Blueberry Fruit Cobbler

This is one of the simplest cobbler recipes I've ever used. It also makes one of the loveliest cobblers I've ever tasted. And, it's because this recipe doesn't use a biscuit dough, i.e. where you cut the butter into the flour and make it crumbly. You see, I have never cared for biscuit crust cobblers.

In this version, the butter is put in the baking dish and melted in the oven. So when the smooth batter gets poured over the hot butter, it puffs up and creates a lovely crunchy edge when it's baked. You can see that in the photos. It reminds me a little of the way a Dutch Pancake puffs.

It can be served warm or room temperature with a dollop of yogurt or vanilla ice cream. And, if you put the left-overs (should there be such a thing) in the refrigerator, the next day it tastes just as wonderful cold. I've used this recipe to make a peach cobbler. Oh yes, that was yum too.

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and it's called Easy Batter Fruit Cobbler. Instead of using an 8- or 9-inch pan as suggested in the recipe, I baked it in a glass pie plate. You can find this delicious recipe by clicking here.

Today I'm joining Judith at Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday.

Wishing you a beautiful Labour Day Monday,

Brenda

xox

An Irish Blessing

Today I offer the words of this Irish blessing... along with the link to a post I shared several years ago called Words For Life and Wellness. I felt drawn to post it again. I needed the words, perhaps you do too.

“May the raindrops fall lightly on your brow. May the soft winds freshen your spirit. May the sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you, and may God enfold you in the mantle of His love.”

 

This is my heart wish for you today, dear beautiful friends.

With a gentle kiss atop thy head,

Brenda

xox

With A Turn of the Calendar

And here it is September. We're three quarters into the year and to me it seems like we should still be in Spring or at least early June. I'm usually quite good at living in the present moment... and I did revel in the beauty of so many juicy joy-filled moments of my summer. Yet, I still feel like the days whipped past in a whirlwind, and I wonder if I actually fell asleep and missed the last month or so -- like old Rip Van Winkle.

The ruby red apple in the photo above is sitting on my counter. Nothing says autumn quite like the arrival of fresh, fragrant batches of apples in a grocery store or marketplace. And, then when you bite into the crunchy, crisp skin, there's that sweet juice dribbling down your chin and you feel like a kid again. For who of us of a certain age didn't have an apple rolling around in a little tin lunch kit (mine was patterned in red and black plaid) when we started first or second grade.

So, what else did you find in your lunchbox? I remember Grade Four very well for that was the year I wouldn't eat anything but tuna fish sandwiches. All year. Every day. I couldn't get enough. My poor mother was gagging already as she put together one more sandwich and wrapped it in waxed paper and tucked it next to the apple and a couple of cookies. She'd ask every morning, are you sure you want tuna again? Yup, I want a tuna sandwich. It would have been on homemade white bread. Yum!

And... did you take some of that wax paper with those little toothy edges and iron brightly coloured leaves between two sheets to hang in your classroom or on the kitchen window? Were you permitted to press the waxy pages together with the hot iron? Or did your mom do it? Did you love the smell of the wax as it melted? I sure did.

And... what about that first week of school when you wanted to take something for your new teacher and your mom would wrap a fistful of pointy petaled dahlias to take on the school bus, and you'd shyly, but proudly, present them to her when you got to school.
 

Sitting in the front row in my blue jumper with my Grade Two Class

All this talk of school days and I had to go find my old pictures. Here's my Grade Two Class. Staring into the faces of my old familiar classmates, I still remember everyone's names. And such a flood of memories of those wonderful, simpler times in the early 1960's.

I can even tell you which boy I really, really liked... he's standing on the end of the last row, on right side. He tried to give me a kiss once on the playground. Everyone else had already gone inside, the bell had rung, and we were trailing behind. I didn't realize what he intended. I was surprised and moved my head. So the kiss met empty air instead of my cheek.You know, I forever regretted not getting that kiss. I wonder if he ever did.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~Albert Einstein

There... enough telling tales out of class. And all because we turned the page on the calendar. Here's wishing you a beautiful day and a wonderful September ahead!

Hugs

Brenda

xox

   

  

So Soon A Season

If you're wondering where she is, this little birdie is instructed to tell you that she has not flown the coop. She is well. She has been enjoying the warm days of summer, but she finds it strange to be saying farewell to August already. Surely not?

But if crows are gathering, little brown bats not normally around here are finding solace on a summer day in the peek of our umbrella, and female humming birds consider our garden a stoppinghouse as they prepare to head south, then we guess it really must be so.

Anyone who has followed this blog a while will know that we love, love all that autumn and September offer us, but at this moment we are dragging our toes just a teeny bit when we think about turning the calendar page tomorrow. No doubt in the morning I shall feel quite differently, but it seems a shame that our long summer days have so soon grown short.

In the village store someone

says, "I heard the geese go over," and

there is a moment of silence.

Why this is so moving, I do not know.

But all of us feel it.

~ Gladys Taber 
(as read in Susan Branch's Autumn book)

One of summer's delights this year was to join with my mom in watching the unfurling of her new Peace Rose -- a birthday gift from her son and his family. From tight buds edged with red to the soft yellow bloom tinted pale pink to the wide open rose in deep yellow.

Pure pleasure. It was interesting to note that it smelled the sweetest once it had completely opened, as if spilling all she had into one final perfect moment. On reflection, there might be a lesson somewhere in that last sentence for those of us who find ourselves in our later blooming season.

  

On that note, dear beautiful friends,

may your glimpses be as beautiful in those unexpected places,

Brenda

xox

Linking with Mosaic Monday

Rudbeckia Brilliance

When I was a girl living on our family farm in rural Alberta, my mom used to say that she could tell when summer was coming to an end when she'd notice the hollyhocks peering through the kitchen windows.

Nowadays, my home is in the city and I don't have hollyhocks growing by my kitchen window, but I can still tell the time of year -- and that autumn is surely drawing near -- when my yellow rudbeckia flowers tower next to our living room bay window.

As you see below, they tower over me too. They add quite the cheery corner with their tall stems.

I love to watch them bend and blow in the breeze. Free form dance, I call it. And, I love their huge, yellow petals that are like brilliant drops of sunlight against their greenery.

It's with a happy heart I offer you my glimpse of heaven from my little corner of the world today.

Sending you hugs and wishes for a beautiful day,

Brenda

xox