Delay

For the past few days Zachariah has been feeling a little under the weather (Nothing horrible, just a cough and a really runny nose). Which means we have been taking it easy during the day. Which means he hasn't been able to run out any energy. Which means he is not tired when it comes time for his nap. That being said, I have not had as much time to write my weekly vaccine post. If I cant get it up sometime today I will do it this weekend. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't forget about it! :)



And because I cant bring myself to have just one measly paragraph in this post, I have a mini story from yesterday to share with you.

Z and I were sitting in the living room trying to decide on a movie to watch. I asked Zachariah what movie he wanted to watch. He wouldn't choose one, so I put in Pooh. Its a classic and we both love it. After 8 min. of previews (which we both love to watch) the menu screen came on.

As soon as he heard the music, Zachariah said (in an uncertain tone), "Uh, noooo. I dont yike dis." Then I responded with a calm, "What?!?!? Since when do you not like Pooh???"

Without paying me a lick of attention, he promptly got off the couch, walked up to the tv and turned it off.


Then he sat on my floor and proceeded to take all of "his" movies out and lay them out in front of him.



After about three years of sitting there on the floor, he finally decided on Thomas. Which isn't even a movie. It's a collection of tv episodes.

This kid has some nerve to watch Thomas the Train over Classic Pooh. Geeze. What is wrong with this generation?!? He better be glad that he happens to be the cutest kid in the world. Or else I would not have allowed that kind of behavior in my house. Its just appalling.

New Trick

"Mama, look!"

"I up... sidedown!"

Best. Dresser. Ever.

Due to this whole big boy bed thing, we realized that Zachariah needed a dresser of some sort. He didn't use a dresser as a baby because his room has a massive bookshelf. We put some green bins on the shelves and put his clothes in the bins. It worked nicely.


But for the past 6 months or so the bins have just become annoying. His clothes are bigger and he has more of them. So they just don't fit as well as 6 months onesies. I started hanging up most of this clothes in his closet and the bins were deemed useless.

I say all of that to say... the day before we took the crib down Daniel and I had the difficult task of finding a dresser for Zachariah. Dressers these days are cheap. Not the cost. The cost is never cheap. But they are cheaply made. Everything is made of particle board and it falls apart in a year or so. And with a 2 year old little boy, I doubt something like that would even last that long.

So, I definitely didn't want something made cheaply, but I didn't want some fancy shmancy thing either. I don't want to pay out the butt for a piece of furniture and then get angry when Zachariah scratches it or draws on it with a sharpie. Do you see my predicament? What is a girl to do in this situation???

So yeah. I was not looking forward to this adventure. But low and behold, Daniel found the PERFECT thing! No joke. You wanna see it?



Here it is! This is seriously the best dresser ever. It is a real piece of furniture. Its made of real mahogany, not particle board! And it doesn't have tracks that will break over time. Zachariah is NOT going to destroy this thing. It is heavy duty. It is the real deal. And I am one happy camper.

We got this from Old Mills Furniture here in town. Every single thing they own is amazing. I saw about two dozen other pieces of furniture that I must have in the future, so I guarantee you I will be back for more.

Old Mills has great furniture for great prices and I recommend that you go there immediately for all of your furniture needs. And while your there, buy me the red china cabinet or the teal end table.

:)

Molten Chocolate Cake

I know its a bit early in the day to be thinking about chocolate... but oh dear heavens. This is by far one of the best things in the whole wide world. I got this recipe off the Tasty Kitchen website, and it is amazing. You have GOT to make this. Immediately.




Gather up your ingredients. You will need some baking chocolate, butter, eggs, egg yolk, powdered sugar and flour.




Toss a sick of butter and four squares of baking chocolate into a big mixing bowl. Microwave it for about a minute. (You can find a box of baking chocolates on the baking isle of just about any grocery store.)




The butter will be mostly melted, but the chocolate will not. Slowly whisk it together. The chocolate will start melting. If your butter is not super de duper soft, put the bowl back in the microwave for another 25 seconds. That should be enough to get it whisk-able.




After a short time of whisking the butter blends in nicely with the chocolate. The picture on the left shows chunks of chocolate still left. You do NOT want that. Keep whisking until you get the perfect, smooth goodness that is picture to the right.




When the chocolate is done being whisked, add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the chocolate. Stir until its well blended.




