Recipe: NW Summer Cobbler

I know its summer when the salmonberries are ripe, peaches and cherries are in the supermarkets and I'm just about out of blackberries in my freezer (from last year's picking)!

So, tonight, I made up a recipe to celebrate the start of summer! I used salmonberries Chad and I picked last weekend :)

 Chad picking away at our favorite spot on Clear Creek Trail. You can see two orange berries just above his hand.

 

 These were the prettiest ones we picked!!

NW Summer Cobbler

• 2 peaches, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 cup cherries (any kind), pitted and cut in half
• 1 cup blackberries
• 1 cup salmonberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, divided
• a nice squirt of fresh lemon or lime juice
• 2 tbls granulated sugar or splenda (more if you like sweeter deserts)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (I used old fashion)
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 tbls cold butter, cut up

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x9 glass pan. Mix together fruit, 1/3 the applesauce, lemon/lime juice, sugar and corn starch. (Don't transfer to pan yet)

Mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With fingers squish the butter into the dry mixture until its just part of the mixture maybe like corn meal). Then start scooping in the apple sauce into the dry mixture. After each scoop, mix the dry stuff, and repeat until its moist, sticky, but still crumbly. (At this point, pour the leftover apple sauce into the fruit and stir)

Pour fruit mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the oat mixture over the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is happy brown and the fruit is bubbling.

Serve with whip cream or ice cream (OR BOTH!!)

Delicious! Really, you could use just about any fruit in this crisp/cobbler. I almost threw in some rhubarb :)

There's a Mutant in our Midst!!

A random tidbit of awesome:

We have an extremely hardy, invasive species here on the Kitsap Peninsula, the Scotch Broom (Spartium scoparium). You can see it all year long, usually looking like an old witch's broom up on its end, with green, woody stalks.But then all the sudden, spring comes and entire hillsides turn yellow! The horrible, evil plant is BEAUTIFUL during the spring! Its flowers are like those of a snap-dragon and bright yellow!

Whole hillsides light up with them!

BUT THEN!

The most amazing thing happened: I saw this mutant. This is scotch broom un-like all the others (though its the same species), because its flowers are not the typical brilliant yellow. This one's flowers has this amazing orange streak though its petals!! It was brilliant to see! There are only two small patches of these odd plants, one near the freeway on the Clear Creek Trail, and the other (this one) was found behind Safeway.

Pretty special, even for an evil weed!

Best A&A Adopt-A-Trail Work Day EVER!

This past Sunday was the Atheists & Agnostics Adopt-A-Trail Work Party! But not just any work party, it was a special work part on many levels - in a way, this party legitimized our existence, in a very, very positive way!

When everyone got there, the first thing I did was so off our new sign! That's right! The Clear Creek Task Force is so wonderful, unbiased and just plain cool, that they awarded our bunch with TWO brand new, shiny signs, posted at either end of our trail! One is even posted right on one of the busiest intersections in Silverdale. AND surprisingly (which is sad to say... but true) BOTH signs have basically lasted two whole weeks, in tact and un-marred,  there was a fixable bend put into one, but we're not SURE it was intentional.

One special guest we had with us on this fabulous sign-release day, was my Momma! YUP! She not only came to visit me, but she helped us out on the trail! Worked pretty hard too, pulling scotch-broom by the roots, taking pictures and greeting every person who walked by. It was so wonderful to have her there with us for a number of reasons - the first of course to show off all our hard work and my cool friends, but more than that, it was nice to surround her by heathens. My mom isn't "religious" as religions go, instead a deist, but she's never been surrounded by atheists, that I know of. Her opinion: that this effort was wonderful, that everyone was great and that we were genuinely good. But best of all, I think she was happy I had somewhere to go - a community full of wonderful, intelligent, motivated people.

Having my Momma there was great - but there was icing too! We had a few new people show up to work! Not new to the group, just new from the group. Even had a couple kids, who worked their butts off! And ON TOP OF THAT! While greeting everyone, my Mom found one of our inactive members (but an internet member) as they walked by our work party. I'm not sure how the conversation went, I hope he saw our signs then started talking to my Mom, but in any case - he showed up to our next meeting! And that, that to me is the best validation there is.

So here we are, creating somewhere good for good, godless, people to go. Everyone needs somewhere to go, somewhere to take off their mask and be who they want to be. I am happy.

If you want to come help out any time, just let me know! We have a website, bi-weekly meetings and various other events throughout each month!

The Heathens Adopted A Trail!

I am a card carrying member of many groups, mostly non-profit environmental groups, but also a wildlife rescue and a social agnostics and atheist group. I love my life!

After being here for just a few months, I decided I needed to combine a few of my interests and do something good for the Silverdale community - so I pitched to the Kitsap Atheists and Agnostics that we adopt section of the Clear Creek Trail. Everyone readily accepted, thinking it would give us all a good way to use our time and give back a bit, but also could, possibly, change peoples minds about us (you know, us religionless, selfish swine). It ends up being the perfect community activity for our group, our members mostly being the out-doorsy type and many are in the botany/landscaping profession.

 The group! +/- a few... Think, herding cats...

The Trail! Looking East

Looking West

So that was that - the birth of our Adopt-A-Trail! We are going to maintain a 1/4 mile section of Clear Creek Trail, spanning from Silverdale Way to the end of Schold Rd, just north of Waaga Way! Our objective is to remove invasive species (scotch broom, blackberry, ivy, etc.), plant trees and native bushes, pick up any waste, and monitor the CREEK BEAVERS we have residing along our trail!

 Newly planted additions!

We had our first and only meeting with a "senior" member of the Clear Creek Squad - she showed us around, where we should concentrate our efforts and what is considered the right and wrong things to do. During our explorations of the surrounding off-trail areas, one of my friends/member found a huge wasp nest - then the debate about removal ensued.

I'll post updates! We have some big plans for the future!