Another girlhood dream shattered

[mrissa]

lydy informs me that I could not be demure if I tried. Well, I suppose in the long-run it's probably better to find these things out early so I can cross them off the list and go on to something else. There is, of course, gaaldine's and my aspiration to cuteness, which always requires attention. I would think it would be enough for us to be cuddly, but I suspect gaaldine will push the envelope to wuddly as well. That's the good thing about working on projects together: you can push each other to new heights of treacle achievement. Anyway, I swear this dress was demure on the catalog model, but on me it is...not. Ah well.

I was speculating about pear crisp earlier, and it turns out that I can, in fact, make pear crisp. And now so can you:

Grease a 9x13 baking dish. If you use the 8x12 that works really well for lasagna, you will end up mounding topping up for the baking process. Ask me how I know. Anyway, it's okay that way, but you have to mound carefully so it doesn't overflow. 9x13 is better. Preheat the oven to 350.

The fruit part: 6 Anjou or similar pears, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 T sugar
2 t cinnamon
2 t lemon juice, plus a little extra for good measure
Toss together in a large bowl. Arrange in the baking dish.

The topping part: 1 3/4 c. flour
1 1/4 c. oats
2 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/8 t. allspice
1/8 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg
walnuts to taste, or pecans, or whatever
1 c. cold butter, oleo, or other shortening (I used shortening to make the whole thing vegan-safe.)
Mix together the dry ingredients. Grate butter through a large grater into the bowl, stirring occasionally so the butter doesn't all clump together at the top. Spoon (mound) over the fruit mixture.

Bake 45-60 minutes.

The recipe I started out with was just plain wrong in so many ways. But I fixed it.

It has been an exceptionally people-y day, and in addition to the crisp I made salads and a mushroom risotto, so it ended up kind of kitchen-y, too. So I think it's going to be time to sprawl out on the bed and read A Civil Campaign soon. And drink water: I've had a really dry throat in the last few days, and I don't know why. And then tomorrow I will call the chiropractor and get back to short stories or possibly, if I am weak, The Mark of the Sea Serpent. So.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Mmm.

I'm on my way.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Better hurry: porphyrin and Mike are supposed to come over tomorrow, and I really doubt that there'll be crisp after that. Mike is something of a crisp-snarfer.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

*teleports*

*g*

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

lydy informs me that I could not be demure if I tried.

save in the sense of "demure, de merrier" ?

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

On second thoughts, that's less funny without the Northside accent. Never mind.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The accent involved seemed clear enough to me.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Questions: what is the difference between a crisp and a cobbler? Am I right in thinking that both only have stuff on top (as opposed to a picrust underneath) and that cobblers have pastry while crisps have something more like granola on top?

I ask because I'm considering the idea of a Pasadic crisp. For that, oats and flour would be out; I'm thinking matzo meal (like very fine bread crumbs) could be substituted for both, then heavy on the nuts and cinnamon. And apples instead of pears and maybe a little red wine to make it more reminiscent of haroses, a traditional item on the Seder plate that's basically diced apples, nuts, and wine. (Of course, I could just make haroses itself. It's good on matzo.)

Yum. Maybe I will make a crisp as well as a chocolate torte. After all, overkill is *also* a tradition for any Jewish holiday meal.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, a cobbler has something like a dough on top, and a crisp has a more granola-y topping. You'd basically just want to watch the texture and the proportions of shortening to nuts and matzo meal at that point. I'm not sure the same texture would have the same measurements, depending, but one should be able to tell by feel.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Assuming no crisp-snarfers around, how well does crisp last? that is, if I make a variant on your recipe tonight is it likely to be soggy by Saturday dinner?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Slightly soggy, but still pretty good. I'm eating a piece of Sunday's now, and it's not optimal, but it's still pretty good. Probably the last day for it, though.

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

It seems wrong for me to wish weakness on a friend. And I do hope you get back to short stories, yes, all the lovely short stories. Short stories are good. But if you happened to be weak in this particular regard, and did go on to write some of that book, let's just say that you wouldn't hear complaints from this particular corner. Okay? Okay.

Also, now I *need* crisp. I don't even have oats. Guess who's going to the grocery store? ::sigh::

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Guess who's going to the grocery store?

markgritter?

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Really? Ooh, tell him that I need some oats, some apples ... a loaf of bread wouldn't go amiss, either.

Now if only I could get to MN to pick the groceries up...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If you could get to MN, silly Karina, you could just eat my crisp.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Wuddly? Why would I advocate wuddly? I am neither a Dudley nor a duck. I suspect, too, that my cuddly-ness tends towards the prickly side of things. Well, unless you are under the age of 5. Or the_overqual, but even he thinks I'm pointy and prickly at times.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I thought it was all part of the cuteness scale, which we were, if you recall, aspiring to maximize.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Nah. Cuteness itself is the end point of the scale.