My Favorite Cobbler

I love to pick fresh fruit in the summertime!  This summer, we finally had a huge bounty from the blackberry bushes we planted a few years ago.  Thanks to the growing season this year - the early and excessive heat -  they weren't the tastiest berries to just eat straight off the bush, but they did make a delicious cobbler.  I have them already divided up into three-cup portions so I can thaw them and make them anytime.  I cannot wait to try it with the fresh peaches.

My mom always made the "cuppa cuppa cuppa" cobbler.  You may have heard of it - a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, a cuppa milk, a sticka butter, and a canna pie filling, or two cuppsa fruit.  This one is tasty, but I set out to find one that was less "bready" and had a crunchier crust, and one that also incorporated more fruit, since I always seem to have a ton.

I finally found a recipe somewhere that I thought would be a winner.  I would give props to the person/website if I could, but seeing that it's hastily written on a piece of paper and has been since last summer, I can't even begin to trace it's roots.  It was definitely a winner!  So, without further adieu, here you go!

SUMMER FRUIT COBBLER

3 cups fruit (whole berries or sliced/chunked peaches)

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 stick butter

Place fruit in a mixing bowl, and sprinkle with 3/4 cup of sugar and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.  Put stick of butter in 8x8 dish and pop it into the oven to let the butter melt. You may consider slicing the butter into at least 3 pieces, as you don't want to leave it in there long enough to let it brown.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and milk thoroughly.

Remove pan with melted butter and pour the flour mixture into the melted butter.

Pour berry and sugar mixture on top.*

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, making sure it's nice and brown and crusty on the sides and at least lightly golden brown in the middle.  Serve warm or cool.

*It's very important that the fruit goes ON TOP of the flour mixture.  I had always thought that was a little weird and wondered about it, but I just always followed directions.  Last night, I found out why it goes that way.  For some reason, I chose a different baking dish than I usually use for my cobbler.  When I was putting the ingredients on my melted butter, I started worrying that the dish wasn't big enough.  I went ahead and dumped the berries on, and at that point, I realized that there was no way that dish was going to work.  I pulled out another one and just dumped the whole mixture into it, since I couldn't do much else at that point. This put the berries basically underneath the dough.  I popped it into the oven.  I checked on it after 30 minutes and found the dough was bubbling up over the sides and spilling out onto the bottom of my oven.  Yay.  It was still tasty, but it was missing some crust (my favorite part), so I was bummed.  Not quite as bummed as I was at the sight of my nasty oven, which I will not clean until it gets cold because it will heat up to my kitchen to hell-like temps.  

So, now you are a little smarter thanks to my mistake.  :)

Homemade Vanilla

My wonderful and super-knowledgeable friend, Joanna, told me how to make my own vanilla.  Yet one more item that has changed my pantry and my cooking for the better. Store bought vanilla often has added sweeteners or simply just added water, and the price you can end up paying for that tiny bottle is crazy.  The homemade kind is very thin, well, like vodka.  It's not that dark, syrupy look you expect from the little brown bottles from the store.  I love, love, love this stuff!  


To make your own, take about 8 vanilla beans and slice them open lengthwise.  Drop them down into a full bottle of vodka (a liter, I think) and shake the bottle every day for about two weeks.  Put in in a dark cabinet and shake every now and then, whenever you think about it.  When you do take it out and shake it, make sure you also take the lid off and inhale the aroma just for kicks.  After about 6 months you can start using it.  Top it off with vodka every now and then, and maybe add another bean or two after awhile and just keep your brew going.  I topped mine off for the first time yesterday (hence the lightness at the top of the bottle in the pic) and I have been using it for about 6 months.  It had just gotten right below the "S" in Smirnoff when I decided to top it off.  

I will let you in on a little secret, though.  I still buy the store brand kind, too, because I am stingy.  I don't often use the "good stuff" on things that I'm giving away (sorry, friends).  Sometimes I do, but mostly I save it for things I make for us to eat at home.  The one exception is sugar cookies.  I almost always use the good stuff for my sugar cookie recipe because I can really tell a difference in how they taste.  


A note on obtaining the vanilla beans:  Joanna was gracious enough to sell me some beans she ordered in bulk from the Arizona Vanilla Company (I hope I am right on this).  I looked for the beans at EarthFare the price for just one bean was astronomical.  This is a much more cost-effective way to do it.  I recall her separating the beans out and using her food-saver to vacuum seal the ones she was not using.  I am so glad she was willing to share some with me.

Try this - you will really love it!

Ice Cream Recipes

EGGLESS HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

4 cups whole milk or 2 cups milk/2 cups half and half

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons of vanilla (see below)

2 cups pureed or mashed fruit


STRAWBERRY-BASIL FROZEN YOGURT
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1 cup whipping cream*

Stir together strawberry slices and sugar and let stand for 30 minutes.  Then, pulse berry mixture, basil, and lime zest in food processor for 9-10 pulses, or until berries are almost pureed.  Whisk together yogurt and cream until smooth.  Stir together with berry mixture until well blended.  Cover and chill for one hour before putting in ice cream maker.
* I don't really like whipping cream, but I used it the first time.  It gave the ice cream that feel that whipped cream at Starbucks gives me (that I hate) - a filmy feeling inside my mouth.  I think I will try whole milk or maybe a whole milk/half and half combo next time.

