…and her favourite food is
Gruffalo Crumble!

Her obsession with The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child has elevated Doug to the status of “nice guy” in the language of Katherine. Thus far, only Larry (who gave her a Thomas the Tank Engine movie) and Uncle Tom (who earner his stripes in the same way) have been deemed “nice guys”. Daddy and Uncle Bob are “nice boys”. I often wonder how she got to be so perceptive.Anyway, Doug is now “a nice guy” who “gave me the Gruffalo and the Gruffalo’s Chy-yuld. Right Mommy?”

Right you are, kid.

She gave me a good belly-laugh yesterday while eating her blueberry crisp, though. In the manner of all two-year-olds everywhere, she was asking incessant questions (“Where did these blueberries come from? Did we pick them with Heather? Does Heather have a sore knee?” -Yes, Heather, she remembers – “Are blueberries yummy? Does Daddy like blueberries? Are they his favourite food? What is this called?”). Non-stop verbiage of varying quality. I was on auto-pilot and not really paying attention because if I pay close attention to what she’s saying for too long I go INSANE. And I mean than in the craziest possible way.

Anyway, before I knew what was happening, I was agreeing that it was Gruffalo crumble and that we should put the constructions (her word for instructions – copped from Sam Bauer who is somehow related to Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes) on the computer and send them to Daddy so he could make some at work. I decided to do one better.

Here’s Gruffalo Crumble, for all of you who have mice who walk in the deep dark woods:

Fruit:
Dump 8 cups of any sort of fruit into a baking dish that is big enough to accomodate it and still have an inch of room at the top. I used blueberries and apples, mixed. Frozen fruit is just fine, just allow more baking time. If using berries, don’t add sugar. If using only apples or some such, add a 1/4 cup of brown sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Topping:
In a bowl or tub, mix:
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup rolled or instant oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (or more, to taste)
1/4 cup butter, marg or oil

Crumble the topping together, dump over the fruit and throw into the oven for 1/2 hour to an hour, depending on whether your fruit was frozen or not. To shorten time, nuke fruit in microwave until soft before adding topping.
Cook at 350F.

Very hot when it comes out. Watch it with over-eager kids or husbands, who may burn their mouths.