Strawberry Nectarine Crumble

 

 

Does everyone love crumbles as much as I do?  Sweet, warm fruit topped with a buttery streusel topping, really nothing gets much better.  And this crumble is honestly the best I’ve ever made…possibly the best I’ve ever had, which I don’t say lightly.  I come from a family of crumbles.  Strawberry and rhubarb in the spring, apple and cranberry in the fall, really whatever fruit is in season is free game.  Today when I told my mom about the wonderful strawberries and nectarines that were on sale in Greensboro, her first thought was “Oh, are you going to make a crumble?!”  Best. Idea. Ever.  The fruit is so ripe and sweet it verges on jammy, and the topping is the best complement.  Thanks, Mom, you were right again!

Strawberry Nectarine Crumble

-1 lb strawberries, hulled and quartered

-3-4 nectarines, sliced into wedges

-Zest of ½ lemon

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-3 Tbsp dark brown sugar, divided

-1/2 c flour

-1/2 c old fashioned oats

-3/4 tsp baking powder

-4 Tbsp cold butter

-Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 375⁰.  Mix the fruit, lemon zest, vanilla, and 1 Tbsp brown sugar in an 8 inch pan.  If your fruit is already super sweet, feel free to leave out the sugar in this step.  In a separate bowl, add all other ingredients and combine with your fingers.  Don’t go too far here—you still want to have a few clumps of butter.  I suggest letting the flour mixture sit in the fridge for half an hour (or up to a day) before you top the fruit with it.  This will give the butter time to get hard again and will give you better crumbles.  Top your fruit and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until everything is nice and golden brown.  Enjoy!

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Three Things To Do Now to Make Your Holidays Much Easier

OMGitsNovember. Halloween has come and gone. If you haven’t noticed from, well, just about every marketing campaign out right now, Christmas is apparently right around the corner.  While you don’t have to be that neighbor with the Christmas decorations up the week after Halloween (or hey, more power to you!), a little planning now can really save you in the next several weeks.  Here are just a few of our tips to get a couple of holiday stressors checked off your list now.

1.Get Cooking

Make a couple of things now to put in  your freezer and pull out for Thanksgiving, just a side or two will save you serious time and stress leading up to the big day. Even if you don’t know what you are doing for Thanksgiving yet, inevitably you will be invited to some sort of function, and this way you will already have your work done. We will be posting recipes of some of our favorite Thanksgiving sides for Tuesday’s Table during the month of November – some healthy, gluten free and dairy free options too!

2. Plan for your Decorations

Go ahead and order your wreaths and garland from Gracious Garlands. You can order online in a matter of minutes then you will officially have that checked off of the list so you don’t have to rush out in search of pretty, fresh greenery come mid-December. Gracious Garlands started in Nashville almost 20 years ago by Vicki Worsham. Her daughter, Elle, has helped her through the years and has recently taken the reigns expanding their gorgeous greenery offerings and services not only to Nashville but to Atlanta and Charleston as well. The “wreath experts” over at Gracious Garlands say the recommended wreath size for your front door is either a 20 inch or 24 inch wreath. They have several varieties of these and more sizes starting at, $26.00. If you have a glass door or French doors they have double sided wreaths, too!

  
They also have several types of garland, kissing balls and in Nashville they will even do a custom mailbox for you – how welcoming is that?!

Check their website, www.graciousgarlands.com for the pick up days in your area. Your orders must be placed by this Friday, 11/06. So you only have a few days, but spend two minutes playing online, place your order, and be glad you have that checked off of your (what will become a) mile long list leading up to the holidays.

I’m thinking that I will order their White Pine Garland to go around my mantle and 20″ Ultimate Holiday Mix wreath for my front door… or maybe their exquisite Magnolia Wreath. You just cannot beat the smell of fresh greenery during the holidays, go ahead and start burning your trusty Frasier Fir candle now to prepare yourselves.

 

3.Knock out the Gifts
One of my favorite things to do, both for Christmas and birthday gifts, is keeping a running list of gift ideas for different people in my phone and/or on Pinterest in a secret board.  Whenever an idea pops in my head for the perfect gift, I can just add it to my list without having to hope and pray that somehow I will remember it when the season hits.  When I’m running around buying Christmas presents, I can always reference my list to see who would like what.  And I feel like it’s always a good idea to keep a couple of extra gifts at home…for those friends who swing by your house with a surprise gift for you!

Get Excited!

Not only is this time of year going to be a blast, but here at Adeline Alley we’re going to be here to give you more tips on cooking and decorations all season long! ‘Tis the season.

Easter Decorations {for under $10}

Last week one of my good friends told me about how she had done Easter decorations around their house for less. She found several great things from Marshall’s and even the Dollar Tree. As she was telling me about these it inspired me and I took our conversation as a challenge that I gladly accepted.

I had been wanting an excuse to buy confetti filled Easter eggs, a childhood obsession of mine, and had seem them in a recent Paper Source ad so off I went, on a mission.

I returned home with Starburst jelly beans and a carton of Silly Rabbit Confetti Eggs from Paper Source. I used the same $5 container of moss from my orchid project earlier this week, it came from Flower Mart in Green Hills.

   

 

Once home I took a couple of minutes and pulled the random “bunny” weddings gifts and items from around my house. Then put together a seasonal entryway. If you don’t have any bunny things (it sounds sort of silly that I do but you know like little McCarty, Herend, Wolfe “figurines” — now I really sound like an old lady) that is totally fine too! Wolfe birds or any other little animals would work well too or nothing at all.

After peeling the bottom off of two of the confetti eggs I sprinkled the confetti around the moss and placed the eggs, then I added little groups of jelly beans around the eggs.

For less than $10 I had all of the happy Easter decorations needed for our little home.