It's Cherry Season!

Don't you love the taste of a sweet, juicy cherry?  I could eat them every day all summer long.

Cherries always make me think of summer visits with my aunt, because she always has a bowl of cherries in the refrigerator for snacking.  The funny thing is that I hate cherry flavor.  Maraschino cherries make me gag, sicky-sweet Dr. Pepper makes me shudder, and I remember choking down cherry-flavored cough syrup as a kid.  But give me a bowl of fresh cherries in June, and I'm a happy girl.

This week we had a gluten-free guest in town, and I always get really excited about making a safe dinner for a fellow gf-er.  For a few days she doesn't have to ask:

What's in this dish?

How did you prepare it?
Can I see the ingredients on the chicken marinade?
Are you sure the knife that cut the chicken wasn't the same knife that cut the bread?
Did you cut the lettuce for the salad on the same cutting board?
What's in the salad dressing?

She knows that everything in my kitchen is safe.  She knows that everything I cook will not make her sick.  She knows that she'll get a few treats that maybe she hasn't had in a while.  And she knows that she won't have to turn down dessert.

Last night we had Elana's Cherry Blueberry Crumble.  Right from the oven.  Almost burning your tongue right from the oven.  Almost, because the Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Ice Cream from So Delicious brought the crumble to the perfect temperature.

Cherry Blueberry Crumble
from Elana's Pantry

Filling:
4 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 pint fresh blueberries
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 T lemon juice
1 T vanilla extract
2 T arrowroot powder (I used tapioca flour.)

Topping:
2 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 tsp celtic sea salt
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup agave nectar

1.  Place the cherries and blueberries in a 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle the fruit with agave nectar, lemon juice, and vanilla.  Then sprinkle with the arrowroot powder (or tapioca flour).
2.  In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, and salt.
3.  In a smaller bowl, combine the grapeseed oil and agave nectar.
4.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form the crumble, and then sprinkle it over the fruit mixture.
5.  Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes until bubbling.  Then uncover the dish and bake for a few more minutes until the topping is golden brown.
6.  Remove from the oven and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

This is how it looked before it went in the oven.

We were so anxious to eat it that I don't have an after picture!

Thankfully, there were leftovers.

Yum.