I know, I know. "Healthy Dessert" is pretty much an oxymoron. But please, let me justify eating this one, because I do so love it.
From the picture it certainly looks bad for you! It tastes bad for you too. Really though, it's probably no worse than what you had for breakfast.
It's called clafoutis. It's an Italian dessert that is something like a cross between a pancake and a custard. If you want to make the true Italian version you'll have to use un-pitted cherries, but I like to use up whatever stone fruits I have in the kitchen, particularly ones that are under ripe and aren't good for eating out of hand. Basically you're baking fresh fruit with fairly little sugar, and a good amount of eggs. A good way to squeeze in a little extra protein for your little one at the end of the day. Kirah won't touch plain eggs lately, but she gobbles this up and calls it "peachy cake".
I have been told that my recipe is a bit different than others, but I have always had success with it, and it's always delicious!
Clafoutis
1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 lb fresh fruit (cherries, nectarines, plums, peaches, pluots, and apricots are all great)
2 Tbsp powdered sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Grease tart or pie pan, or individual tins. Pit and slice fruit if desired/as necessary. Arrange fruit in bottom on pan(s) in a single layer.
Whisk flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla until just incorporated. Pour batter over arranged fruit and bake for 45 minutes until puffed and slightly brown on top.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Summer is waning, slowly. It's still a million degrees outside, but the leaves at the ends of the tree branches are changing, flowers are fading, and seed pods are falling. I'm itchy itchy itchy for my favorite season to begin.
On my mind are apples and pumpkins and nutmeg, cable-knits, hot tea, frost and fog, chubby squirrels, beautiful running salmon, sleepy dark evenings.... I'm too excited.
Inspired by little hints of fall I created this month's mobile... at the end of the month! It may be a bit early for an autumnal theme, so perhaps this ought to be September's mobile instead. But I'm ready for it now, so here it is ^_^.
Kirah helped me with this one. On our afternoon walks we have been finding a lot of interesting little things on the ground. Clusters of acorns, nuts, flowers, etc. Too bad I can't bring home the ladybugs, sea-foam green moths, shiny gold beetles, striped salamanders, terrifyingly gigantic orb spiders, rolly-poly potato bugs and armies of feisty ants that Kirah loves to try and squish. Well, maybe not too bad. They can stay outside and we will visit them often. But the little treasures she find from trees and plants fill up her pockets and make it back to the house and pile up with the rest of her toys.
I draped her mobile in soft circles of yarn and tucked some of her little seeds and things into the curls. I topped it off with some umbrellas of mustard colored felt.
So, Kirah may have a sort of woodland chandelier over her crib right now, but we'll still be squeezing in another beach trip or two before summer is over!
It's been a long month so far!
Pre-school is starting this fall and the list of forms to fill out, meetings to attend, and necessities to pick up just keeps growing bigger and bigger! My sister's wedding was this past weekend and in addition to helping her plan and organize, I also catered the rehearsal dinner. I have also started on a giant handmade Christmas project (that may or may not actually be finished by Christmas), and am working on items for the rest of the people on my list, which seems ridiculous in August since I'm usually a last-minute shopper. Not to mention the day-to-day stuff. No complaints here though! I love having a million things to do - it's nice to feel needed and challenged.
Now that the wedding is done I feel less urgency and stress in my life. It went off perfectly, and everything was beautiful, of course. I'm so glad I have a new brother-in-law making my little sister happy! And I'm really happy that they're done with the stresses of planning a wedding. They're off enjoying their mini-honeymoon now, and I hope they're getting the relaxation they need.
Last night I finally got to meet the other mommies in Kirah's pre-school class, and now I'm even more psyched to start school! They are all so nice, and I know we're going to have a blast this year.
I can't tell you much about the Christmas surprise - you never know who might be reading. But I can tell you that it is driving me crazy trying to order one of the components from the UK over the phone! Time-zone differences and cell phone company restrictions are frustrating things.
Well, that's what's going on with me. I hope anyone reading is having a much more relaxing summer than moi!
Check back soon, I'm back to blogging!
We have been playing behind our bedroom curtains a lot lately. Kirah says we're "ghosties" and she likes to bring all of her musical instruments so that she can make "ghosty music". I swear, the games she invents for herself are a million times more fun and creative than anything I could come up with for her.
As you can see, our curtains are getting quite tatty from all of these ghosty games. The cats like them too. Good thing Ikea has them for cheap. ^_^