Now take two whole eggs and two egg yolks and dump them into the bowl. Whisk (or stir. whatever floats your boat) together until combined.





Now all that is left is to throw in 6 tablespoons of flour and stir that together nicely.




Grab four custard cups and spray them with cooking spray. Don't be a wimp about it. Coat them really good!




And now distribute the mixture evenly among the cute little custard bowls.




Place all four custard cups onto a baking tray and pop them into an oven (that has been preheated to 425 degrees) and bake them for 13-14 minutes.




After 13-ish minutes, you pull out these beauties! You want the edges to be firm, but the middle to be soft.




I love individual cakes. They are just so cute!




Ok, now you are going to want to invert this onto a plate. Because I don't have three hands, I just put the plate on top of the custard cup to show you. You are going to want to hold the custard cup in a dish towel (they are piping hot!) and put the plate over it.



Then flip it over! The cake will just slide right out of the custard cup. Yay for cooking spray!




And this is the final result. How adorable is this dessert? I mean, seriously. Add some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and you can pretty much call this heaven on earth.




Oh man. Look at all of that chocolaty goodness. So amazing. So delicious. So darn good. Make this now. You will thank me (and the tasty kitchen member who came up with this) later.



Molten Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
½ cups Butter
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2 whole Egg Yolks
6 Tablespoons Flour


Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet.
Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
Divide between cups.
Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream.

Weirdo

We were over at a friends house for a play date last week and I looked over and saw this...


It made me laugh, so I decided to share it with you.

Because I am thoughtful like that.

Big Boy Bed

Yep. It finally happened. Last week my baby moved from a crib to a big boy bed.

Watching Zachariah move from the crib to his big boy bed has been so fun. And a little frustrating. But mostly fun.



He is so proud of his big boy furniture. Whenever someone comes over he is excited to show them his room. He constantly talks about his big boy bed and tells us how much he "wuvs" it. We still need to get some stuff on the walls (while in his crib he decided to redecorate and take everything off the walls that was in his reach) and we want to get a lamp for his dresser, but besides that we are super pleased with the new look.




The first couple nights were rough. He cried for his crib, he clung to me and begged to be rocked (too bad for him, cause we took the rocking chair out). As soon as we would leave he would jump out of bed and open the door to come find us. And that became a fun game to play. After two hours of him coming out of his room to find us I finally put a childproof door knob cover on his door so he couldn't get out. And let me tell you, that worked like a charm! As soon as he realized he couldn't get out he just climbed back in bed and eventually went to sleep.




Nap time is still a challenge. He will get up and read books, play with his stuffed animals or moisturize his skin with Desitin before he ends up falling asleep. There have been a few skipped naps as well... but we are getting there. I am quickly learning what needs to be put on a higher shelf in order for him to fall asleep quicker.




All in all this experience has been a good one so far. Zachariah is having a blast with his new found independence and I am having almost just as much fun learning an in depth lesson about patience.

More pictures of Z in his big boy bed coming soon. :)

DTaP

This is the third vaccine in my twelve part vaccine blog series. Here are the links to my previous vaccine posts in case you missed them or want to refer back.
Introduction
HIB
PC


***Disclaimer: The information about vaccines in this post came from The Vaccine Book by Robert Sears. I am in the process of reading the book and I am simply sharing as I learn. I strongly recommend doing your own research before deciding if vaccines are right for your child.***

DTaP stands for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. Since this vaccine covers three different diseases, this post is going to be a doozie. There was about twenty pages of info in this chapter, so I am going to try and give you the main highlights without writing 10 pages worth of stuff. Wish me luck. :)


Lets start by trying to understand a little about each individual disease, then we will cover the vaccine.


Diphtheria is a very serious throat infection that is caused by a bacterium. The germ secretes a toxin that irritates the lining of the throat and upper lungs, causing severe coughing and breathing difficulty. The breathing passage becomes swollen and may close off all together.


Things you should know about diphtheria:

- It is transmitted like the common cold.

- It is not very common. There has been a maximum of only five cases reported each year. Many years go by without any reported cases.

- It is a serious disease. About 10% of the cases are fatal.

- It is treatable. An antioxin is given through an IV and antibiotics are given to kill the germ.


Tetanus is an acute infectious disease that is caused by a bacterium that lives in soil and on dirty, rusty metal and can also contaminate unsterile needles. Once introduced to a deep dirty wound (or through a needle), the germs multiply and secrete a toxin that enters a persons nerves and causes paralysis throughout the entire body.

