Mixed Berry Crumble

Ayla is just the cutest.  She was so sweet and happy wearing bunny ears at my mother-in-law's house today.  I must add that I was so super impressed with her behavior.  On other occassions, she has been a little too hyper in that environment.  Today, she was perfect.  She slept under the table during dinner.  She kept her eye on me and Nate all day.  What a good sheepdoggie.  

I had been thinking about making this crumble for a few days.  So, when I got into the kitchen, I pretty much had a rough plan.  I knew I wanted a shortbread bottom and berries with some topping.  I'm not sure if I can actually write this as a recipe at this point, because I became sort of a ball of chaos in the kitchen.  But it's worth the effort because these were so delicious!

The bottoms were a stick of melted butter, 1 cup (plus more as needed) of flour and 2/3 cup sugar.  I stirred this together and pressed it (most but not all of it) into the bottom of a 9X13 glass pyrex thingy.  I baked it at 350 until done - golden brown.  I was normal up this point.  I saved a bit of the bottom mixture to add to the top.

I used about 3/4 of a bag of frozen mixed berries.  I didn't defrost them or anything.  I tossed those babies down on the shortbread bottom.  

In another bowl, I mixed up 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and buttermilk,  I'm guessing it was 1/2 cup buttermilk and a teaspoon of each of the others.  I poured that on top of the berries.  Then I took the little bit of bottom mix I had left, added brown sugar, and 1/3 package of cream cheese.  I mixed them together with my fingers and sprinkled it over the berry egg thing.  

I baked the whole business at 350 until it was solid and didn't jiggle (I have no idea how long this was).  

It was really yummy.  It's not too sweet and would really work as a brunch item with vanilla yogurt on top maybe.  Or it might be really good with chocolate chips or a chocolate ganache.  

 I neglected to take a picture of the shortbread bottom by itself.  I just threw the totally frozen berries on top of the shortbread bottom - it hadn't even cooled.  I was worried about the monstrous size of strawberries but it all worked out.

This is the egg mix on top of berries.

 Tah Dah!  Finished deliciousness.  The crumble on top got nice and golden brown.  The berries were cooked and it was not jiggling.  The approximate full recipe is at the end of the post.  Please know that I was totally estimating because I was not in the mood to measure.  As I pointed out before, some of you think I like baking because of its precision - but this is perfect evidence to the contrary.

Healing:

I've been feeling overall lousy for a few days.  I've had a rash on my chest that has spread to my face (so pretty).  I've had to take benedryl and nap.  My pain is under pretty good control, but I just haven't felt that good.  All I want to do is lie down and rest.  I forced myself out for some walks which helps so much.  

I got a new bedspread for our bedroom - see - It's nice to change up the color scheme a bit.  I bought gray curtains too.  I've just been feeling...meh.  The good thing is that I've been giving myself time to be cat-like and loungy.  I took some baths, got cozy in my new blankets, and watched Deep Space Nine episodes with my honey.  Somehow, neither of us really watched that series so we've been enjoying going through it. Sisco is no Picard, but he is strong.  I love how not-Starfleet it all is.  They make all kinds of errors in judgments.  And there were tribbles.

Mixed Berry Crumble

Bottom:

1 C flour

2/3 C sugar

1 stick melted butter

Mix together and press into the bottom of a pan (9X13).  Press in all but 2 T of the mixture.

Bake at 350 until it starts to turn golden

Top:

3/4 bag of mixed berries (I used Trader Joe's here) - pour on top of cooked bottom

1/2 C sugar

1 t vanilla

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

3 eggs

1/2 C buttermilk

Whisk together and pour on top of berries.

Crumbles:

Add to the leftover bottom:

1/2 C of brown sugar

1/3 package of cream cheeese

Mix with your fingers and scatter over the top

Bake at 350 until it does not jiggle.

Note for the anal retentive:  This recipe is not for you.  You need to add and subtract to your taste and your results.  Maybe you want to use a whole package of berries.  And why not?  Who's going to stop you?  Maybe you want to add semi-sweet chocolate chips at the end.  Maybe more cream cheese.  I don't know.  Please share what you do with this.  Next time, I'll measure more and get the amounts more precise for even the most anal retentive of you.  But for now, put your perfectionism aside, and bake with berries.