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Here is sour favorite pancake recipe! This is a very "hearty" pancake and definitely not like a box mix. My kids love it.

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use 3/4 cup whole wheat and 3/4 cup regular)
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup quick cooking oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Small handful of ground flaxseed (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 ripe banana, mashed
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
Splash of vanilla
A handful of mini chocolate chips (optional)

 I just throw it all in the bowl and stir it up. Cook on the griddle on medium heat. This makes about 16 good-sized pancakes.

 My notes: wheat germ is usually in the cereal aisle with the hot cereals and make sure you store it in the freezer. I use Bob's Red Mill for the oats. I never use skim milk, so I don't know how that would turn out. Sometimes I add an extra banana if they are small. Enjoy!

Recipe Review: Zucchini Oven Chips from Pinterest

I'm sure many of you are Pinterest lovers like me, especially when it comes to recipes.  I also love to cook and to try new things, so I thought I might include my thoughts and experiences on some of the things I have made.  This was one of the more "popular" recipes popping up on my Pinterest page a couple of weeks ago, so I am sure you may have seen it.  I'm guessing that a lot of people are like me and they pin, pin, pin but don't really do that many of them.  I am trying to chip away at my pin stash and make a few things here and there.

I'm not gonna lie.  I just pinned about 16 things when I went to fetch the link for this recipe.

THIS is the recipe for the zucchini oven chips that I made.  Since the zucchini is coming in by the truckload, and my kids like it, I'm trying some different things.  My grandmother's zucchini bread recipe is making my house smell quite yummy at the moment, as a matter of fact. 

Thoughts on the recipe:  Very easy.  I liked the fact that you dipped the slices in milk instead of egg.  I think the egg gets so messy and clumpy, but the milk is just fine.  I'm kinda bummed that bread crumbs are full of a bunch of nasty crap ingredients. I mean, they're bread crumbs, for pete's sake!  Why taint them with so much garbage?  I looked in the organic section and found nothing, so I just stuck with the nasty (yet tasty) kind.  I know.  You are saying "YOU are don't make your OWN bread crumbs???  What on Earth is wrong with you??"  I won't keep you disappointed for long.  I'm going to try it next time, thank you very much.  

One thing the recipe recommended was using an oven-safe baking rack.  I did not have this, and I noticed some of the people who commented on the recipe did not have it either, so I took their advice.  For my first batch, I coated my broiler pan (top part only) with olive oil and tried baking them on there.  They did not get super-crispy and they still stuck on the pan, but they were really good.  The next night, I tried crumpling up a piece of aluminum foil and then spreading it back out on my cookie sheet.  This was not horrible, and it actually might have worked quite well, had I remembered to spray it with olive oil.  Still not super-crispy, but Sporticus was sending them into his mouth as fast as cookies go, and Digitt....well, he's another story.

Which brings me to my little spiel on getting kids to eat their veggies.  Sport has always eaten me out of house and home.  I am already considering boarding school since I think it may be cheaper than feeding him as a teenager (just kidding).  Sport likes everything in it's original form.  No casseroles for him.  He's my child who is extremely literal about everything, and his eating is no exception.  If we are having sweet potatoes, it has to look like a sweet potato.  Green beans have to look like green beans.  Green bean casserole?  No way.  He eats basically every cooked veggie I place before him.  Sweet potatoes, asparagus, zucchini, and broccoli are his most favorite.  He's not too keen on raw stuff, though after a few years of working on it, we have progressed to raw carrots.  Digitt is another story.  He has been a hater of all green veggies since his baby food days.  He was also a hater of all baby food, but that's neither here nor there.  Nothing green was passing this kid's uvula.  Period.  When he moved to table food at about 9-10 months, he would vaguely touch broccoli, but that was IT.  You read in all the parenting magazines, etc. that you should expose a child to a food 10 times before expecting them to warm up to it.  That's crap.  It's at least TWO years, trust me.  I'm a persistent little gal, and I was hellbent to have veggie eaters at my house.  TriDad and I love veggies, and they were getting served no matter what.  It has been a long road, but we started with one green bean (gagged on and spat out), then he would let me feed them to him one by one, and now, two years later, he's eating about 10 on his own with no prompting.  Peas (LeSeuer only 'cause he's kinda high-class with the peas) get shoveled in without discussion, and his most recent development is zucchini.  He still only eats it one way, though, which is cut into long fingers and sauteed.  He wasn't too keen on the chips, but we'll get there. They were quite tasty and we'll be making them again.  Asparagus has a loooonnnng way to go.  

Try this recipe for sure.  Zucchini is everywhere right now and you should have no trouble finding some fresh and local.  Try a farmer's market or even a neighbor.  I may even be giving some away - it's another giveaway, folks!  LOL  I may be making enough zucchini bread to feed my kids breakfast all winter long.