Peach Cobbler

I am a HUGE birthday person. It's just the way I am. I think they should be celebrated no matter if you're 1, 10 or 100. I guess it's in my blood because there isn't a holiday or birthday that goes uncelebrated on our dad's side of the family. We have never ever had a store-bought cake at parties because my mom always brought a homemade one. In the past few years, I have inherited that task and I love being the cake girl. I always try to make the birthday boy or girl's favorite cake no matter what. I even made an 11-layer cake a few months ago for a very special little boy!

Since coming to college I try to do the same thing for my friends for their birthdays. My friend Corey's birthday was a few weeks ago and with spring break, mid-terms and other things I haven't gotten around to making his birthday present for him until tonight! He requested peach cobbler instead of cake, with homemade "fluffy-whip." I have never heard it called fluffy whip but homemade whipped cream ain't nothin' but a thang. And of course I said yes to the peach cobbler!!

What you need:

Butter, peaches, lemon juice, sugar, salt, baking powder, flour, cinnamon, milk, vanilla extract and almond extract.

Start by exploding melting the butter in the dirty microwave. 

And pour it into a large casserole or 8x8 inch pan. I used a disposable cake pan since I'm taking it and leaving it somewhere and may never see my one good Pyrex cake pan ever again. (Not that that's happened or anything...)

This seems like a lot of butter, and thats because it is! Nothing wrong with a recipe starting out with a whole stick of butter before you even add anything else to the pan.

The original recipe calls for 4-5 peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced. Well, there is not a SINGLE peach on the shelves in the two grocery stores near my house. This is 2012, can't we grow something that looks and taste like a peach in a lab and call it good? Well, guess not. So, I used no sugar added jarred peaches from the refrigerated fruit section. Canned will work too, I just didn't feel like walking to that side of the store.

About 4-5 cups will do, I was right at four cups.

Add in lemon juice - again, not fresh, but it's what I had!

Stir.

And a few tablespoons of sugar.

Stir.

And dump right on top of that pool of butter!

Spread the peaches around until it's one even layer.

Now for the top crust-

I was out of cinnamon, but I had some mixed with Splenda I had made a while back for oatmeal and toast, so I just doubled up on the measurement of that.

Sugar,

salt,

baking powder,

and flour.

Whisk to combine.

In a separate bowl, pour in some milk,

vanilla extract,

and almond extract.

 Add this mixture to the sugar/flour mixture..

and whisk to combine.

It will be more of a batter than a dough. Lots of cobbler recipes have a doughy/biscuity top but this is easier to spread and I think turns out great!

Carefully pour it all over the top as evenly as possible. It's okay if there are open spaces, cobbler is not meant to look perfect!

When it bakes, the batter will puff up and spread over the rest of the peaches.

Bake at 350º for about 45 minutes or until the cobbler is bubbly and the top is golden brown. 

Uhhh - yum. It was perfect. Crunchy top, not too bready; sweet gooey inside, not too runny. Delicious!

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream - or do like us and make homemade whipped cream - just whisk a cup of heavy cream with three tablespoons of sugar until it's the right consistency, or use a hand-mixer, just don't over-mix and turn it to butter!

Peach Cobbler

1/2 cup butter, melted
4-5 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted, and sliced – or two large jars
2 tsp. lemon juice
3 Tbs. sugar + 1 cup sugar, separated
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Pour butter in the
bottom of a large casserole or 8x8 inch pan. In a bowl, toss the
peaches with lemon juice. Add 3 tablespoons sugar and toss again
to coat. Pour into pan. In a mixing bowl, combine remaining
ingredients and stir gently. Spoon batter over the peaches. Bake
for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cobbler is bubbly
and the top is golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

"Nana Pudding"

Banana Pudding. It's a staple at any pot luck, funeral dinner, or Easter Sunday. I don't recall a single church meal where banana pudding wasn't present! I think that's because it is so easy and pretty much everyone likes it unless you are Pioneer Woman and despise bananas like I despise cilantro. (My taste buds just reject it, OK??)

