Mixed Fruit Crumble

Last week I trusted my mouth to one of San Diego's great periodontists and had a gingival graft done on one of my lower central incisors. I'll spare you the gory details. Post-procedure I'm trying to treat my gums as nicely as possible to make sure that the graft takes and the area they took it from heals well. This means eating a lot of soft foods. What's a good way to make your favorite fruits soft? Cook 'em. So that's just what I did. Still having tons of berries in our fridge I had to find something to do with them before they pass their prime. Tonight's solution: a mixed fruit crumble.

I started by cutting up 2 plums and 2 nectarines, and mixing them with 6 ounces of blueberries and about 1/8 cup of sugar. I always try to use as little sugar as possible. Since there are only 2 of us in this house, I make a small batch. The cute little Pyrex I was using is only about 5 inches in diameter.

Then I mixed together my topping (1-2 tablespoons butter with about 1/3 cup flour and a few tablespoons of both white and brown sugar) and spread it over the fruit. The whole thing went into a 350 degree oven and baked for about 40 minutes. You know it's done when the fruit is bubbling.

I took a healthy serving of crumble alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The flavors went very well together--I think if it was made of only blueberries it would have been a little overpowering. It was so good I had to go back for more (hey, I've been living on rice, cottage cheese, mango smoothie juice, and jello). After being adamantly against pies for many years, this whole phenomenon of baking fruits until they're warm and soft is really starting to click with me. We do have some pears ripening on the counter...