Clafoutis mania!

A few weeks ago, I read a book about an American who goes to France, learns to cook, becomes a cookbook author, and lives in a converted medieval convent. Along the way, Ms. Loomis dots the narrative with  lots of delicious sounding recipes, and now I'm absolutely hooked on clafoutis. What's a clafoutis? It's a  fabulous dessert concoction, part firm custard crossed with sweet omelet dashed with fruit tart, minus a crust, and since you all know, I HATE MAKING PIE CRUSTS!

So far, I've made:

raspberry clafoutis,

dark cherry clafoutis,

and apricot almond clafoutis.

These desserts are fabulous ways to use an abundance of summer fruit, and they only take 20-30 minutes to cook in a 350 degree (F) oven. They also make a terrific summer breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee. Here's my simplified recipe:

Clafoutis
2 cups fresh fruit (berries, apricots, cherries, apples, whatever!)
3 eggs
1 cup milk (I've tried these with both 2% and almond milk, both worked)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or other flavoring to fit the fruit. For example, I used almond extract with the apricot)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (or cinnamon, or other baking spice to fit the fruit)
1/8 tsp salt
powdered sugar (optional)
nuts (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a pie dish. Scatter sliced fruit at bottom of dish.
2) Beat eggs until frothy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour over fruit. If using nuts, sprinkle on top.
3) Bake 20-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.
4) Finish with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, if desired.
5) Enjoy warm or chilled. (Some folks like to top them with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. I like them without. You decide.)

Next on my clafoutis list; banana walnut!

Besides baking desserts, we also make some very awesome pizzas to use up some of our garden herbs for dinner on Saturday.

This one is Kalamata olive, shaved ham,  feta cheese, and freshly picked  oregano. The other pizza got eaten too fast to even snap a photo, It was a Margarite with sun-dried tomatoes, fresh parmesan, and just picked basil. There were no leftovers for the new fridge this night.

Sunday was a super low tide (-3) due to the Super Full Moon phenom, so we put on our grubby sneaks and rubber boots and headed to one of our local Puget Sound Beaches.

 Alex and Ari discussing the finer points of beach ecology.

 Julie Ann getting sandy and salty in a tide pool. Here I was pointing out nudibranchs (really cute and colorful sea slugs) to another beach explorer.

 Anni wondering if there's any possibility of lunch or ice cream or ice cream for lunch.

 Ari being super animated after finding a lions mane jellyfish alive in a shallow pool, way cool!

 Alex and Julie Ann  checking out the Dungeness crab while Ari continues to gaze at the jellyfish.

A scallop shell amongst the seaweed. All told, we saw lots of cool beach life as we explored. We saw gulls and an osprey, a wriggling gunnel fish, clinging sea stars, lots of anemones, multiple species of nudibranchs, a red velvety sea sponge, mussels, dock shrimp, five kinds of crab including a very well appointed decorator crab, a squid egg pod, an armoured chiton shell, a moon snail shell, live clams, and baby sea urchins.

Then Anni finally got her wish. We had a car picnic along side the beach. The rain had moved in by then. It was cheesy chive (from the garden) scones, ham sandwiches on market rolls, pasta salad, baby radishes (garden), strawberries (garden), and blueberry ice tea. Yum.