Summer Breeze- now where is my time?

It's that time again folks. Blog time!

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I have not been able to update this thing. HTML doesn't take long to load on Dial-Up so what's my malfunction?

Pop-ups. Not the windows. Pop-up tasks. They come, unannounced, and rob me of my true work or at least something I enjoy! Pop-up tasks are not limited to blog-land. They keep me from baking. And that should be a felony.

I did manage to bake in the past few days. Once I mix something up, it breeds more tasty sweets- a dilemma for all in the household watching the waistline. With that in mind and my mom's sensitivity to sugar, I decided to get creative again. And now, all I want to do is BAKE!!!

Let me introduce you to my little friend called Paula Deen Peach Cobbler. Oh. My. Cow.

My sister introduced me to this cookbook and all of its lovely recipes about a year or so ago. She made some for a potluck at work and it was a hit. She modified the recipe to give the bready part of the cobbler an extra presence and I have been singing its praises since. Like all of Paula's best recipes from her kitchen to yours, it starts with the infamous "stick of butter and..."

Lady and Sons Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (28-ounce) can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, un-drained (use fresh peaches if available; see note*)
• Cinnamon, for sprinkling, optional
• Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream, for serving
  

Directions

If they are available, by all means use fresh peaches. In a saucepan, mix 2 cups fresh peach slices with one cup sugar and one cup water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir often, making sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Substitute this for the canned peaches.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Put butter in a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt. Stir sugar and flour together and mix well. Slowly add milk and continue stirring to prevent the batter from lumping.
• Being careful not to burn yourself, remove hot baking dish containing melted butter from oven; pour batter directly over butter in baking dish. Do not stir.
• Spoon fruit on top of batter, then gently pour syrup on top. Do not stir. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of batter, if using. (The most important part of this dish is not stirring the mixture at this point in the recipe.)
• Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Your batter will rise above your fruit, producing the most wonderful of crusts. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

My modifications include:

• melting cubed butter in the microwave but still in the dish you intend to use. More surface area when you cube it, thus melting a little more efficiently
• doubling the batter recipe for a more bread pudding-like cobbler crust
• substituting sugar with Altern or your favorite sugar-substitute (pretty tasty, actually)
• using No Added Sugar Peaches in Pear juice instead of "heavy syrup" (results are the same and a little kinder to YOU!)
• watch the browning of your crust. Sometimes the outside likes to brown/burn faster than the inside. If you have concerns, just cover with foil midway through the baking.
• because this treat is cake-like, you can test the center for "done ness" with a toothpick. It's okay if the bottom is a little slimy. You will find yourself arm-wrestling loved-ones for this later.
• using delicious Yarnell's homemade Vanilla ice cream from Searcy, AR- it just tastes better!

I'm now to the point I can just eyeball this and make it work. Especially with the batter- I just add milk until it looks like pancake batter. Some people will tell you it matters on every recipe to be exact. But this one you can get away with um, fudging it.

Speaking of eyeballing and fudging, next post I will share my not-so-secret cake shortcut I learned from home economist, Linda Adams. If any of you have spent time in the Central Arkansas area and watched the noon news on KTHV prior to 2004, then you will remember her cooking segments with Beth Ward. Even as a kiddo, I looked forward to these segments. I had the opportunity to meet her at age 12 and watch them film the segment on-set! Both ladies have now retired but have left a legacy of loving good, Southern cookin'! Mmm!!!

Now go make yourself some cobbler to enjoy with your iced tea on the porch swing. Oh Summer!

>;)