Things you should know about tetanus:

- It is not common. There are 50 to 100 cases a year. All occur in adults over 25 who didn't receive a booster shot.

- It is a serious disease. 15% of the cases are fatal.

- It is kind of treatable (if that makes any sense at all). Antibiotics can be given to help eliminate the germ, but there is no medication that will reverse the paralyzing toxin. It just has to run its course. A person needs intensive care and life support while the paralysis wears off.


Pertussis (aka: whooping cough) is a bacterium that infects the upper lungs. It is similar to diphtheria, but not as serious. Symptoms mimic the common cold in the first week, but the couch worsens into prolonged coughing fits that last from 30 seconds to two minutes. The cough is so severe that a person can barely breath, and when breath is finally possible, it sounds like a gasping "whoop".

Things you should know about pertussis:

- It is transmitted like the common cold.

- It can last for as long as 3 months, even with treatment.

- Infection usually creates lifelong immunity, but the "natural immunity" is not perfect, so there is no guarantee.

- It is very common. About 10,000 reported cases each year.

- This is a very serious disease during the first six months of life. There is a 1% fatality for that age group. It is not considered serious in older infants, children and adults.

- Again, this disease is kind of treatable. Antibiotics are given to kill the germ so a person is no longer contagious. But the damage to the airway caused by infection produces weeks of ongoing cough.


Whew! Ok, everyone take a quick breather and we will move onto the vaccine part of this post.
Nope, we are not slowing down for a break. Buck up Private. We gotta keep on truckin'!


Ok, here are some things you should know about the DTaP vaccine:

- It is not a live virus vaccine. (That means that it does not contain the entire germ, so there is no way to become infected with the disease from the vaccine.)

- Side effects used to be very severe, but since the 1990's the side effects have been fewer and less severe. Standard side effects occur more often with DTaP than with HIB. 15% of babies suffer from a standard side effect. (I will do a separate post that will list out the standard side effects for you all)

- Serious reactions that have been reported are Guillain- Barre Syndrome, brain damage and other nerve dysfunctions. These reactions are rare.

- Two of the three brands of this vaccine use cow tissue extract in their tetanus and or diphtheria culture in order to nourish the germs. (Um, gross!)

- There are several questionable ingredients in this vaccine. Mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, polysorbate and 2- phenoxyethenanol. Formaldehyde is a toxic chemical. It is the chemical that is used to preserved frogs, worms, pigs and all that other stuff that we dissected in biology. Chances are that we inhaled more of that in biology than will be injected with the vaccine. Polysorbate and 2- phenoxyethenanol is toxic in large amounts. The amount in a shot is probably harmless.


Reasons to get the vaccine:
Pertussis is very serious for babies in the first six months of life. Diptheria is rare int he US, but its very dangerous. Vaccinating helps keep it out of our population. Giving the tetanus vaccine series while a person is young is a convenient way to make sure a child has protection as he grows up.

Some people choose not to get this vaccine because tetanus and diphtheria is not likely for a baby to contract. The chemical components are a concern to parents and cow tissue extract may concern parents.


Closing paragraph from Doctor Sears:
There are three diseases involved with this vaccine. All are serious, but only one, pertussis, is common in the United States. With pertussis so prevalent, this vaccine is very important. Infant fatalities do occur. The one drawback is the ingredient list, although, thankfully, the actual amounts of these chemicals are like a drop in a bucket- and a very small drop in a big bucket. Vaccination rates for DTaP must remain high if we are to keep pertussis at bay. I've never seen any diphtheria or tetanus in my office, but I sure do see my fair share of pertussis- at least one case each month. And virtually all of these are in unvaccinated kids. I have had to hospitalize a few young babies, but fortunately they pulled through without any trouble. I consider this an important vaccine for infants and toddlers.

My opinion:
I am NOT a fan of the ingredient list. Not at all. I am also not a fan of cow tissue extract being in the vaccine. And since tetanus and diphtheria are not common, my first instinct is to say "Na. I wont worry about this vaccine for my kids." But pertussis makes me very nervous. And for that reason alone I think this will go on the list of vaccines that my children will get. But they will probably only get two out of the five doses. I probably wont have them receive this vaccine after the age of six months. But I will obviously play that by ear.


That's it! Did you make it? Do I have anyone left reading this post?

