing to do when I am not sick enough to be lying down than to write a blog post about something that has so much sugar in it I should have a weak immune system for at least a week after consuming it?

Farm season is well upon us again, which means we have been getting fruit for a few weeks now in our local community supported agriculture program. We have participated in our local CSA for a few years by getting vegetable shares, but last year another farmer joined in the fun and was providing us with fruit, so we got a fruit and vegetable share last year. Holy cow. We got some of the most amazing fruit, so much so that this year we’ve said good bye to the vegetable share (Good bye! Perhaps we’ll see you another year!), and said hello to two fruit shares.

The first couple of weeks we didn’t get a whole lot of fruit, but the last couple of weeks we’ve gotten more than our share (hehe) of peaches and plums. As soon as I saw the peaches I couldn’t think of anything else but when I was growing up next to Grandma.

I recently had a hankerin’ for some cherries. I am not usually a cherry kind of girl, but when they’re in season I’ll indulge in a pound or two. If you get a perfectly ripe cherry, you’ll get a perfectly sweet and spicy flavor – too soon and it will be tart (not my favorite), too late, well it will just be too late.

After gorging myself, I decided that I needed to do something else with them. What I wound up with was a variation on (or very much inspired by) apple crisp.