The month of September has slipped away without me barely noticing. I'm a lover of lists and each evening I jot down the intended work, be it columns or photographs, for the next day. The pleasure that comes from ticking off completed jobs seems to never lack satisfaction; please tell me that you are all like this, or is it a case that I need to get out more? However, for the past few weeks I've been unable to happily tick all the boxes each evening, as I have been unbelievably busy. Columns, recipes, photographs, radio interviews and cookery demos have proved September to be my busiest month since the release of
the book. Naturally for someone like myself, who relies on freelance work, this most certainly is a good thing.
I try to have the bulk of my day's work completed once the children arrive in from school, apart from an odd photo or email. With each new school year it appears that the homework has doubled, so most evening's are consumed with grammar, maths, spellings and the odd disagreement or two. I was never much of a homework-fan and as the years have passed this hasn't changed. Over the past few weeks, on any evenings which were dry, as soon as homework was complete,the children and I would each grab a basket and take to the fields to forage for berries, nuts and anything pretty we could get our hands on. It turns out that that evening walk really clears the head and works wonders as a stress buster for all of us.
Blackberry & Apple Cobbler
I love foraging for autumn treasures. From what we've already collected we've been making jam and pies aplenty, but I'm also filling my freezer with small batches of berries for the making of autumn pies right through the winter. Blackberry season is almost coming to an end, so take the opportunity, this weekend, to enjoy a country walk and hopefully you'll pick enough berries, and maybe a few apples, to make this rather tasty cobbler.
Ingredients
1 large cooking apple,
peeled, cored and thinly sliced
200g blackberries
75g caster sugar
Cake Batter
110g butter
110g caster sugar
175g self-raising
flour
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 teasp vanilla
extract
1tbsp oats
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven
to 200°C/fan
180°C/Gas 6. Grease a medium sized
casserole dish, with a little butter.
2. Line the bottom of
the casserole dish with the apple slices and blackberries. Sprinkle over the 75g
of sugar.
4. In a food processor
or mixer add all of the batter ingredients, apart from the oats, and mix for a
few minutes, until well combined.
5. Spoon the cake batter
evenly over the apple and blackberries. Smooth over with a knife and sprinkle
over the oats.
6. Bake in the pre-heated
oven for 35-40 minutes, until the pudding has risen, is golden in colour and cooked
through. Serve hot or cold with custard, cream or vanilla ice-cream.
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In Other News
I'm absolutely delighted to announce that Nessa's Family Kitchen has made it into the final of The Irish Blog Awards. I'd like to whole-heartily thank those who voted for my blog. The other blogs in my category are ones which I read and respect, so to be included in such a line-up is an honour.
