On 3/5/2015 10:34 PM, Fran Farmer wrote:
On 6/03/2015 11:16 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 3/5/2015 5:05 PM, Fran Farmer wrote:
On 5/03/2015 11:27 AM, George Shirley wrote:

Sure wish you were several thousand miles closer, our pear tree needs
another three or four good years before we can really pick a crop. And,
with many pick-your-own farms and orchards nearby, none have pear
trees.
I make a very good pear jelly, pear sauce (like apple sauce but
better),
and boiling water bath can lots of quarts of pear slices for pies,
cobblers, and just eating with ice cream on top.

What is a 'cobbler'?

I'm wondering if it is anything like what David and I would call a
'crumble'. I make various 'crumbles' eg Apple Crumble, rhubarb crumble
etc. It's a topping over stewed fruit and the 'crumble' component is
traditionally made up of flour, sugar and butter that looks crumb like
before it is baked in the oven to make a crunchy topping. Lovely served
with ice cream or cream in the cold weather and much loved by men more
than women IME.
Pretty much the same thing, a US southern cobbler is stewed fruit with
dough ladled into it and the dough puffs up when baked. Favorites here
are blackberry, dewberry, peach, and pretty much any available fruit.

I can dig up a recipe and post it if you like.

Thanks for the kind offer but I've just done a google, which in all
honesty, I should have done to begin with rather than asking you, but
then it does make for newsgroup conversations I guess. I've learned a
few more things about American food as a result of my hunt and that is
always a worthwhile activity.

I've made blueberry and
everything else but apples. About the only way I eat apples is sliced up
and have a plate of sharp cheddar cheese handy.

Yum. Apples and Blue vein. I'm slobbering at the thought.

I was brought up in a house full of women, ranging from a great
grandmother on down to two older sisters. Being the only boy child I
learned to cook, clean, and preserve pretty much anything. When you have
that many women hovering over you you learn to be polite and correct.

Snort! You mean you didn't learn to dish it out to them when they
dished it out to you?
Back then if I came home from school with a note from the teacher or the
principal I got whopped good by all five of those women. It was the old
timer way of teaching kids to be a) polite to their elders, b) do well
in school and not cause problems, c) don't make Mama mad, you might die.
Of course there were lots of hugs and kisses after the punishment. My
grandmother taught me how to play board games, my big sisters taught me
to read and write at four years of age, great grannie let me cut the
sweet gum small branches she brushed her teeth with. She dipped snuff
and brushed her teeth with snuff. Died at 89 years of age with a full
set of teeth. I loved all of them to pieces just like they loved me.
They did make sure I would grow up to be polite, courteous, and not a
trouble maker. Seems to have worked.

I think I'll make a blackberry cobbler tomorrow and maybe a loaf of
zucchini bread.

Show off! My poor old zucchinis have got so much powdery mildew on them
that I'll be amazed if I get another zucchini off them before the frosts
come.



Last summer's zucchini crop was sparse, only picked about six or seven
fruit, they all weighed more than three pounds and were seedless. Put up
a lot of shredded zukes and also yellow squash, which also makes a good
squash bread and can be used in casseroles.

Got down to almost freezing again early this morning, the rest of the
week the weather heads are predicting temps in the 70's and 80's. So
much for climate change. Will plant spring carrots today and clean out
the last of the fall garden. Then will amend those two beds and get
ready for all the seeds we have on the counter now. We have tomatoes and
sweet chiles nearly a foot tall under the grow light and others coming
on steadily. It's either plant out or fight the jungle inside.

I used to fly in and out of both Australia and New Zealand back in the
late nineteen fifties, was a crew member in a U.S. Navy transport
squadron. We flew stuff all over the world and it was a hoot for a rural
Texas farmboy. Don't miss it because wife and I averaged over 100,000
miles a year in flight time when we worked and lived in the Middle East
and other parts of the world. I haven't flown since 1990 when we came
home for good. Met a lot of nice people though, at least the sober ones. G