Lee Bailey's Blackberry Cobbler

"Going to Lee Bailey's is like going home...

when going home is what it's cracked up to be.

It's that comfortable and welcoming."

Amy Gross

I have six of Lee Bailey's cookbooks and hope to someday own every single one.

Before there was Martha, there was Lee,
legendary lifestyle writer. 
His books make me feel exactly how Amy Gross wrote, like I've walked in his door and known immediately that there would be good conversation and good food--
all done with such ease that you know you're not a bother.

His Country Weekends was my first Lee Bailey book.

And his Peach Cobbler the first recipe I tried years ago,
best cobbler dough ever!

You use the same dough for his Blackberry Cobbler
and it's well worth passing on.

Cobbler Batter:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
scant 1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons frozen, unsalted butter
4 tablespoons frozen Crisco
4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Lee suggests making the dough in a food processor but I just mix the flour and salt in a bowl and use my old little pastry cutter to cut in the butter and Crisco. Then stir in the ice water until you can form it in a ball. Either refrigerate until ready to roll out, or I go ahead and roll it out right away.

Put the whole round of dough over a large pie plate and let it hang over. You're going to just fold the excess over the top after the filling is put in.

So easy! 

And if you have a neighbor like we do who brings you fresh-picked blackberries, count your blessings.

For the blackberry filling, none is easier than Lee's:

6 cups washed blackberries

(I only had 3 cups)

3/4 cups sugar (I used less)

1/4 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

Dump berries into the dough in pie pan.

Sprinkle sugar over.
Fold excess pastry over top.

Dot with pats of butter.

Sprinkle a little sugar on top of pastry.

Bake for 45 minutes, don't over brown.

Be sure to put some aluminum foil on

bottom rack to catch any spills.

The last step is to enjoy,

either with vanilla ice cream or without.

And enjoy, we did.

Blackberry Cobbler, summer is officially here!

Serendipity

Richardson Wright, editor-in-chief of House & Garden from 1914 to 1946, wrote this:

"Here is a nice word that collectors will enjoy--Serendipity. It was coined by Horace Walpole out of the fairy tale, 'The Three Princes of Serendip,' the heroes of which were always making discoveries by accident. And that is its meaning--the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. When you wander into an antique shop in search of a pewter candlestick and find a unique piece of Irish glass for next to nothing, you are blessed with Serendipity."

I felt blessed with Serendipity one day last spring when R.H. and I had an hour to spare before going to a birthday party in a town near us and dropped into the local Goodwill. On the bottom shelf in the dish section, pushed to the back, were two stacks of luncheon plates taped together.

I loved the hand painted look of them and put them in our basket after turning one stack over to look at the back. It read "Martres" and "France" and were 50 cents apiece!

Once home I searched online and found only two like them, in Belgium for about $14 each. Not exactly diamonds and rubies but nevertheless, it was Serendipity.

I almost felt like Serendipity had blessed me again when I went outside to look for something to make a centerpiece for the table and found these few blossoms on one side of the hydrangea bush, the other side turned brown.

And old-fashioned bouquet for an old square blue Mason jar.

These plates were just right for chicken salad. The well loved and much missed novelist, Laurie Colwin, wrote: "Chicken salad has a certain glamour about it. Like the little black dress it is chic and adaptable and can be taken anywhere. You can dress it down and feed it to a child, or dress it up and serve it at a dinner party. You can accessorize it in an interesting way and astonish your friends at lunch."

Everyone has a favorite recipe for chicken salad. I started with the Barefoot Contessa's recipe and then changed it to include green apple slivers after tasting the delicious chicken salad at the Storie Street Grille in Blowing Rock, North Carolina [here].

I also made one of my favorite soups from Lee Bailey's Soup Meals with leeks, celery, onions and shallots. If you love soups you won't go wrong looking for Mr. Bailey's soup cookbook on used book sites. The recipe for Carrot-Dill Soup I made last winter [here] is also in this book.

Since I can't go to Serendipity in New York for this (at $25,000.00)....

[here]

I will go to Goodwill and hope for Serendipity. Where have you found Serendipity?

Soup & Salad Night

Have you ever tried Sparrow Lane Vinegars? They are delicious! We soon used up a bottle of their Cabernet Sauvignon Vinegar in our favorite vinaigrette and could not find more anywhere. We ordered some direct from Sparrow Lane along with several other of their varieties, wondering how well glass bottles of vinegar would ship. They arrived safely due to this superior packaging:

Aren't they pretty all lined up here? (And no, they don't sell the pickled peppers. That's how we recycled the empty cabernet bottle!)

Enclosed with our shipment was a recipe page, and we've made one of their salad recipes three times now. It features their D'Anjou Pear Vinegar that smells heavenly. They call it Summer Salad but we think it should be named Fall & Winter Salad. Here is the recipe:

Sparrow Lane Summer Salad [that we call Fall & Winter Salad]

1 large red apple, sliced thinly

1 large pear, sliced thinly

1 large orange, peeled and sliced

1/3 cup Sparrow Lane Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 tablespoons Sparrow Lane D'Anjou Pear Vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup chopped pecans [I saute them whole and sprinkle with sea salt]

lettuce leaves

In a large bowl, combine sliced fruit [I arrange them on top of the lettuce instead of combining them]. In a small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, and honey; blend well. Pour oil mixture over the fruit, tossing to coat well. Arrange fruit on 6 lettuce lined salad dishes; sprinkle each with a heaping teaspoon of chopped nuts. Serves 6.

Perfect with this salad is Lee Bailey's Carrot and Dill Soup. I double this recipe and freeze half for later. And please use fresh dill in the soup, not dried. It makes all the difference in the world.

Lee Bailey's Carrot and Dill Soup

The combination of carrots and dill is a marriage made in heaven. Add as much dill as you like.

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

6 ounces onion, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 pounds carrots (weight after removing tops)

3/4 pound sweet potato

1/2 pound baking potato

5 cups rich chicken stock

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Scant 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 generous tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

[I add a pinch of mace also]

Sour cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a medium skillet and saute onion until light golden and just beginning to brown.

Carefully scrub carrots and cut into rings, unpeeled. [I admit that I peeled them.]

Steam until soft.

Meanwhile, place sweet and white potatoes in oven and bake until soft, about 1 hour.

Scrape sauteed onion into a food processor, deglaze pan with a little of the chicken stock and add this to the onion. [I just use a hand blender for this job.] Puree until thoroughly mixed and very fine. 

Pour mixture into a saucepan, then add the dill and chicken stock. 

Simmer over very low heat for about 15 minutes. 

Soup may be thinned with additional stock, milk, or cream.

Correct seasoning, and serve warm with a dollop of sour cream, yogurt, or creme fraiche on top.

Serves  6 to 8.

To go with this soup and salad supper we had tasty chewy Labriola Pretzel Slider Buns.