*chirp chirp*

Well, if anyone IS left reading this, you get a giant cookie. :) I would love to know if you all are finding this helpful/informative. Or if you would like to just stop the vaccine posts all together. I may do a poll sometime in the future, but if you aren't scared, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think about these posts. :)

Rainy Day Entertainment

Yesterday was rainy. And cold. The rain and cold makes for a very deary day. Z and I desperately needed to get out of the house, but cold and rainy days aren't the best for outside activities. So what did we do? We did an outside activity... inside! Well, inside the car at least.

We decided to take some bread down to a nearby "lake" (its really just a large pond) and fed the ducks! When the weather is nice we like to take stroll around the "lake", but because of all the rain, the walking path was pretty gross. Needless to say, the flooded walking path and the rain clouds looming over our heads made us stay in the car. Which was actually pretty fun!




Zachariah thought the ducks were "so cute" and could not wait to hop up in the front seat and feed them some bread. He kept saying "aww. there so happy!".




And he was right. They were happy. In fact they were so happy that they decided to call all of their friends over to our car.

Oh goodie.

I'm not gonna lie. I am so incredibly glad we had to stay in the car to feed the ducks today. They frighten the crap out of me (not literally). Those white creatures and the canadian geese that reside at this pond are vicious. No joke. They are horrible animals and they will poke your eye out for a measly piece of bread. Its a battlefield out there.




When we ran out of bread Zachariah was content to just sit and watch the ducks and vicious geese. They stuck around to see if Z would offer himself up as live bait, but once they realized he was staying put they waddled off to find some other source of nourishment.

Stupid ducks.




All in all, this little outing was just what we needed to make our dreary day less dreary. And that, my dear friends, makes for one happy mommy and toddler. :)

Dinosaurs

One of the things we got Zachariah for Christmas was a tub-o-dinosaurs. Zachariah didn't have any dino toys yet, and I knew he would love them. I mean, what little boy doesn't like dinosaurs? Exactly.

The tub came with dozens of dino's (two of each kind. You know, in case of a flood) and lots of trees and rocks. Zachariah doesn't use the rocks to play with so much as he uses them to pelt me. At least he is getting some use out of them, right?



Anyway. We like to set up our own little dinosaur island in the play room. Z has his favorite dinosaurs, of course. And so do I. I prefer the cute little ones that are standing on the rock in the middle of the picture. I just think they are so adorable! Well, except for that albino looking one to the left. He looks a bit weird. Regardless, I prefer the baby dinosaurs.




Zachariah, on the other hand, prefers the two giant dinosaurs. Who can blame him though? If we were to ever have a dinosaur duel, they would definitely eat my little dinosaurs alive. I guarantee you that is why he favors those giant things. He is always trying to gain the upper hand.




Back to the peaceful dinosaur village. Do you see how all the dinosaurs are enjoying themselves? They are walking/sitting around minding their own business, when all of a sudden...




Zachariah and his giant dinosaur comes along and destroys the entire village!

How rude.




And to add insult to injury, he makes both of his dinosaurs do a little victory dance. Yep. He definitely picked the giant dinosaurs as his favorites so he could take down my army in one fell swoop.

What a mischievous little goober. I am putting my foot down. I will no longer allow this kind of behavior in my house. My dinosaurs will be treated with respect!




Dang. He is good. Real good.

Alright, fine. Zachariah, you can stomp all over my dinosaurs whenever you want. I just cant handle the cuteness!


Ah well. Better luck next time for my poor little dino's. :)

A Picture

Pc Vaccine

If you missed my intro post or the post about the HIB vaccine, then don't forget to go back and read them! If you are all caught up, then get ready for another informative post about the vaccines that are given to our kids! This weeks vaccine is PC.

***Disclaimer: The information about vaccines in this post came from The Vaccine Book by Robert Sears. I am in the process of reading the book and I am simply sharing as I learn. I strongly recommend doing your own research before deciding if vaccines are right for your child.***


I don’t know about you, but when Zachariah got his PC vaccine I had no clue what it stood for. Heck, I didn't even know which vaccines he was being given at the time. Call me crazy, but I think that is something the Doctor should have informed me of. Why did I let my son get that vaccine without knowing what it was? Ugh. Oh well. I cant turn back time. But I can figure all of this stuff out now and hopefully be more prepared with my next kid.

