How can a cherry crumble when it’s so juicy? Never mind that, here’s another recipe I tried with tart cherries from the Farmer’s Market!

Side note: this cute “Fresh from the Farmer’s Market” blushing tomato icon was commissioned by Alanna at A Veggie Venture. I’ve been meaning to use it for months, to identify my posts that use produce obtained at our local farmer’s market. Better late than never!

Cherry Nut Crumble

Fruit filling inspired by the cherry ‘cobbler’ over at Kitchen Chick:

2 cups pitted tart cherries (after pitting a quart, I had just over 2 cups of fruit)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tab cornstarch
2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Mix together in bowl. (I mixed them in the bowl I was intending to use for baking.)

Crumble topping inspired by Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (Cherry Almond Crumble, p 31):

1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp pure almond extract

Coarsely chop the pecans in the bowl of a food processor. Add the flour, brown sugar, butter, and almond extract and process until crumbly and well combined. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the cherries and bake until the fruit is bubbly and the topping golden, about 35 to 45 minutes.

Serve warm or cold. Top with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, if desired.

Their recipe uses almonds instead of pecans - “cherries and almonds go together like hugs and kisses.” But (a) I have pounds and pounds of shelled nuts from my dads backyard pecan trees, plus (b) almonds often don’t agree with my digestion, so I used pecans instead.

The dessert was deemed delicious by all (2 of us) who tried it. Jonski Papa thought it tasted like a really good cherry pie with a different kind of “crust” so he was quite content with it (cherry pie is his favorite pie). I liked it a lot but felt like it still wasn’t tart enough - maybe my expectations are just off in terms of what ‘tart’ cherries should taste like! After all, this is dessert, not an astringent cleaner. I mixed some of the cherry juice drippings (from the pitting process) with fizzy water - no added sweetener - and even that was reasonably sweet. Maybe my taste buds are anticipating “sour like citrus” instead of tart? I dunno. Like I said, this was really good, and pretty simple (once the cherries are pitted!), so don’t take this comment as a complaint!

I never realized there is a Guinness world record for accurately serving tea whilst bending backwards. Picture 5 in the July 26 “Day in Pictures” on the BBC web site shows twins from Hong Kong breaking the record. But here’s what I don’t get: the one pouring the tea isn’t bending backwards, so how does this qualify??

Inspired in part by Kitchen Chick, I bought tart cherries last week even though I didn’t know ahead of time what I was going to make. My two dessert cookbooks were not as inspirational as I’d hoped, but I eventually settled upon this recipe from The Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts (p 70).

Chocolate Fruit Purses
serves 4

1 cup lightly packed fresh or frozen red raspberries or pitted sweet cherries
2 Tab sugar
1 Tab cornstarch
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 sheet commercially prepared puff pastry, defrosted

Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly butter a baking sheet or large baking dish.

Combine the fruit, sugar, and cornstarch in the saucepan. Cook on low heat, stirring often, until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate chips.

On a lightly floured surface, unfold the defrosted puff pastry. Stretch it slightly to form a square, then cut it in quarters to form four squares. Mound 1/4 of the filling in the center of each square. Brush the edges with water, life the four corners of each square up and over the filling, and twist them together to form a small topknot. Pinch each side seam together to seal the pastries.

Place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch or so of space between the pastries. Bake until puffed and golden, about 20 minutes. These pastries are best served warm.

Preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes
Equipment: baking sheet, small heavy saucepan, [cherry pitter, wooden spoon]

Because I was using tart cherries instead of sweet, and had closer to 1.5 cups, I increased the sugar to 4 Tab, but I think it would have been fine with 3 or maybe even 2 tablespoons. I also added about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, because Kitchen Chick says Martha specifies that for her cobbler.

This recipe was really simple, yet the end result looked fairly elegant and tasted fabulous. However, both Jonski Papa and I thought this had too much chocolate. Blasphemy, I know, but the chocolate sort of overwhelmed the taste of the cherries and didn’t allow the flavor of the fruit to shine through. (Silly boys were unwilling to try the dessert, even though they like all the component ingredients. Oh well, more for me! I’m not going to complain…)

Since I had more cherries (and more puff pastry!), I tried it again. This time I only used 2 Tab of sugar as specified (no modifications for tart cherries) and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. To be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference. What I mean is, it was still good, and I ate every bite, I don’t think the modifications provided that more of a center stage to the cherries.

Tomorrow is market day, I guess I’ll just have to get more cherries and try a simple cobbler or something else without chocolate!

Do you belong to Friendster? Nah, me neither, but I do know the name, and thought of it when I read this quote in a BBC news story (Web networkers ‘at risk of fraud’):

Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, said: “Fraudsters are taking advantage of the new craze for social networking.”

Fraudster, the latest social networking site! But would it work to expose frauds so other people don’t get drawn in, or would it serve as a training ground for hucksters??? The latter I guess, from what Munroe says. But there’s another one - Huckster! I’m just full of ideas today :^] Oh wait, that domain name is taken, by a plastic bag company. And here I was going to set up a social networking site for fans of Mark Twain…

Here are three snippets I’ve been saving because their oddness appealed to me…

A Dewey Decimal subject heading seen in the online card catalog of the local library:

Shopping — Religious aspects — Christianity.

(in case you’re interested, it’s a subject descriptor for Dinner’s in the freezer! : more Mary and less Martha, by Jill Bond, with illustrations by Reed Bond)

This is the only book in this subject heading (at least at our library!). Seems to me like the subject should be Cooking — Religious aspects — Christianity, but I’m not interested enough to read it and figure out why the emphasis on shopping.

Oh wait, further research at worldcat.org reveals five (count ‘em, 5!) books with this subject heading. Wacky.

Baby monitor keeps an eye on astronauts
Even wackier, a story in June about a baby monitor that was apparently getting a video feed from NASA. No wonder that baby looks unhappy, aliens are trying to invade his house! He knows this is just the advance team, testing out the technology

Dog has kitten
Wackier still, a dog has become a local celebrity in a Chinese village after she reportedly gave birth to a kitten. Alien puppies! (or is it alien kittens??)

Four Guys and a Guy, originally uploaded by CaZaTo Rents.

We’re home from our trip to Costa Rica. I plan to blog about some of the events soon, although I’m still waiting on most of our pictures from the worksite. In the meantime, here’s a silly photo of the guys in Monteverde (more precisely, the nearby Santa Elena).