The recipe (because, after all, this IS a knitting blog...)

Okey-dokey. Here it is:


Clafouti

The batter:
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs (Yay!!)
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract (or almond extract, depending on the fruit)
3 tbsp butter, melted

The fruit:
The sky's the limit here for choices. This is a French country dessert, and can accommodate whatever fruit is in season, or whatever you happen to have on hand.

Peaches - 3 cups sliced peaches mixed with 1/3 cup brown sugar. You can use fresh or canned peaches. If you have canned halves, you can even leave them unsliced - which is what I did in the clafouti I made last night.
Pears - 3 large pears, sliced (or canned pears, slices or halves) Stir in 1 tbsp lemon juice and 2 tsp grated fresh gingerroot. (You can use a tsp of ground ginger if you don't have gingerroot. And I've been known to dust the top of the clafouti with ground ginger before popping it into the oven. For true over-the-top ginger flavor, substitute minced candied ginger for the gingerroot - a tablespoon or two. Or more...)
Cherries - 3 cups of cherries. (I use almond extract in the batter for this one.)
You get the idea. Use roughly 3 cups of whatever fruit floats your boat, add sugar, or spices, or both. (I'm planning to try an apple-raisin-walnut one soon...)

The process:
Grease a pie plate. Dump in the fruit and level it as best you can.
Whisk the batter ingredients together and pour over fruit.
Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes. (It's done when a knife can be poked into the center and comes out clean.)

This is really wonderful warm from the oven, and I've been told that a slab of french vanilla ice cream cozied up to it will be well received.
It's equally good cold, with or without the ice cream... The batter forms a sort of cakey custard (or a custardy cake - it's kind of hard to describe) around the fruit.

One of my favorite things about it is that it's made with ingredients that I always have on hand.
*Ahem* Particularly canned peaches, since I always have canned peaches in the pantry. I think it's some sort of neurological problem, in that if I see canned peaches, I will buy a can. I can't seem to help it. (Madman covers my eyes when we venture into the canned fruit aisle at the grocery store, since he really doesn't understand why we have to have 20 cans of canned peaches in the pantry...)