Cooking with Kids: Watermelon-Raspberry Slush

The Boy love love loves finding his monthly Highlights High Five magazine in the mail. Seriously one of the most genius Christmas gifts he's gotten (thank you Great-Grandma!).

It often includes a kid-friendly recipe that preschoolers can make (with a little adult help, of course). The August issue featured raspberry-watermelon slush. Think convenience store icees, only without the high-fructose corn syrup and artificial colors. In fact, this one uses nothing but fruit and a touch of lemon juice.

Blend 1/2 cup raspberries...	...with 2 cups watermelon and a splash of lemon juice.
Freeze in a 2 quart dish...	...stirring with a fork every 30 minutes.

After about 90 minutes it was thick and slushy, ready to be dished up. So tasty on a warm summer evening! And The Boy was so proud that he had made us all dessert.

A healthier berry crisp

Fruit crisps are delightful all year round, don't you think? Warm apples in the autumn, tart berries over ice cream in the summer. And so easy to make, which always scores a dessert a gold star in my book.

This particular crisp is dairy-free, so The Girl can enjoy it, too. With the usual generous butter in the topping side-stepped, it also becomes low-fat: four grams fat per serving, compared to twelve in my standard fruit crisp recipe.

Mix fruit together with brown sugar and tapioca	Combine oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon for the topping
Stir together with egg white, vanilla, juice and just a bit of oil	Coat berries with topping, bake and enjoy!

Recipe below; printable version here.

(PS I like to double the cinnamon and add a touch of nutmeg.)

Freezing strawberries

Freezing berries tends to remind me of making a deposit: banking the vibrant sweetness of summer against the gloom of winter.

Flash freezing is my go-to method of preserving berries. It involves little more than cookie sheets and some ziploc bags. Easy peasy. I left this batch of strawberries whole, to use in smoothies. Partially thawed, they also are a nice touch on cakes or in fruit salads.  Just don't let them thaw all the way or they can get smushy.

1. When freezing whole strawberries, choose the nicest looking, firmest ones
2. Gently wash, draining well
3. Remove the hulls
4. Place on a cookie sheet, making sure no berries are touching
5. Freeze for a few hours (or overnight), until frozen solid like so many strawberry marbles
6. Move into a freezer container or plastic freezer bag, removing as much of the air as possible to prevent freezer burn

Now wait until the weather turns cold and enjoy the reminder of summer!

Strawberry Clafouti

More strawberries! I made a clafouti, only with our little early summer stars instead of the traditional cherries.

I wish I were a better photographer so I could capture how tasty this little number was. Clafouti is a new discovery for me--mellow, fruity, very summery--and now I'm daydreaming about all the other fruits I could try.

And it's easy, too. Went together in no time at all. Toss halved berries in cornstarch and line the bottom of a heavily buttered dish. I used a few more than the recipe called for so that the bottom would be covered. Definitely fit in as many as you can.

Blend flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk, pour the batter over the berries, and bake for close to an hour.

It becomes a lovely dish a bit like custard, a bit like cake. A friend who was over the night we ate this remarked that it reminded her of flan. The berries floated to the top during baking, making a colorful layer.

It would be absolutely decadent at a brunch.

Recipe below, or view a printable version at the Sunset website.

Strawberry Custard Pie

As promised, here is the best strawberry custard pie recipe. Ever.

I'm totally not kidding. Ridiculously tasty.

It takes an obscene amount of time, dirties several dishes and is liable to clog your arteries by the third bite. But you won't care because it tastes so good.

I only make it once a year. (Why? See: above.) But after eating it that first time, it ruined me for other strawberry pies. It seems wrong to make anything else when strawberries are in season.

It is time-consuming, but not complicated. Part of its beauty is that it doesn't take shortcuts. No pudding mixes or boxes of gelatin. Start with a baked pie crust.

Yes, I know it's lopsided. Shush.

Make a simple custard on the stovetop from milk, sugar, cornstarch, egg yolks and vanilla. Oh, and toss a little butter in there at the end. I mean really, why not at this point?

It looks boring now. But just wait.

Back to the stove to whip up a glaze from (more) sugar, (more) cornstarch, water and lemon juice. The recipe calls for a full ½ teaspoon red food coloring, but I always stop after a few drops. I don't need my glaze that red. Add hulled, halved strawberries, gently spoon atop the pie, and chill...


... and you have yourself a pie.

Fair warning: in my experience, it doesn't keep very well after it's been cut. The leftovers get a bit runny the next day and it all turns ugly. All the more reason to gather some folks together to finish it off the day it's created.

Recipe below; printable version here.