Blackberry Cobbler

Mid to late summer our place is over run with blackberries. They are in the woods and around the ponds. Many of them get eaten by the wildlife that dominates our property. Many of them also end up in my freezer.

I always try and use them all by the next season, so when I ran across this cobbler recipe in the January issue of Southern Living magazine I had to make use of some of our stash.

I had never tried a cobbler with cream cheese in it before, but I have to proclaim it very tasty and a keeper for my household.

This serves 12 but I halved it simply because of diet. I didn’t want that much laying around the house because hubby is not a great fan of sweets.

Eeee gads!

Blackberry Dumpling Cobbler

2- 16 oz. packs frozen blackberries
2 cups sugar divided
1/4 cup butter
3- 8 oz. packs light cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup skim milk
2 1/4 cups baking mix
3/4 cup uncooked oats

Bring the blackberries, butter and 1 1/3 cups of the sugar to a boil and melt all sugar stirring.

Beat the cream cheese and remaining sugar with a mixer until fluffy. Add the milk, baking mix and oats mixing well.

Spread 2/3 of the oat mixture into a lightly greased 13×9 baking dish. Pour the blackberries mixture evenly over the oat mixture and then
dollop the remaining oat mixture on top for dumplings.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Cinnamon Toast

I love reading other blogger nostalgia.

The passing down from generation to generation.

The warm feeling you get when you picture the family gathered around food and memories.

I thought what would it look like if I tried to write like that?

Well here it is.

My mom, whom I loved dearly, occasionally made me TV dinners in the oven.
It was way before the invention of the microwave. TV dinners from
the oven taste so much better than microwaved ones.

Mom didn’t cook much.

Normal fare at our family table (which turned to a single parent family table
when I was about 12) was a can of Campbell soup and a sandwich comprised
of whatever salad spread the store may have had on sale that week.

Mom could make some mean fried grits and peanut butter fudge. That was
the extent of her culinary talents, and she never taught me. To this day
I can never get my grits to fry properly or my peanut butter fudge to set.
Maybe it is a subliminal message of me wanting to make my Mom do something great…
or maybe a subliminal message that I don’t want to be like Mom? (Don’t
get me wrong, I loved my Mom but I do want to be honest.)

I do remember a bit of my grandmother who died when I was very young.
She cooked, but I was so young I don’t remember what she cooked.
The only thing I can remember was the cinnamon toast I used to
beg for on Saturday mornings if I had spent the Friday night before.

I can imagine a ton of warm memories with cinnamon toast and Grandma.

Well mom passed on and I married.

I continued the traditions of soup, sandwich and TV dinners, for a while.
I didn’t know how to cook and didn’t have a notion of what fun cooking
could be.

I can thank my “mother in law”, whom I also loved dearly, for one day.
She has also passed, and the incident seems sort of mean but it was a blessing in disguise.

I came to visit and “mom” was in the kitchen peeling
potatoes. My sister in laws were sitting around and talking when
I was asked to help peel potatoes.

I had never peeled a potato so I took it to task to at least try. “Mom”
began to make fun of me as I peeled away about half the potato.

Then suddenly she said. “Sue, you need to cook us lunch.”

She got my sister in laws together and they packed up the potatoes and what ever else
they wanted for lunch that day ( I don’t really remember maybe it was hamburger?),
and we all went to my house at the time.
They knew all I would have at home might be bread and sandwich spread.

I was scared stiff and crying the whole time.

When we got to my house, they all sat at my kitchen table and watched me
as I cried and fried. Then…. They ate it all.

After that fateful day I decided I needed to learn to cook. I decided
I might even like to cook.

I went to the library and gathered up an
armful of cookbooks and started my self taught cooking adventure.

It has been uphill ever since (with and occasional dip which is part of the fun ). I even opened and ran a bed and breakfast
many years later. It is funny but breakfast is not one of my favorite meals.

Warm fuzzies….Except for cinnamon toast.

Just an Update

The Babies Shower went very well, and now after all that cake and chocolate I can get back on track with my diet. I am trying the slim fast thingy for a while. I get so tired of counting points and calories.

cake

chocolate covered strawberries

The weather has been great but we are told it will soon turn colder. It is suppose to drop into the 20’s at night. For that last week I have been running the air conditioner to be able to sleep. Ghee wiz!

We have lettuce I will have to bring indoors for protection. I planted it in a large washtub just for that purpose. When I am sure the weather won’t ruin things we can sow some in the garden beds.

I believe we live in one of the coldest places in Virginia. We can travel 30 minutes from home and see an increase in temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees. That is the way it is in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I can’t wait for boating season as we have a new toy. On top of our boat, motorcycle, PT Cruiser convertible and camper, we are now proud owners of a jet ski. You can’t have too many toys.

You can have too many dogs however. We have 5 and they are the big reason we can’t leave for long periods on trips. Overnight is about all they can handle and only in warm weather.

We love them though. How could one not love a face like this?

This is Panda. She is the biggest problem of the bunch. Continually digging in the yard and my flowers. We have to fence our gardens because of her and the deer.

There are so many great things online at my favorite blogs to read and comment on. I just don’t have the connection and time for it all. My connection is such a drag.