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 :)

Guess Who's Talking Today!?

So this is the man of the house speaking today. Gracing you with my ever expanding knowledge and words of wisdom from which you young grasshoppers might learn a thing or two. Besides making it a personal goal of ours to try every beer and wine and other local spirits in Washington, we have noticed that their definition of Pale Ale, and Amber beers are vastly different from the rest of the country. Their Pale Ales are more of an amber with a distinctly smooth flavor yet each one has a very distinct flavor, and are stronger than the everyday mass-produced beers. While their Ambers are more of a paler color with a kick of hops that could have you guessing if you ordered the correct beer or if the server misplaced your order with an IPA or ESB. But all in all, these people have by far some of the best beers around.

Secondly, our cat Joule... our oddly astute, somewhat retarded, smart, fast-learning, and expression filled cat. From looks that say "I have been here all day, where the hell have you two been?" to looks of self-pity and "can I please have some of your food?" To even the now more apparent looks of, "Can't you two sit still!? I am trying to nap on you," looks. The slight retardation...yes, I recently got a bird feeder which has brought in some local birds, but also the attention of Joule who at first just watched them, then tried, more than once mind you, to burst through the sliding door only to have the birds look at him. Now he has resorted back to bird watching again, apparently running full force into a window hurts.

On the other side, I managed to turn on the natural gas fireplace yesterday and the little retard decided to lick the end of the butane lighter only to invoke a funny looking gag reflex and then a look of "ok, that sucked, what next?" Then, oh yes, the fire was ignited....THIS, had Joule's full attention and he intently watched every flame.





So some time passed, and then we caught him basking in the full heat of the fire, loving every minute of it. He was there for at least 30 minutes while we saw him, and then we left. We came back a while later and he was still there albeit in a different position. It was time to turn the fire off...and this...this, completely bummed Joule out, left him there wondering where all the fire went. That was pretty funny, as you can see by the pictures.



Well, I am done for now. Have to drink the rest of my beer, which isn't local, but still a good one. We have only gone to 4 breweries and we have so much more to go too, hehe.