Blackberry cobbler

It's berry time.  I picked a lot of blackberries this morning so I'll be making cobbler later.  Here, for my sister-in-law, Laura, who has fresh picked blueberries, are two cobbler options!  (Warning Laura - this is not exactly health food!)

Grammie's Cobbler Topping

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder


Mix all these ingredients together.  The mixture will be rather crumbly.  Put on top of fruit.  Melt 6 TB butter and pour over fruit  and topping.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, til lightly browned.

This recipe is from Grammie, my mother-in-law.  It is for apple cobbler and calls for 3 1/2 cups of sliced apples with a quarter cup of sugar and some cinnamon and nutmeg with the topping and butter on top.

I always double this recipe.  I put a generous amount of fruit in a 9x13 pan and put the doubled amount of topping over the fruit. Of course, I double the butter, too! 

Amber's Cobbler Recipe which she calls "cuppa, cuppa, cuppa" shared with me while picking berries this morning.


1 cup of self rising flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of buttermilk

Amber says her grandmother would melt butter in the bottom of the pan and put in the fruit, sometimes adding a bit of sugar to the fruit.  Then the topping gets poured on.  I'm guessing it bakes for half an hour or so at 350.

So, there you go.  A couple of cobbler recipes for your fresh picked berries.

Father's Day Food

Erin said I should post about the salads I made for Father's Day.  Sorry, no food photos, just a run-down of what I made:

Honey Mustard Potato Salad

I steamed a great big bag of gourmet white potatoes.  They were smallish, but I cut some of them in half so they'd steam a little faster.  After steaming, I sprinkled them with kosher salt and a few twists of fresh pepper.  Then I mixed up a dressing with plain old yellow mustard (it's all I had on hand), a generous squirt of honey, a bit of olive oil and a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.  Then I poured all the dressing over the warm potatoes and let them marinate overnight.  Oh, yea...I also chopped a sweet red pepper and put that in the salad along with a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs and a bit of chopped parsley.  This salad just got better with time. 

Pasta Salad

I'm sure you all have your own variations on pasta salad.  This one had whole wheat rotini, a jar of marinated artichoke hearts, a bunch of sliced black and Spanish olives, a chopped sweet pepper, and some cut up pepperoni.  I only added a little oil and vinegar since the artichoke heart marinade was pretty flavorful.

Avocado Salad

Three ripe avocados, two chopped Roma tomatoes, a little lemon juice.  That's all.

Broccoli Salad

Here.  I left out the bacon.

These salads were served with some lovely sourdough bread, toasted and spread with butter. Everyone was very happy.  And that was even before the blackberry tart.

Truly, I could eat like this every day.

Blackberry time

We have a power cut up the road - a big ugly swath with high tension power lines.  It's an eyesore, to be sure.  The red clay hillside along the cut is eroding away. Every time it rains, rivers of red ochre mud course down the street.

But this landscape does have a redeeming feature...

Masses of blackberry brambles all over the hill.

Queen Ann's lace, too.

The flowers decorated the table at a bridal shower.  I made the blackberry tart for Father's Day, sort of using this recipe.  Pretty delicious!

Cooking lull

It is rather sad that I have not posted anything on this blog since February.  That reflects the state of my kitchen endeavors in the last months.  A little sad.  A bit boring.  Humdrum.  Repetitive.  Uninspired. You get the picture.

I am looking forward to summer cooking and farmer's market meals and cucs and basil from the garden and all that summer food goodness to reinvigorate my culinary pursuits and hopefully, give you a little encouragement and inspiration....

....when I get back.  Til then, take a look at these wonderful vegetarian supper posts from my friend, Tonia, and be inspired!