"Anytime" Blueberry Cobbler

This time of year, blueberries are cheap and abundant where I live here in Michigan. What do you do when you get tired of putting them on cereal? or using them in muffins? Well, you make them into a cobbler!!!  This morning, I was gathering my ingredients together in the kitchen, when I heard my husband's voice from the other room saying, "what are you making in there?" I told him I was making a cobbler. It didn't take too long to assemble and then I put it into the oven to bake. When I had pulled the cobbler out and it had just been cooling a few minutes, again I heard my hubby's voice. This time he said, "is it ready to eat?" I put some on a plate and handed it to him. After he polished his piece off, I asked him, "so, what would you give the cobbler on a scale of 1-10?" He said, "11." Cool. I was telling him that the warm cobbler would be so good topped with my homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert. His response, "I've always thought of a cobbler as a "breakfast," item." Yes, after being married over 20 years, these are the kind of conversations my husband and I have on a Saturday morning. 

To me, this blueberry cobbler is good "anytime," whether it's morning, noon or night!

Ingredients

Filling:

2 cups (1 pint) blueberries, fresh
 (rinsed and patted dry)
1/4 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Topping:

2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar,
  one tablespoon reserved for topping
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9-inch round pie pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. In a medium bowl, put the blueberries, sugar and lemon juice. Stir gently with a large spoon until all the blueberries are covered with the sugar and set aside. In large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, salt and one tablespoon of white sugar. Using two knives, "cut," in the shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs. Pour the milk in and with a large spoon mix well. On a lightly floured surface (about one tablespoon of flour), remove the dough from the large bowl and using your fingertips press out to nine inches. Pour the blueberry mixture into the pie pan and cover completely with the dough. Sprinkle the top evenly with one tablespoon of white sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top starts to turn brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Top with whipped topping or ice cream or just as it is! Enjoy!

Frozen Fruit Smoothie Circles

Even though I found the smallest watermelon I could for Memorial Day weekend, we still had a lot left over. I was trying to figure out a way to use it all up and I wasn't coming up with any good ideas. Since I had just a handful of blueberries and raspberries also kicking around in the fridge, I thought, why not just throw all the fruit into a blender and make a smoothie? I wanted to take it a step further and freeze it, which was an awesome idea, but I couldn't locate my ice pop molds!!!! I was just about to give up, when I thought, how about using a 12-cup muffin tin for the "molds"? Lo and behold, it worked out great! Since Lauren is my smoothie "girl," she loved this recipe!  The hubby had a few of these "circles" after a long bike ride this afternoon and said, "I think you might be on to something!" If he only knew how easy this recipe was :)

2 cups chopped watermelon
1 cup blueberries, rinsed
1 cup raspberries, rinsed

Put all the fruit into a blender and blend until smooth. Distribute the mixture evenly between the 12 cups of the muffin tin. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and put into the freezer for a minimum of four hours. When ready to eat, lightly loosen each "circle" with a dinner knife and remove.  Eat immediately!!