Whip it up Wednesday ...Blackberry Cobbler

Okay here's our 2nd WIUW.  Blackberry Cobbler - YUM!

This was first inspired by something I found here on Pinterest.  So have you ever ordered from Bountiful Baskets?  It is a favorite for us!  And often I get add ons.  So a couple of weeks ago I ordered 2 blackberries as add ons knowing I would freeze a lot of them for smoothies.  Well once I saw the Blackberry cobbler I knew that I wanted to try this with some instead of freezing them all.  And yep it was a good choice.  Now I can't wait for my own berries to come on but that isn't until Sept. so this will have to do.

Funny enough I wasn't sure if I really wanted to try a new recipe so instead I went to a Betty Crocker fav(Fresh Peach Cobbler).  I had to tweak it some to make it with blackberries.

So anyone else ready for some?  Lets get started... Heat oven to 400

Here's your berry mixture

1 1/4 C Sugar

3 T cornstarch

1/4 tsp almond extract

4 C blackberries (I used closer to 4 1/2 C)

Mix sugar, cornstarch, in a sauce pan.  Stir in blackberries and almond extract.  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Pour into ungreased 2-quart casserole dish; keep blackberry mixture hot in oven.

Okay now this is yum!!  Heck you could use it as a syrup over pancakes, ice cream whatever but just stay with me here.  Lets move to the cobbler part.

3 T shortening
1 C flour
1T sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C milk

Mix the 1st 5 ingredients by cutting the shortening into the dry ingredients.  You can use a pastry blender or by crisscrossing 2 knives.  You want the mixture to be fine crumbs.  Then stir in milk.

Drop this onto the berry mixture

Now just bake for 25-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.    And serve with your favorite topping!  My choice is ALWAYS ice cream!!!  But I'm sure whipped cream would be great too but the truth ice cream is pretty much always in stock in my home and whipped cream isn't always!

So go ahead and enjoy!

Oh but don't forget to come back next week.  I was still on a blackberry kick so I have something else next week and let me tell you my kids devoured it!

Thanks! --Naoni

Whip It Up Wednesday Presents:

                              Peanut Butter Sandwhich Cookies

Ok really there is no BIG secret to this recipe so if you have a favorite peanut butter recipe you can substitute yours for mine! However mine is from my mom....So it has been totally approved by a lot of us...(Did we ever mention that we grew up in family with 10 kids!?!)

OK (the sandwhich part) or the cookie ingredients:

1 C Butter softened to room temp

1 C Peanut Butter

1 C white sugar

1 C brown Sugar

I add these 4 ingredients listed above and mix well then add:

2 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla

In a seperate bowl I mix the dry ingredients before adding to the mixture above

2 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

mix these 3 dry ingredients

                               Now slowly add the dry mixture to your batter and mix till smooth

Now if your batter seems too sticky....DO NOT add more flour..instead stick batter in the fridge for an hour or so....then take out you may have to let it warm up to room temp but then it should be perfect and your cookies will turn out soft and chewy!

When making sandwhich cookies I prefer to make smaller cookies so roll out small amout of dough and then roll in sugar (this part is totally optional)

Place on cookie sheet and bake in 350 degree preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. I like to just bake my cookies till they are starting to get golden around the edges then I

 take them out of the oven and let them sit on the hot cookiesheet a few more minutes where they will continue to bake.

Now for the yummy peanut buttery filling:

1/2 C butter

1/2 C peanut butter

I throw these in the microwave for a quick 30 seconds then stir together well

next add:

1 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

3 table spoons milk

mix all ingredients well then add powder sugar untill you have your desired constitency:

I prefer it to be a little on the thicker side, if its too thin when you put your cookies together the filling will just squish out! I use a generous amount of filling on one cookie

Then finish by placing a second cookie on top and viola! Peanut Butter Sandwhich Cookies!

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as me, my family and usually any other peanut butter loving person has when I've made them!!
                        -------Chelle

In the words of MC Hammer: "You Can't Touch This!"

Quick guess what is the germiest, nasties thing/place in your house?? Did you guess this:

Well according to "United Stats of America" (This new show on the History channel...Which I now kind of like) You would be wrong!!!! It is....... are you ready for this??

That's right it's your TV remote control......It has over 500 different kinds of bacteria growing on it! Can you say um..... totally gross!! Now picture me sitting on my couch with the remote in one hand and my sweet almost 5 month old baby in my lap!! (Because remember I was watching that new show on the history channel) Nothing like Keep the remote away from the baby? All I can say is I was up in an instant to go grab:

So I coud start scrubbing the TV remote control!

The show then proceeded to say a few other things that are carrying lots of germs like your cell phone so yes I wiped that down too! and now that I am sitting at the computer I'm thinking the keyboard and the mouse should really get a good wipe down! OK! Just to clarify I am not a germ-a-phobe but I am going to start adding the TV remote control to my weekly cleaning list....
And well since its Saturday I just thought I'd share it with you!! Happy cleaning!

----Chelle

My Dilema:

My Dilema:

My cousin was having a baby and as some of you might remember they were not finding out the gender. Well I really wanted to surprise her with one of my crocheted baby hats. So I asked everyone what kind of hat should I make an owl?, a bear?, or maybe a sock monkey? Well the sock monkey hat won! Hooray! But now what colors do you use because I really like making my hats either super girly or definitely boyish. Hard to do if you don't know what you're having and well.... using green and yellow for a baby hat....No Way! (unless I'm making a Green Bay Packer one and then of course!)

But still I thought I'd start out with some neutral colors and before I knew it one hat turned into 2 hats! (I just couldn't do the non-gender thing!) But I have to admit I've fallen in love with the pink one it totally makes me think of neapolitan ice cream (YUM!)

Ok! so I got the 2 hats done Now I just had to wait for baby which we knew the date thanks to the planned C-sectin! But now is where my story gets crazy....so literally the day before she is going to have the baby I decided I had to make a matching card and gift bag but then again we really don't know the gender yet so I decided I'd make up a boy and a girl version! (Yes I think I have some kind of craftng problem!) so I tear out my stamps and cardstock and come up with this:

Ok really this could be the end of my story but no there's more! So I've got 2 adorable hats made up with a matching card and gift bag I'm already to go either way boy or girl....but then it happens inspiration (or total craziness) hits me! I should really make this hat a newborn size instead of the 3-6 month size ones I already have made up so the baby can wear it right away! I mean haven't we all seen how stinking cute these hats are as photo props on these little ones!?!? So High Ho! High Ho! Its off to work I go....and several long hours later I have 2 more little monkey hats!

Needless to say we ended up with a healthy 8lb 3oz baby......GIRL!

Thanks to everyone who helped me in choosing the sock monkey hat, I now have a new favorite color combination! hopefully my cousin will let us share one of her photos.

Thanks for reading, Chelle