Saturday, December 7, 2013

Warming the Kitchen

When we first moved up here to Minnesota, we lived in a nearly twenty year old (circa 1959) house trailer that had no insulation.  Okay, it must have had some insulation, but it couldn't have been much.  We had frost climbing up the inside walls most of the winter.

I made it a habit in the winter time to make breakfasts that were baked in our wood cookstove oven so that at least the kitchen was a halfway comfortable area in which to be.

One dish that I made quite a bit was Fruit Cobbler.  Most of the time I used apples, but the recipe is adaptable to using other fruits.

Last night while I was dangling upside down in our big freezer looking for some bread, I noticed the bags of raspberries, strawberries and blueberries harvested from our garden this past summer.  Dang, I haven't been using them as much as I should so decided to make Fruit Cobbler for breakfast this morning using some of our blueberries.


It's nothing spectacular to look at straight out of the oven . . . 


. . . but, oh my, did it taste good.  Our blueberries this year have a particularly "wine-y" flavor that is outstandingly delicious.


You can see the two of us managed to make a respectable dent in the cobbler at breakfast.  A serving each after dinner tonight as dessert, then Chicken Mama snarfed the portion we had saved for her (this was while she was helping her dad with some computer diffoogulties he was having) and the empty pan is now soaking in the sink.

Want a look at the recipe?  Here it is.

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Fruit Cobbler

4 cups fruit (peaches, apples, berries)

3/4 cups sugar (+/- depending on your fruit)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (with apples)

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

Place the fruit in a buttered baking dish (I used a 9" x 9") and sprinkle sugar (and any spices/seasonings you like) over fruit.  (For the blueberries this morning I used 1/2 cup sugar and a couple dashes of lemon juice.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar and salt.

Blend the egg, milk and melted butter.  Add to the dry ingredients.  Beat to a smooth batter and pour over fruit.  (I sprinkled a sugar/cinnamon mix on top of the batter.)  Bake at 350° for 60 minutes.  Serve warm.  Or at room temp.  (If there's any left when it reaches room temperature.)

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I'm thankful that old house trailer is now long gone from our lives and that we live in a snug house with no trace of frost on the inside walls anymore.  Although our temperature first thing this morning was a couple of chilly degrees below zero, Papa Pea's good job of banking the wood stoves last night kept us very comfortable.  However, it didn't hurt a bit to have that little extra heat from the oven while the cobbler was baking this morning.
 

25 comments:

Michelle said...

I never thought to try cobbler for breakfast. My family would fall in love with this ideal..

Tombstone Livestock said...

Looks delicious on that Franciscian Apple plate, I have a bunch of odds and ends that my mother had along with several platters and a butter dish.

Stay warm, finally got a second bit of rain and snow on the mountains around me, had it rained Thursday night instead of Friday I would have had snow too, 27 Thursday night warmer 37 Friday night, but still too cold for me.

Carolyn said...

Heat is good. Blueberries are good. Cobbler is BEST!

DFW said...

That looks so good!

Tami said...

Oh Yum! Funny, I always thought of cobbler as a desert not a breakfast dish but really, it's not that much different that a stack of cakers with fruit topping on it.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

That looks so good! I love to bake in the winter time. It really adds warmth to the kitchen too.

Sunnybrook Farm said...

Oh I know what that smells and tastes like, we used to have cobbler, it is so good that I could eat it cold.
I lived in an apartment east of DC 30 years ago that was so cold during a blizzard with gaps between the windows. I would take paper towels or newspaper and soak it in water and slap it over the holes and it would freeze solid in a couple minutes and seal the hole. It was so cold in there that the roaches went into hiding.

M.E. Masterson said...

Your story applies to us this morning about your trailer I mean. We have just discovered in our crooked, non insulated except what the pesky pests have left in the walls, over 120 yr old house revealed to us this morning....water seeping in the walls from the ice on the outside. Stepped out of bed at 6 am and it was cold!! Icy water splashing up between my toes this early was not my cup of tea. Hubby had a little meltdown while I tried to soothe him and we are now in the process of drying out the goodies from under the bed while we wait for the snow and ice to melt away so we can fix it. Cobbler sounds really good maybe I can make this so hubby can feel better about things?
thanks for sharing..

Mama Pea said...

Michelle - Most mornings it's a good idea for us to ingest some protein and not so many carbs, but getting those luscious, antioxident blueberries in us is good. And the cobbler is kinda of a special dish . . . so go ahead and wow your family!

Mama Pea said...

Tombstone Livestock - Too cold? Bite your tongue, lady! Remember those 112° days not so long ago?? ;o)

Mama Pea said...

Carolyn - You betcha! Are you buried under snow now or did it let up?

Mama Pea said...

Thanks, DFW! It didn't last very long, that's for sure.

Mama Pea said...

Tami - Yep, and it's not like one person devoured the whole thing. (Not quite.) Tasted a lot better than pancakes to me!

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - I know what you mean about baking in the winter time. I still think of baking something yummy in the summer but 1) it's often too hot to light the oven, and 2) who has time then?!

Mama Pea said...

Sunnybrook Farm - Isn't it amazing the uncomfortable situations we've all lived through? I can remember going to bed with more clothing on than I wore during the day in order to stay warm. Never had to wear my boots to bed though so I guess it could have been worse!

Mama Pea said...

M.E.M. - OH, MY DEAR! What a horribly, uncomfortable, frustrating situation! As I said in the comment above, what we don't go through to live the life we want. When we moved up here to our land and metal box of a trailer home and not much else, our relatives truly thought we were nuts. No electricity, no running water, etc., etc. And a two year old daughter, two dairy goats, and one donkey. I'm sure those first few winters, the animals stayed more comfortable than we did.

Hope you can get a handle on your condensation problem so the rest of the winter goes better.

Lisa said...

Reminds me of a cobbler I make occasionally - only I like the amounts of your ingredients better, as mine has more butter and sugar. I melt the butter in the pan in the hot oven, pour the batter in, don't stir, then place the fruit on top, don't stir. Looks very similar to yours too. Hadn't thought of 'cobbler' for breakfast either - but I like the way you think!!!

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

I should of had a dinner before reading your post. This cobbler looks delicious, now I'm hungry.

Have you ever tried baked Amish Oatmeal with fruit?

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - Your cobbler recipe sounds pretty good to me!

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - I have a baked oatmeal recipe with apples in it . . . wonder if that's like Amish Oatmeal with fruit?

Carolyn said...

Well, it let up after 1" of ice & 8" of snow. But that's nothing to you guys! Tomorrow is Day Five of Stuck-At-Home.....although I don't quite mind so much.

Susan said...

How I LOVE blueberries in any form whatsoever! That cobbler looks sooooo good...it's worth freezing your toes just to get that for breakfast! And you had a donkey??? I am going to need to hear more about that...

Leigh said...

Cobbler for breakfast! Mama Pea, what a wonderful idea and I love you for it! I confess I'm tired of oatmeal and cream of wheat, and cobbler sounds like an excellent change.

Mama Pea said...

Susan - Yep, blueberries are popular in our house, too. I really can't get over the flavor of ours this year. I know I can't take any credit for it . . . just something Mother Nature provided. The couple of blueberry pies I've made were sooooo good!

Mama Pea said...

Leigh - It's eggs in every shape and form that I get tired of! Hubby is not a carbo lover but wants his protein. (He certainly did dive into the cobbler though!)