‘Coupley Couples’ and a Crumble To Die For

Deliciousness in a bowl

Friday was a busy day. We hopped from parental visits  to a birthday brunch and back home again to prepare our shabbat evening meal. My parents took us out for coffee to a local park, where we stumbled across a farmer’s market. We happily sampled sweet little cherry tomatoes, crusty bread and tempting home-made cheeses (where Ninja lingered longingly but didn’t buy), luscious figs, crisp apples, lovely thick celery and cherries that were too expensive for the likes of us. We restrained ourselves and left with some organic cucumbers, a tub of pickles for Ninja (Me: “Pickles are cucumber’s evil cousin”), a few bunches of pink and white lisianthus and a huge punnet of fresh apricots.

Apricots from the Farmer's Market

Friday night, Ninja and I spent some much needed time alone together. It may not suprise you to hear that we really value some quality time at the moment. I stay in Tel Aviv one night a week, and even when we are both at home, we are often busy in our separate work space and head space, studying, deep in philosophical thought (him) or practicing aerobics routines (me).

The way I see it, there are two types of couples. The ‘Coupley Couple’ might be horrified by our routine, or to hear that a few months ago I happily sent Ninja off on a camping trip with his friends while I stayed at home.

We all know ‘Coupley Couples’ – you might even be one of them. You know, those couples who do everything together from grocery shopping to nights out, power walks, running errands, going to the dentist, shopping for clothes (?!?), morning coffees, gym and swim etc. For some, it sounds like a dream come true but Ninja and I fall firmly into the other category of couples.

Ninja thinks that the ‘Coupley Couple’ is an Israeli phenomenon but I think that there are just different types of people in the world: those who are happy spending every moment in the company of their loved one - and everyone else. Which type are you? Do you prefer to have activties and hobbies which are “mine” and not “ours” or are you simply happiest when you’re together?

Sometimes time alone is as important as time together

Back to Friday. After all our adventures and eating, Ninja was pooped, so while he had a little nap, I threw together some dessert for later. I used strawberry pulp (which I had frozen about a month ago when strawbs were seasonably cheap), green apples and lemon zest to make individual crumbles. The strawberry juices bubbled over in the oven, sinking the crumble and adding to its sticky, fruity gloriousness –  which this time we enjoyed together.

Apples and strawbs...add some lemon zest...cranberries...and a little brown sugar

STRAWBERRY AND APPLE SUNKEN CRUMBLE
Serves 2

Filling:
2 green apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 handfuls of strawberries, pulped or chopped small
zest of 1/2 lemon
Handful of dried cranberries
Sprinkling of brown sugar

Crumble:
25g wholewheat flour
15g porridge oats
40g soft brown sugar
25g marge/butter cut into small cubes

1. Arrange fruit into individual dishes in layers: strawberry pulp, apples, lemon zest, cranberries and sprinkle a little brown sugar on top. If your strawberries are chopped and not liquidized, you might want to add a teaspoon or two of water to help create the sunken effect.
2. For crumble, combine flour, oats and sugar and then gently rub in the marge/butter until the mixture is crumbly.
3. Sprinkle crumble over the fruit and bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees for approximately 40 minutes, or until crumble is crunchy and golden brown (or in my case, crumble has sunk into the depths of bubbling strawberry goo).
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream and wish you had made more than two.

Fruity Mess

Pre-oven... before the crumble sank into the strawbeery depths

Napping