Sweet Summer

Summer is the sweetest of seasons... growing up I longed for the summer months.  No school, long days at the beach, movie matinees, summer vacations, and visits to the ice cream shop. A particularly favorite summer past time for me as a young child was going to the country with my grandparents and picking all the fruit we could possible carry.  My siblings and I were quite young and often dragged our buckets along the way unable to carry our found treats. When we had buckets full of peaches, strawberries, blackberries, or blueberries, we would head back home to "put them up." The majority would be made into preserves and some were used for a cobbler or two.

My grandfather, a surgeon by day, also enjoyed playing farmer and cook in his off time. My grandmother often referred to these hobbies as his golf game. When we were in the kitchen helping him prepare the rewards from his garden, he would move us about the room much like his nurses in the ER.  "Hand me that jar!"... "Keep stirring!"... "No, not that pan, hand me that one!" He ran a tight ship in and out of the kitchen, and we were overjoyed to be his sous chefs. Many times, we diligently assisted him in creating some delicious delights for our family and countless friends to enjoy throughout the year.

This summer in particular, like those of my childhood, have been fruitful.  Every chance I get, I head outside of town visiting the area's U-Pick farms filling up as many buckets as I can carry. I love to eat the freshly picked fruit by the handful, and then I take the rest (if there is any left) and make a batch of preserves or bake a sweet summer fruit cobbler just like I had been taught as a child.

I love all the summer fruits, but the star of the summer for me are blueberries- sweet, a little tart, and delicious. Here's a simple recipe that has been passed down in our family that is perfect for summer blueberries and sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Hamrick Family Cobbler (does well with any fruit)

Fill a large pot on the stove with approximately 3 cups of washed blueberries. Add as much sugar as desired for sweetness.  Cover the blueberries just slightly with water.  Cook the blueberries on low heat until soft.

In a separate bowl, gradually mix all purpose flour into a half cup of water until smooth then add this to  the berries on the stove. This will thicken, but the mixture still needs to be juicy. Reduce the heat and put to the side.

Grease the bottom of pyrex dish with butter.

Crust:

Use your favorite biscuit recipe.  Roll the dough out to 1/4" thickness and cut four 3 inch wide strips to line the sides of the pyrex dish.

Pour the berry mixture into the dish.

Cut the remaining dough into 3 inch wide strips and cover the top of the fruit mixture. Dot top of pie with butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees until brown. Top with vanilla bean ice cream to rock your world.

My husband and I devoured ours before I remembered to photograph it.

This post was previously published on The Southern C

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