Fresh Fruit Cobbler

Fresh Fruit Cobbler

No matter where you live, fresh fruit lends itself beautifully to cobbler.  My mother favored Apple Cobbler.  This is a great choice in the fall, when apples are locally picked.  During the other seasons, make use of the fresh fruit available at the market.

Preheat Oven to 400F

Ingredients:

2 to 4 cups of fresh fruit (above picture shows blueberries and peaches)

1/4 cup of cinnamon sugar (sugar mixed with cinnamon and a smidge of ginger and pinch of nutmeg)

1 tsp. of fresh lemon juice

1 generous teaspoon of corn starch

If necessary, cube fruit (peaches; nectarines; pears, etc.).  Mixing berries with any fruit is a wonderful combination.  Allow the above ingredients to macerate (mixed together in a bowl and allowed to sit for an hour or so).  Place this mixture in an 8 x 8 square pan.  Add the following topping which you mix separately in a different bowl.

Topping

1 3/4 cups of buttermilk baking mix*

1 tbl. of cinnamon sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup of butter (cold, cut into cubes)

Mix topping in a bowl with a fork.  Just cut the butter in lightly before adding the egg.  

Pour topping over fruit.  Bake for 30 minutes or until topping is brown and fruit is bubbling.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.  Delicious hot or cold!

*I used Pioneer Buttermilk Baking Mix.  I love the texture of this mixture.  It's great for pancakes, too.

Cherry Pie

Stone Fruit Pie

When fruit is in abundance, I make pies and freeze them.  Stone fruit (a fruit with flesh or pulp enclosing a stone, such as a peach, plum, or cherry) works very well for this process and requires no cooking prior to making the pie.  

Filling:

6 Cups of Fruit, pitted or with stones removed

2 tbl.  to 1/2 cup of sugar  (This depends entirely upon the sweetness of the fruit)

1 tbl. of white vinegar

grated nutmeg

1 tbl. of cornstarch

2 prepared pie crusts

Pitt cherries (or other fruit) and slice into bite sized pieces.  Have a large bowl on hand for the fruit and a plastic bag (to be discarded) for the pitts.  When fruit is pitted, mix the fruit with the remaining ingredients (except for pie crusts).  Allow the fruit to macerate (soften with the liquid in the bowl) for an hour or so).  

Roll out dough and fill pie plate with bottom crust.  Add the fruit.  Top with second crust.  If you are intending to weave a lattice crust, go here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwQYd2ljw-4  

Wrap securely in plastic wrap to freeze.  Place in freezer.

To bake frozen pie, preheat oven to 400F and bake pie for 30 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 325 and bake until pie filling is bubbly.  

To bake freshly made pie, preheat oven to 400F and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until pie crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.

Italian Roast Pork

Italian Pork Roast

Preheat Oven to 350F

Ingredients:

Ken's Italian Salad Dressing or Italian Vinaigrette*

Fresh rosemary or a pinch of dried rosemary

Garlic and onion powder

Two tbl. of Sutter Homes Pinot Grigio

One pork roast

Mix the above ingredients and marinate the pork roast for several hours.  Bake for about an hour and a half until the roast registers 145 degrees on your meat thermometer.  

*My grandmother's salad dressing was really delicious and worth waiting for at the end of a meal.  Ken's is a dead ringer....