That Cheating Cobbler

Let's face it-we all need to take shortcuts. Those of us without Domestic Help.

Dude loves blueberry desserts. Just ask him-his Grandma made the best blueberry pie. Mine is good; hers was divine.

This dessert however was made for another man in my life-my dispatcher Bryan.  I work in a small office-like it is about the size of my living room and there are 4 people in there everyday, sometimes we expand to 6 or 7 depending on the day and what is going on.  We don't have many secrets and we probably share way too much. I wouldn't have it any other way.  I lucked out when I got this job 2 years ago. It was like God was looking down saying "Well, since you can't work with your friends at the bank anymore, let's put you with some more funny people".  This isn't to say that I didn't like the people I worked with at the plant; I did, but not all of us could work on the same phase. If we did, we would have never made cereal because we would be too busy laughing. I can now laugh all day long and still get my work done.

Now, it was Bryan's birthday last week. We are going through this HUGE conversion to a new computer system. It sucks. We can't find the information we need, we don't know what items we are short on, we have drivers waiting for DAYS for their load because of how the carriers can see the loads. It sucks.  To help with the stress-mine and everyone elses-I have been baking treats at least 3 times a week.  On Bryan's birthday I looked in the pantry and there wasn't much I could make quickly.  I had a can of cherry pie filling, some white cake mix, butter, etc.  So I remembered a recipe I had done that was a short cut cobbler.  I brought it in, still warm for the oven........and he hates cherries. Sigh.  It went-everyone else liked it-but not the Birthday Boy.

I woke up early this morning and decided to try it again, but I would use blueberry pie filling instead. The house smelled so good, with blueberries and lemon.  I slid a still steaming serving into a dish for Dude to take to work.  I wrapped it up and brought it into the office.  It was still steaming when I unwrapped it.  I giddily walked over to his desk and told him I was making up for his birthday fiasco of cherry-and had made blueberry. Yep, he hates blueberry too.

Cheating Cobbler

1 can pie filling, any flavor you like, but cherry or blueberry were big hits
1 box white cake mix (I used French Vanilla)
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
freshly zested nutmeg
Turbinado sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease baking dish. I used a 7 x 10 stone baker, but 9 x 9 works too. Pour pie filling into bottom of dish, spreading so it is an even layer.  Zest/grate nutmeg-just a little over the pie filling. Zest the lemon over this and then add the juice of half of the lemon.  Sprinkle the fruit with the dry cake mix, leveling out. Sprinkle a little more zested/grated nutmeg over top-just a little. Pour melted butter over the top of the cake mix. Sprinkle the nuts over the top of butter/cake mix. Squeeze some more lemon juice over this and then sprinkle the Turbinado sugar over the top. I used about 2 TBSP.

Set in the middle of the oven and bake for 40-43 minutes at 350.

This is great with ice cream or whipped cream.

As for Bryan, guess I need to go back to chocolate desserts-he always eats those!

On a personal note-I'm so happy to be back. I may have lost every reader I ever had after being gone so long, but I realized it isn't about the comments (which I do love) but it is about the process and recording successes and failures, talking about what makes us happy and sad. It is about cooking for those that we love. And that is the most important thing in the world-for me anyway. Even if Bryan doesn't adore everything I bring in.