The Best Fruit Crumble on the Planet

This is so easy to make, totally delicious, and relatively healthy as desserts go. (Shown here is strawberry-rhubarb cobbler.)

Ingredients
—approximately 6 cups of fresh fruit (this is a rough number—could be 5, could be 7). Some of my favorites are apple, apple/strawberry, pear/raspberry, apple/rhubarb, strawberry/rhubarb, and nectarine/raspberry.
—1/2 cup all purpose flour
—1/2 cup old fashioned oats
—1/2 packed light brown sugar
—1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
—5 Tbsp cold butter

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Put your fruit into a 2 qt baking dish.
• In a bowl, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon.
• Chip off pieces of the cold butter into the bowl and once it is all in the bowl, using your hands, smush it all together. it won't be perfectly or evenly moistened...it will in fact be crumbly, but mix it together the best you can.
• Crumble the topping over the fruit.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes

Running Mishap

As I shared in a previous post, I am in the midst of the Couch to 5K program. In fact, as of this post, I am about to complete week 6, 2/3rds of the way through. As with most new endeavors, the process has had its highs and lows. Today I share one of the more absurd moments.

We were a few days into the April vacation and my rambunctious 13-yr-old and his best buddy were restless. My husband, Paul, and I were about to head to the track at our local high school. I suggested the boys grab a football and come with us. Like two oversized and goofy puppies, these man-sized boys bounded to the car. As Paul and I begin our run, the boys head into the center of the track and occupy themselves for the next 30 mins leaping into mid air trying to catch the football at the apex of their jump and then flop on the pole vaulters' mattress.

And then it all went awry.
Very soon into my run, my right bra strap slid off my shoulder. As soon as I pulled it back up, the left strap slid down my left arm and rested in the crease of my left elbow. I put my iPod in my other hand and arighted my left strap. Immediately, the right one goes down again. This unbelievably frustrating process continued for at least a lap and a half of the track. By now, I am so frustrated I am gritting my teeth. Then, a great song came on my ipod and transported me away from the physical rigors of running. Does that happen to you where your brain leaves your body? Well, when my attention returned to the moment, both bra straps we resting comfortable in the crooks of my elbows and my bra was around my waist! I think what drew my attention back to reality was the fact that the drooped bra straps we restricting my natural running motion.

So, with my son and his buddy right there, my solution was to just remove the bra and keep running. I know; I'm a classy girl.

Today's lesson: Foundation garments are important...even in sports.

I See Dead People

Spoiler Alert: If you have never seen the movie "The Sixth Sense" (and I highly recommend that you do), read no further because I will give away one of the most turn-on-a-dime plot revealers of all time.

One of the most chilling lines ever, right? When little Haley Joel Osment playing the role of Cole confesses to Bruce Willis' character that he has a sixth sense...one beyond sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. He can see people from another dimension. People who have left the time and space dimension of Earth and are wandering around in some sort of altered dimension. Crazy, right?

Today's tale is a wandering one that will ultimately reveal that I have come to the realization that I too have a sixth sense. Thankfully, mine is different from Cole's.

The story starts about a month ago. Paulie, my husband of almost 19 years, is an avid exerciser. His father had a quadruple bypass at age 54 and that possibility scares the dickens out of Paulie; thus he works out several times a week and has for as long as we have been together.

However, like many, he always gains a little weight over the winter months...and this winter was especially hard to be motivated to exercise. Who had any juice for that after all that snow shoveling?

In early March, Paulie asked me if I would begin a 9 week running program with him called "Couch to 5K." My initial response was, "Have you met me? I am the least athletic person on the planet!" My second response was, "Hell no." Thankfully, when my maturity started to wax and my freshness waned, I realized that it had been a while since the last time Paulie asked to do something with me. So I acquiesced and as of today we are three-and-a-half weeks into the 9 week program.

At the start of week 4, the Couch to 5K plan is to walk a five minute warm up, run 3 mins, walk 90 seconds, run 5 mins, walk 2.5 mins, run 3 mins, walk 90 seconds, run 5 mins, walk 5 mins to cool down. I confess that the idea of that first 5 minute run was daunting. However, for the first time ever, I hit what people call "their stride". That had never happened to me before. This is also when my "sixth sense" kicked in.

I see movement. I see it in patterns of people in crowded places, and in this instance, I saw movement by people who were not even there.

We were running at the track at Sheehan High School and what I saw was a flash mob event that would involve hundreds of people. Simultaneously a celebration of fitness and community, the flash mob I imagine would involve young and old. And in my head it is set to Fat Boy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now." I could see the whole event, both the gathering of participants and the invitation to watch, being communicated and promoted via social media (Facebook and Twitter for sure). Now all I have to do is get permission from John Gawlak to use the track!

Sometimes my "sixth sense" brings on a choreographic idea like this, and sometimes it is just an awareness of how other people move; how their bodies work, how the shape of their hips/knees/feet affects they way they sit, stand, walk. It doesn't happen all the time and it has been a while since it happened as viscerally as it did when I was running.

