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Tag Archives: breakfast

I make! Random fruit cobbler edition

I just realized that I’ve never posted about fruit cobbler before.  This is weird because I do make a lot of cobbler because I often am trying to get rid of fruit.  Or I’ll find that my mother has stashed fruit into the freezer.  Or I’ll find that my mother was trying to corner the market on canned, sliced peaches.  There are other things you can do with random fruit, but I like cobblers because they’re quick and easy to throw together and there’s just something welcoming about a warm dessert (with ice cream).

So, recently I needed a dessert and the original intention was to make a lemon cake or lemon bars (stupid lemon tree).  Unfortunately, I didn’t manage my time well enough to make anything with all the lemons.  It wasn’t so much the bake time that was getting me as it was the prep and assemble time.  What do?  Look in the freezer and see what random fruit you have and throw a cobbler together.  Turns out, I had a pack of sweet cherries (pitted) and I used those to make a 9×9 cobbler.

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Since a cobbler is something I normally just throw together, I’m not always very precise with measurements.  But typically, my batter is 2-4 tbsp of butter that I melt in the baking dish in the oven while preheating (325degF).  I mix a cup of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, 0.25 tsp salt, and 0.25-0.5 cup of granulated sugar together in a separate bowl.  To that, I add about 0.75 cup of milk (or if I’m feeling fancy, buttermilk) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and mix into a smooth batter.

When the oven is preheated, I take the baking dish out and pour in the batter and whisk it around a little to incorporate the butter a little (small pools of butter are fine) and then dump the fruit right on top.  It’s probably around 2 cups worth of fruit normally.  If you’re using frozen, go directly from frozen.  If you’re using fresh, you’ll probably want to cut the fruit into bite size pieces.  Then you just throw everything in the oven for about an hour.  I don’t think I’ve ever had poor results with this method.

I’ve made cobblers with blueberries (fresh, frozen), random mixed berries (frozen), peaches (fresh, frozen, canned), mango (frozen), apples (fresh, frozen, although I typically prefer to make apple crisp or pie with fresh apples), and cherries (frozen, canned).  I may have tried it with other fruit too…but I don’t remember right now.

Sometimes I will double the batter because I have a lot of people say that the cake portion of the cobbler is their favorite part.  I actually like the fruit part, and I’ve been known to jam waaaay too much fruit into a cobbler.  You generally need to bake it longer if you stick in a lot of fruit as it would otherwise be too soggy.

Did I mention that cobbler is pretty good for breakfast?  Maybe with some plain or vanilla yogurt in place of the ice cream?

I make! Garbage strata edition

You know how I’m always trying to get rid of food?  Yeah.

I’ve been seeing a lot of stratas recently floating around the food blogs and social media.  I’ve never made one before, but I have made quiches and the like.  A strata seemed much easier since I didn’t have to work with a pie crust (not that pie crusts are hard, but I’m lazy and don’t want to make one for quiche purposes).  But I did have sliced bread I wanted to use up, as well as some aging grape tomatoes and some frozen French cut green beans.  Garbage strata it is.  Added benefit: you can assemble the night before and bake the following morning.

I had half a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread 21 Whole Grains and Seeds (not so much that it was whole grain as because that I like seeded breads) that I wanted to use up.  Also, my grape tomatoes were starting to get kind of shrively.  And the frozen green beans had been in my freezer for a while.  It was definitely time to get rid of some of this stuff.

I grabbed my cast iron skillet, because it was just sitting there, and covered the bottom with six slices of bread.  Then I layered some deli sliced chicken over the bread, followed by halved grape tomatoes, then covered the top with green beans, and finally maybe about half a cup of shredded extra sharp cheddar (also something I’m trying to get rid of).  Dusted the top with pepper and poured a mixture of six beaten eggs and 2 cups of milk (1% because that’s what I had, but I would recommend whole if you have it) over everything.  I didn’t add any salt because the chicken and cheese were already pretty salty.  I covered everything with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

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I took the strata out in the morning when I started preheating the oven to 350degF and then stuck it in the oven for about an hour.  The top wasn’t quite as brown as I wanted so turned on the broiler for a few minutes before taking it out of the oven.  The middle of the strata will probably be a bit jiggly when you take it out.  You will have to let it sit for 5-10min or so and it’ll firm up.

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End result: delicious.  The cheese and chicken imparted enough salt to their surroundings, so I’m glad I didn’t add more salt.  I think next time, I might put a little more cheese and add green onions.  The strata is also very good with some Tabasco.