Pc stands for Pneumoccal Disease. It is a bacterium that causes a wide range of illnesses, from mild cold symptoms and ear infections to severe pneumonia, blood stream infections and meningitis.


Things you should know about Pc:

It is transmitted like the common cold.

It is a common bacterial cause of respiratory infections.

It is the most common cause of infant meningitis.

Serious Pc infections occur mostly in infants ages two or younger. Serious cases in healthy children and adults are uncommon.

It is fatal mainly to the elderly.

It is treatable. Serious infections require hospitalization with IV antibiotics for several days.

This vaccine is usually not given after 24 months of age.

This is NOT a live virus vaccine. (That means that it does not contain the entire germ, so there is no way to become infected with the disease from the vaccine.)

This vaccine contains aluminum, which is a controversial ingredient. (Babies should not get this shot in the same month as other aluminum-containing shots)

Seizures are one of the side effects from this vaccine. Seizures are not very common, but it happens in 1 in every 20,000 infants. Many of which already had a history of seizures.


Reasons to get this vaccine:
Pc is a very serious infection. It occurs mainly in infants and in the elderly, so it makes sense to immunize babies.

Some people choose not to get this vaccine because it has a higher rate of seizures than other vaccines and it has other standard side effects. Another reason some parents may decline this vaccine is that if their baby is breasted and not in large group day care, the baby has a lower-than-average risk of catching this disease.


Closing paragraph from Doctor Sears:
Pc diseases can be very bad or only minor irritations. The problem is, you don't know until you're stuck with one. The Pc germ is a fairly common resident in day cares, schools and checkout lines at the grocery store. Unless you are a housebound agoraphobic or a stay-at-home mom who never, ever takes her baby out, you and your kids will encounter this germ. The Pc vaccine offers a "get out of jail free" card, so to speak. The shot does come with some possible side effects, but fortunately these are rare. Overall, I'd call this a fairly important vaccine.

My opinion:
I believe that Zachariah received three doses of this vaccine. I am ok with that. But I am not wild about the fact that the vaccine contains aluminum. If my children were going to be in a daycare setting, I would definitely strongly consider this vaccine. If my future children are breastfed and never enter the doors of a daycare, then I see no immediate need for this vaccine.


(Side note: Doctor Sears discusses the controversy of injected aluminum later on in the book. I will do a separate post for that subject later on down the road.)

Product Review

Let me start this blog post by stating that I love Leap Frog. I really do. We do not own a single Leap Frog product that we don't love. I don't know if we have just happened upon some of their best products, or if they really make everything exceptional... but so far they haven't failed us.

That being said, I guess it is no surprise that we are now the proud owners of, yet again, another fabulous Leap Frog product!


(It was a very rainy day when I took most of these pictures, so please excuse the lack of light. Thanks for your patience and understanding.) :)


This is called the Tag Jr. It is a lot like the Tag reading system, but designed for toddlers. Zachariah received this for Christmas this year and it happens to be one of my favorite gifts!!! It comes with the everything you see in the picture above. The book pal (which is the white and green thingamajig) and a sample book.





Since the Tag Jr only comes with the sample books, any other books you want you need to purchase. Zachariah got The Backyardagins book for Christmas, and then we bought him ABC Animal Orchestra and 123 Dora. They also have Elmo, Cars, Curious George, Pooh and other books too! Eventually we hope to buy him more, but these three are doing just fine for now.




You know whats cool? You can program the book pal to say your kids name. Every time Zachariah turns it on it greets him. It will say something like "Hello, Zachariah!", or "How is my friend, Zachariah?" That one actually freaks me out. But the other greetings are cute. There are about 4 of them.

You can also hook the book pal up to your computer to track your child's progress. It basically tells you what your kid has been looking at the most. But since I am always right there with him while he is "reading" with it, I haven't had a need for that feature. That was mine and Daniel's thing with this. We did NOT want it to teach our son how to read. We want to do that. We were very determined to not use this as a babysitter for our kid, and so far we have done a good job of playing with him while he is using this.

Ok. Stepping off my soap box now. Onto the rest of the post! :)


Once you program your reading pal, you go online and download the books you have purchased, then hover over the pages with the book pal. Whatever you touch with the book pal it will "read" it. Or make music. Or sounds.

