Yay! We're engaged!

This past Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010, Jeremy asked me to marry him and I said yes. :)

Blackberry Cobbler

Jeremy has been busy with his volunteer training this month. On days when he does his training in the evening we can't really eat dinner together, but we can have a late dessert. :)

The last time he had training I asked him what he would like for dessert, since 1) he's not much of a dessert guy and 2) when he had last participated in training I had exhausted the one dessert I knew he liked. (Brownies.)

So when I asked him what I should make this time around he said, "Blackberry cobbler!

I gave it my best try, researching "blackberry cobbler," "high altitude cobbler," and "defintion of cobbler." For the record, cobbler has a more biscuit-like topping made with flour and sugar where as a crisp has more of a crunchy topping made with oats, sugar, and butter.




Anyway, I finally took three of my favorite recipes and combined them together to make my cobbler. I made one Tuesday night for Jeremy and my roommate, Adam I also made one last night for a barbeque we held at the park by my apartment.

I have an issue with recipes that call for an exact amount of sugar to be added to the fruit or an exact amount of salt in the batter. Try the fruit first and than see how much you need to sweeten it. Determine whether or not you even want to add salt to the batter. My first cobbler had a lot more sugar on the fruit as the blackberries weren't very sweet, and in my opinion it also had too much salt in the batter. The second cobbler I made barely needed any sugar on the fruit (I added a little just so the blackberries would juice) and I used barely a pinch of salt in the batter.


Blackberry Cobbler

2 c. blackberries
1/2 c. butter
1 c. flour (all-purpose)
1 c. sugar, plus some to sweeten the blackberries, to taste
1 T. baking powder
2/3 c. milk
Salt (for the batter, to taste - no more than 1/8 tsp. no matter what!)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Sugar the blackberries to taste, let stand.

In a 2 quart baking dish, melt the butter.

In a seperate bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, milk and salt (if needed). Pour this mixture into the baking dish, on top of the melted butter, but DO NOT stir together.

Take the sugared blackberries and place on top of the batter. Once again, DO NOT stir into the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool then enjoy with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. :)

Summer Cookin' - Summer Veggies with Sun-dried Tomato Polenta

The other night (after Jeremy had made this fantastic chicken dish with rice and a light, summery pesto gravy, and just ridiculous amounts of goodness) I thought to myself that I really need to start keeping a record of some of the amazing meals we cook. From fish with caramelized onions and peaches (my recipe) to Asian-barbecued chicken on the grill (all Jeremy), we eat pretty well around here.

Especially so these days, as summer is right around the corner! I thought it'd never happen but flowers are in full bloom, the trees and the land are green, and the farmer's market starts back up this Saturday in Golden. I am so excited to go and grab some of the freshest veggies to blocks away from where I live.

I digress, this post is about the first meal I'm writing about: Summer Veggies with Sun-dried Tomato Polenta.

I have to start by saying that Jeremy is an awesome, adventurous cook. He's a lot more brazen about jumping into a recipe and trying something totally new. In this case the something new was polenta (basically corn meal). I know he wasn't too much of a fan of it, but the recipe came out great. Because out humble town of Golden doesn't sell the kind of polenta you can slice and broil, Jeremy made his from a box of instant polenta and then broiled his own hand made polenta cakes! The finished product was tasty: