Sweet 16th (belated) Berry cobbler

Hi guys!  I'm baaaack.  Due to moving and work and general life issues I was unable to do a timely sweet 16th post for you, but I have one now and its a yummy one :)

Behold the delicious berry cobbler with oatmeal cookie topping!

Cobblers are wonderful because well, you can put basically anything into them.  Fresh fruit, frozen fruit, canned if you want,  anything!  For mine I used a combo of fresh strawberries and a frozen berry mix (blueberries, raspberries and marionberries) that I usually use for making smoothies.


For this cobbler, which makes 4 small ramekins or a 9 inch square dish, you need:

3 cups of fruit
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 tsps. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter melted
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water


The first step is to wash and slice up your fruit.  Divide the fruit one cup to be heated up and 2 cups to keep fresh. 

In a small saucepan heat up 1 cup of the berries, 3 tablespoons of sugar and the water.  Bring to a low boil and let cook for about 10 minutes or until the berries have released their juices:

While the berries are cooking, mix together the flour, 1 cup of sugar, powder, oats and spices.  Stir in the melted butter. It should be crumbly:

 Then add the milk to the oat mix:

It should be about the consistency of instant oatmeal.

Around this point your warmed up fruit should be about ready.  Remove it from the heat and allow to cool slightly before pouring it in with the reserved two cups of unheated fruit. 

Divide the fruit mixture into small ramekins or pour into a small casserole dish.  Then using a spoon (or in my case a measuring cup) drop the oat mixture onto the top of the fruit (I used about 1/3 cup oat mix per ramekin).

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the tops are just set.  Make sure you put a baking sheet underneath to catch drips.  I had both cookie topping and fruit juice overflow! 

And voila!  You're ready to eat fresh and warm out of the oven:

Sadly I have no pictures of toddler approval as the little man had gone to bed before these came out of the oven, but I can promise with quite a bit of certainty that he would whole-heartedly approve.

Instead here's a picture of him making the face I imagine he would make if he knew the deliciousness he had missed out on:

These are equally delicious warm with ice cream or cooled down and plain.

Happy baking!

missed it again...

Well, I've missed the Sweet 16th once again.  I was in the process of moving across the state and as all of my baking supplies were packed in boxes, I really wasn't able to make anything :(    But, rather than let two months go by without a yummy recipe, I will have a belated one hopefully sometime this week.

Also, I have been completely obsessed with this book and will probably be trying my hand at some of the fanciful treats featured in the story. 

More soon!

Back from vacation!

Well, I made it back safe and sound from vacation despite some bumps along the way (read car troubles). 

The little man and I went on a road trip to California with my mom and step-dad for two whole weeks.  We had a blast on the trip down and my hubby was able to fly down and meet us in the middle of the trip for his (and the little man's) first real California experience.

Here are just a few of the fun things we did on our trip:

On the way down we visited Sequoia National Park to see the giant trees.  They were stunning and the air smelled amazing, nothing like the damp woodsy smell up here in Washington woods.

'do not climb the fence, you may loose your head'

Inside a beautiful tree tunnel.

Here's little man inside the tree tunnel.

Giants.

We went over to one of the many lakes in the park for some rock throwing.

A couple of days later the hubby flew in and we went over to Santa Cruz to the beach and boardwalk.  It was my first trip to Santa Cruz as well and we had a blast!  It was crazy busy since it was a Saturday and apparently the first really nice weekend of the summer.

Playing in the sand.

Gettin' buried in the sand.

Little man's favorite ride:  race cars!

They had a lot of fun rides for the little ones.

A couple days after that, my mom offered to take little man for the day (they went to Happy Hollow) so hubby and I went to San Francisco for the day.

We walked up to Coit Tower to see the murals.  This is the view coming back down the hill.

We wandered around the boardwalk area for a while and then headed over to Golden Gate Park.  (so bummed the art museum was closed :(  )

We drove across the Golden Gate bridge and walked out out onto it a ways.

Such an incredible structure!

Looking down from the bridge, a bit of a scary vantage point actually.

Well, that's about it for now.  We had a great time despite getting stranded for a couple days on the way home for some car repairs.  (someone can scold me later for saying 'It's not a real road trip without a couple unexpected adventures') 

Now we're preparing to move back across the state for just a couple months only to move right back,  nothing like two major moves in less than 6 months.