Fairy Rings and Blackberry Cobbler

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We've got them all over.





"Fairy rings appear as dark green circles or semi-circles in the lawn. They vary in size from 1 to 10 feet in diameter. They are caused by the decay of buried stumps and other pieces of wood. Fairy rings often contain clusters of mushrooms and puffballs. Mushrooms grow from decaying organic matter and are most likely to form in areas with high organic debris, such as buried wood. Mushrooms grow best under wet conditions, but die off quickly with warm, dry air and sunshine. Fungicides do not suppress fairy rings or mushrooms, so it is recommended to dig up and remove the soil in the infected area."

We had an 8" mushroom growing out there, but Michael mowed it over before I could snap a picture of it.





I don't know... I kind of like them!

Michael, going cruising...





I froze most all of the blackberries we'd picked, but saved some for this recipe. Wednesday nights are always good for sharing food. This a sort of a cobbler, but not really.





Regardless of what you want to call it, whenever I make it, it is enjoyed. So I thought I'd share it with you.

Here is what you need for a doubled batch, such as the one I made.

Faith's Sort-of Cobbler

Blackberries, pictured yesterday.
2 cups of self rising flour (Or, add 1 tsp salt and 1 TBL baking powder to all-purpose flour to make your own, as I did.)
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of milk
2 cups of sugar





First, melt your butter over a low heat. And preheat your oven to 350 degrees.





To make your own self rising flour, add in baking powder.





And salt.





And whisk together. The two bowls here are from my grandmother's set of four Pyrex colored glass mixing bowls from the 1940's. I love them!





Add sugar.





And flour.





And mix thoroughly.





Add milk





And whisk it up.





Ooooooh, now that luscious butter. I do REALLY love butter!





Pretty!





Surprise! More butter liberally spread on a casserole dish.





A little help here, as I had one hand on the camera...





Now, for the UNscientific part. Just start piling in all those berries you have no idea what to do with because you already have gobs of pie filling, jam, and frozen berries, up to your eyeballs and you know more is on the way, so you have no idea what volume of berries you put in over the required 4 cups, but you just put them in until the batter won't hold any more...





The big fat one...? It's mine.





Oh, yeah. Don't forget. More sugar. Sprinkled liberally on top. Because if you are going to do sugar overload, do it right.





And tuck this little baby into the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes. The single batch called for an hour, but I had to extend it twice as it was pretty big and thick. Use the toothpick test, but remember, if you have as many berries in there as I did, you've got to tell the difference between berry juice and batter when you pull it out. It's an ULTRA moist dessert!





Wa-LAH!

What's that? A missing piece?





You betcha'!





Add this dish to wonderful friends while still warm and you have made yourself a little piece of Heaven on earth. :)

~Faith

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