Paul and I will soon head out to accomplish the Week 4, Day 2 session of Couch to 5K. I wonder what will spring to mind today as I hit my stride.

Pot Roast in the Slow Cooker

Family Friendly Meals Series—Day 11

This one is a no brainer. It's both easy-peasy to cook, and the reason I have no photos is that my family ate it all so quickly that it's all gone. No lie!

Put a pot roast in your slow cooker with the beer from a bottle of Long Trail IPA. Turn it on low and walk away. Let it cook for the 8-9 hours you are at work. When you get home, throw a pound of wide egg noodles on the stove top, and toss together a salad. The pot roast shreds easily (I hand removed the fatty parts of the meat so my kids weren't grossed out) and I served it over the noodles with a little bit of the juice from the crock pot. It will definitely need salt; you can add it while it is cooking or season to taste based on the dietary needs of your family.

Enjoy!

Today's Experiment

I wanted something comforting for lunch, but I also wanted something healthy. After having gone to Park Central in Hamden for dinner last week, where I had butternut squash soup, I have been wanting to make my own. Well, today was the day.

Ingredients
2.5-3 lbs butternut squash, diced
2 red potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 large red onion, diced
2T butter
chicken stock, about 6 cups or so
salt and cambodian kampot pepper

1. Melt the butter on medium high heat in a large pot. Put all the diced ingredients in the pot and stir them around for about 5 minutes.

2. Cover the vegetable and butter mix with chicken stock, cover the mixture and let it come to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn the burner down and let it simmer for about 45 mins, or until all the veggies are soft.
3. Using a submersible blender, puree the mixture. If the mixture is too thick for your liking, you can add a bit more chicken stock. Mine was perfect as is. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper—I used Cambodian kampot pepper and it was out of this world. My husband, for whom I have been cooking for 20 years, says it is one of the tastiest things I have ever made.

My Favorite Recipe of 2010—Corn Chowder

Family Friendly Meals Series, Day 10
My sister Lisa is a phenomenal cook. This is her corn chowder recipe, adapted a bit because of my husband's high cholesterol. While not much to look at (these photos do NOT do it justice in any way), this soup is absolutely delicious.

Ingredients
½ pound bacon (cut into inch size pieces, I use my kitchen scissors)

3 cans cream of chicken soup
3 cans of 1% milk

1 small sour cream

20 oz frozen corn 

12 new potatoes, peeled and diced bite size pieces

Pepper and powdered garlic to taste

Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Cook bacon in large soup pot until just about done. Open one of your soup cans and put contents in a small bowl so you have an empty soup can to drain the excess bacon grease. Add soup, 2 cans of milk, sour cream, corn and powdered garlic. Before you add the potatoes, the soup mixture looks like this:

In a separate pot, boil potatoes for about 15-20 mins (I do this while the bacon is cooking). Drain the water and add it to the soup mixture. At this point, I move the whole mixture to my slow cooker and heat it on low for about an hour, though it can stay in the crock pot longer. If you don't have a crock pot, you can simmer the mixture on the stove top on low. Be careful not to have the heat too high; the milk will burn. Stir often. If you are using the stove top method, keep the cover on but leave a little room for steam to come out. If not, it may become too watery. Simmer the mixture for about 1/2 an hour.

Notes: Add some or all of the third can of milk until your chowder is the desired thickness. The original recipe calls for whole milk and a large container of sour cream.

Blogiversary Reflection

One year ago, I set a few New Year challenges for myself: try to take a photo every day, and try to write more for pleasure (I write almost every day for my job). My vehicle for sharing was this blog. With chagrin I report that my photo challenge lasted less than a month. However, today is my blogiversary...I have lasted a year with writing routinely and sharing it publicly (50 posts in total). Given that there are so many unfinished projects around my house, I consider this a huge success.

In addition to this accomplishment, 2010 held some very nice surprises. Chief among them was our family's service trip to the Dominican Republic (which I blogged about excessively). While I was chaperoning the trip for my employer (Watkinson School), for sure the highlight of the trip was that all four Frenches got to do this together. 2010 was also the first (and potentially only) time my boys got to be teammates, with Paul as one of the coaches. For two kids who can barely get along when they are just sitting next to each other on the couch, it was a pleasure to see them work side by side, both in La Romana and on the baseball field.

2010 also signaled the end of Turner's little league career. After hundreds and hundreds of outings to the Yalesville Little League fields, it was very bittersweet to see his commitment climax with the 12-year old all-stars championship game at the Giamatti Little League Complex, with Turner on the mound, with a loss to Farmington. Ironically, the parents cried...Turner was totally fine. He was happy just to have had the chance.

2010 also included an invitation for Hayden to join the STEP program at his school. While not a big deal in and of itself, it heralded a new way of thinking for Hayden. He now pursues much more clever and adventurous projects at home (wordles, homemade ugly dolls, and as I write this is in the midst of making a sock creature).

While I have yet to set any goals for 2011 yet (as I rarely do anything the same way twice!) I have thought about the year ahead: Turner will start high school, Hayden will start middle school, Paul will turn 50. These are big milestones. I am eager for it all.