Ghetto Cobbler!

Just a quick one today!  And normally I wouldn't include this at all, because it's no semblance of actual cooking... way Sandra Lee.  But it does fit into that whole category of how to use up 50 thousand pints of jam you made last summer, so there you go.  A little canning kindness for this phenomenally warm, sunny Saturday.

Last night we were barbecuing spicy sausages and black beans and rice for dinner.  Sitting on the patio and drinking a bottle of Kung Fu Girl Riesling, the evening just cried out in agony for dessert.  I'm not a big dessert person; I'd rather spend my calories on extra savory treats.  But every once and a while, a meal needs a sweet finale. 

I racked my brain for something, anything I could do with what was on hand.  No fresh fruit, no frozen pies, not even a box of instant cake mix.  In the fridge were two jars of preserves:  my chunky peach jam cracked for the pork roast, and blackberry preserves that Matt tried to spread on toast (not the most successful of ventures).  Mmm, delicious suspended fruit.  The perfect accompaniment to weather that they could actually survive in.  What I wouldn't give for a cobbler.

Hmmm. 

I didn't have cobbler, but we did have a bag of Schwan's buttermilk biscuits in the freezer.  Behind that was a carton of vanilla ice cream I bought a couple months ago.  I could probably bake up the biscuits and make a Chopped Napoleon-esque "deconstructed" cobbler.  I think deconstructed is just chefspeak for ghetto.  Anyway, the biscuits baked beautifully while we ate dinner, all fluffy and huge and flaky.  No, they're not homemade, but they looked better than any biscuits I've made so far in my life.  I split them up and layered peaches for me, blackberry preserves for Matt, then topped with ice cream.  Kinda ice cream sundae, kinda cobbler, so freakishly good!  The warm biscuits just kind of melting the ice cream, giving a savory-salty tint to the jam and ice cream... summer personified. 

Getting creative with the produce you can is the most fun and rewarding kitchen fun you're probably going to have, since you're making something fabulous with SOMETHING YOU MADE!  Every result tastes better, because it's absolutely yours.  As the markets poise to open in a few weekends and my shorts come out of the drawer for the first time in 7 months, I can't wait to start putting up more "secret ingredients" for our own little Iron Chef moments.  Happy Spring, everyone!