The book that Zachariah is reading in that picture is the ABC Animal Orchestra. It is my favorite. There is an animal playing an instrument for each letter of the alphabet. For example... the page he is on has the letter J. The animal is Jaguar and its playing a Jug. The Iguana's are playing Indian Bells. The Elephant is playing the Electric Guitar. Get my drift?

You can put the book pal over anything on the book. If you put it over the letters, it tells you what the letter is and what sound it makes. If you put it over the animal, it tells you what animal it is and what sound it makes. If you put it over the instrument, it tells you what the instrument is called and it makes the appropriate sound. There is just SO much to do with these books!




And on the last page of every book there is a song (or two, or three. Depends on the book). If you put book pal over the alphabet it sings the ABC song. If you put it over the animal playing the instruments, it plays the ABC song in different styles of music. Hip hop, jazz, reggae and a few others. Z really loves that page. He likes to dance to all the different types of music. :)




He also loves to see if anyone is living in the book pal. He will often turn it upside down and say "Hello in there!". Its hilarious. And since it talks to him, I cannot convince him that someone isn't there. Poor kid.




The long and short of it is, I love this product. It is a great educational toy. It can be a tad expensive trying to buy all the books, but I say just buy a couple and put others on a birthday or Christmas list. And I would STRONGLY recommend all three that we have. They are fabulous. :)


Stay tuned tomorrow for another vaccine post!
Happy Thursday!

Blackberry Cobbler

Mmmm. Desserts. I love desserts. And I love cobbler. Peach cobbler is my favorite, but my hubby happens to favor blackberry cobbler. So since I love desserts, cobbler and my husband, I decided to go ahead and make some blackberry cobbler. Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.

I have never made a cobbler before, so I was a bit nervous. But this recipe was super easy, so I decided to give it a go. And I documented it, step by step, for you all to see.

Your welcome. :)




The ingredients consist of milk, sugar, self rising flour, butter and blackberries (fresh or frozen).





First, place half a cup (1 stick) of butter in a microwave safe dish. Nuke it for 30-45 seconds, or until melted.





Whisk together 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of self rising flour and 1 cup of milk. Mix well.





Then take your melted butter, poor it into the bowl and whisk together.





Now, butter a 3 quart baking dish.

My 3 quart baking dish was being used to hold leftover baked lemon pasta (another PW recipe), so I had to settle for my 2.5 quart dish. It worked fine, but my cobbler would have turned out a little better if I had used a 3 quart. Just so ya know. :)





Now rinse and pat dry two cups of blackberries. Fresh would be fabulous, but all I had was frozen. So that's what I used. And they tasted fabulous. Just so ya know.





Poor the batter into your baking dish and drop the blackberries evenly over the top of the batter.





Once you have evenly distributed the berries, sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar over the berries.

If you are trying to take pictures during this process, the sugar may not sprinkle evenly. So, if you can help it, try not to take pictures while baking. It causes sugar to pile up unnecessarily. Ahem.





Now, pop this baby into the oven (preheated to 350 degrees) and bake for 1 hour. Or until golden brown. I kind of didn't hear my timer go off, so mine was a little closer to brown instead of golden. Luckily it didn't burn, but it should definitely be pulled out before this point. Just so ya know.

Oh, and if you want, sprinkle two tablespoons of sugar on the cobber about 10 min. till its done. A little extra sugar never hurt anyone, right?





Wala! You now have a tasty blackberry cobbler ready to serve to your hungry friends or family. Or just keep it for yourself. I will not judge.

(Note: If I would have used the 3 quart dish the crust would have risen more evenly. Again, did not affect the taste, just the presentation. Which I was not to concerned about.)




And beware. Your husband may not wait for you to dish it onto a plate. It is very likely that he will just grab a spoon and dig in. Yes, it is that good.

Next time I am going to substitute peaches for blackberries! I cant wait!

Hope you enjoy!




Pioneer Woman's Blackberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter, melted
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk
2 cups fresh (or frozen) blackberries (or blueberries, peaches, raspberries)


Preparation Instructions:

Melt butter in a microwavable dish. Pour 1 cup of sugar and flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk. Mix well. Then, pour in melted butter and whisk it all well together. Butter a baking dish.

Rinse and pat dry the blackberries. Pour the batter into the buttered baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly. Sprinkle ¼ cup sugar over the top.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until golden and bubbly. If you desire, sprinkle an additional teaspoon of sugar over the cobbler 10 minutes before it’s done.