Berry Crisp for Grandma

As my sisters have mentioned, our grandmother recently passed away. She was a great lady who very much enjoyed her time with her grandchildren. One of my favorite memories of our time with her is of the times we went berry picking together. Every summer, we would load into the car and go to a farm full of blueberry, blackberry and strawberry bushes. When we got there, we would eat be given our own container to fill as we went. I'm sure there were times when we ate more than we collected, but it was always a great time.

My grandmother was a great cook, but her general feeling on baking was that it shouldn't take longer to make than to eat. With these two memories in mind, I set out to make a berry crisp that would hopefully make her proud.

I happen to love berries, especially strawberries and blueberries, so I decided to use them as a base for this recipe. I didn't want to make a topping that was too sweet or too buttery, because I felt like that would take away from the flavor of the berries. I couldn't find a recipe that was quite what I was looking for, so I looked around and combined a few things to come up with this one.

I have to say, it was very tasty and very simple. I warmed it up before I served and we ate it with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

Berry Crisp:

For the berry layer:
1 pint blueberries
2 pints strawberries, quartered
1 tsp. lemon juice

For the crisp layer:
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350.

Lay the berries into a 13x9 baking tin. Sprinkle the lemon juice on top. Combine the melted butter and the dry ingredients. Mix until it has a crumbly texture, but make sure everything is well blended. Distribute the topping evenly across the berry layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crispy. Best if served warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.