Dessert first

Because life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

Blue on blue

It is blueberry and peach sour cream cobbler, courtesy of Nigel Slater and "The Kitchen Diaries." It is the epitome of summer.

Why ask why?

Pie, pie, three-berry pie.

Though the crust is store-bought, the lattice is not. The filling, consisting of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, is totally summer.

Much too much

OK now this has got to stop.

I survey the groceries and realize there is simply too much food in the refrigerator. There are tons of fruits and vegetables. It's crazy.

After the Mexico-Argentina game Sunday afternoon, I went to the Berkeley Bowl, where I got raspberries, blackberries and blueberries on the cheap. I don't want to keep them too long, though, so I make a crisp.

I got a bag of eggplants for 99 cents and think of a tomato-less pasta sauce with a recipe I saw on Salon. Or perhaps I should roast them for baba ghanoush.

I got six ears of shucked yellow corn for 99 cents. I got a bag of squash - zucchini and two varieties whose names I do not know - for 99 cents. I have not figured out entirely what to do with them but have a couple of days still, I think.

I got rhubarb, which I happened to see and, of course, could not resist. I love it and will need to cook that down for schloop (a word I made up). I can have it with vanilla yogurt and granola for breakfast.

I got kale just because. In hindsight, perhaps I should have put back the kale. I still have carrots, onions and lettuce leaves, too. I even wound up freezing a mess of sliced red bell peppers the other week because I could not use those immediately.

It is ridiculous, right? You'd think I was cooking and shopping to feed a football team. And this is all after the full flat of strawberries the other weekend from the farmers' market.

Oh, and shoot, running errands in Chinatown with my mother this morning, I got pluots, too. I know, I know. But they are in season, and I saw them.

Berry good

Though the home plating might not look as professional as possible - strawberry sauce to cover the bottom of the dish, who knew? - the taste is terrific.

The cake is everything I hoped it would be, a lovely way to incorporate seasonal fruit. The recipe is from Food & Wine magazine.

Warm Strawberry Crumb Cake

filling:

3 lbs. strawberries, hulled and halved (8 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 1/2 Tbsp. of water
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

crumb topping:

1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

Make the filling:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch slurry and vanilla seeds and let stand until the berries release some of their juices, about 30 minutes. Pour the fruit filling into a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish set on a sturdy baking sheet.

Meanwhile, make the crumb topping:

In a medium bowl, mix all of the ingredients with your fingers until a coarse meal forms; press into small clumps.

Make the cake:

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in the vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk.

Spoon the batter over the fruit filling, spreading it to the edge. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling, the crumb topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

Transfer to a rack to cool slightly. Serve the crumb cake warm or at room temperature, with ice cream. Makes 8 servings.

Note: The crumb cake can be refrigerated overnight. Serve warm or at room temperature. The fruit filling can also be made with a combination of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.

Fruit bliss

In addition to bananas, which I always seem to have, there are plums and nectarines in the kitchen.

There are pluots - a plum and apricot hybrid - I have been meaning to taste. Three-parts plum, one-part apricot. Not to be confused with apriums - three-parts apricot, one-part plum.

There are white peaches and yellow peaches. There are kiwis from New Zealand.

In the refrigerator, there is cantaloupe and pineapple cut into chunks. There are pints of blueberries. There is a bag of cherries from Washington and a flat of strawberries from Watsonville.

This, I learn to appreciate, is Northern California in the middle of the summer. Pure fruit bliss.