Well, I have never been too impressed with any banana pudding I've had in public unless it came from my Nana's kitchen. We've always referred to it as Nana Pudding. I thought that was just because Nana made it, but it wasn't until I decided to give it a go that I realized her is, in fact, different from pot luck pudding. I assumed it was simply Jello-brand vanilla pudding with Nilla wafers and bananas... and maybe Nana's secret ingredient was an extra dash of vanilla or maybe she mixes it with Cool Whip??

Wrong!!

There is NO JELLO IN THIS PUDDING, y'all!

That's right, you heard me. It is made from scratch 100%. The only thing more "scratch" about it would be if we made the cookies and grew the bananas too, but then it would be called Nana Wafers, Bananas and Pudding. It's really just the pudding that's Nana's I guess. ;)

But fear not dear blog readers, even though it doesn't come straight out of box doesn't mean it is difficult. If I can do it, you can do it. All you have to know how to do is read and follow directions. And lucky for you, I took pictures of every step just for you.

What you need:

Milk, sugar, salt, eggs, corn starch, butter, flour, vanilla, bananas and vanilla wafers.

Combine sugar, salt

 

cornstarch,

 and flour in a 2 quart microwaveable bowl.

Whisker up. 

Add in the milk, 

 and whisket together.

Then add three beaten eggs. 

And whisk.

Now put 'er in the microwave on high for 12 minutes or until it all boils, 

removing it every few minutes to guess - whisk - again. It will start to thicken, just whisk it again and cook it a little longer. I think I pulled it out every 3 or 4 minutes to whisk.

While you're waiting on the pudding to microwave, take a picture of yourself in your roommate's mirror because you're bedroom floor is not blog-worthy.

APRON CHECK:

 Micah made this one! She gave us all one for Christmas this past year. I love it because the bottom is a towel, so I don't feel as bad about wiping my dirty hands all over it. So fun!

Also, start slicing up some bananas.

The pudding mixture will look like this when removed it from the microwave, sort of solid and thick across the top. Bubbly, boily, whatever you want to call it. Pudding-y?

Throw in some vanilla - I never measure, just eyeball. I don't think vanilla is something that needs to be exact, a little bit too much just makes it even better!

If you're wondering why my vanilla is in a creepy brown water bottle, that's because it's the good stuff from Mexico!

 And to give it a rich flavor, of course add butter! Then whisk it all in.

Then, take a cookie, stack a banana on it, and dip it into the warm pudding. 

And pop it into your mouth. Repeat as necessary.

Place the pudding in the fridge to start cooling down.

Start layering cookies on the bottom of a *cute* bowl.

Then add bananas. Make sure there is the exact same pattern taking place and the same exact distance and proportion of cookies:wafers:pudding space.

Or just dump 'em in!!! 

Pile on some pudding.

And another layer of cookies/bananas. 

 More pudding.

I made my first layer of pudding too thick, so I only got two layers. I wanted to have several, but once I served it up and ate it, I didn't care!!

And, top with another layer of cookies. If you are serving it immediately, you can put bananas on top, but if you are waiting even a few minutes to serve it, leave the bananas off the top because they will brown and be U-G-L-Y. 

Serve it with a dollop of cool whip and enjoy!!

Take this to your next pot luck and see if people don't notice a difference! I promise, it is better than any other banana pudding you've ever tasted and totally homemade. Who knew it was that easy???

Nana Pudding

In a 2 QT microwaveable bowl mix:

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 1/2 Tbsp. flour

Stir in:

3 1/2 cups milk

3 beaten eggs

Cook on high about 10-12 minutes or until it boils and thickens, stirring 2 or 3 times.

Add:

1 1/2 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp. vanilla

Cool to lukewarm and alternate layers of pudding with sliced bananas and vanilla wafers.