grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

I am excited to be a new regular contributor to Inspiration Café! Each month I will be sharing information about gardening, specifically herbs, recipes and gardening projects. My personal blog, Grace Grits and Gardening, includes stories of family, food, garden, life, and tales of growing up on a farm in Northeast Arkansas. A bit of personal info…my husband and I live in Dallas, but recently purchased a small home in Fayetteville, Arkansas where we hope to retire…someday… We are empty nesters with two amazing children (Longhorn daughter, Razorback son), but our miniature schnauzers, Lucy and Annabelle, run the household.

Annabelle and Lucy

I’m a big believer in herbs. They are packed with antioxidants and full of health benefits. Plus, herbs are the only crop I can successfully grow in my postage-stamp-sized yard under the blazing Dallas summer sun. And, as the daughter of a cotton farmer, I must grow something…

Lemon Thyme Blackberry Cobbler

An entire bag of lemons stared at me each time I walked through the kitchen. (My husband tends to overbuy when he does the grocery shopping.) With lemons to somehow use up and enough thyme for a restaurant, I decided to add both to my simple blackberry cobbler recipe. If the combo lemon/thyme/blackberry turned out to be disgusting, only the schnauzers would know…

It smelled heavenly. It looked heavenly. I took a teeny tiny sinful bite to make sure it was edible. Very delicious! Both the lemon and thyme added a little something-something to the recipe. I immediately packed up half of it for a few neighbors, yet left a bit for John’s dessert. I managed to successfully ignore it the remainder of the afternoon.

Like everything I cook, it’s super easy. If the recipe is difficult, I move on to something else.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 stick unsalted butter

1 & 1/4 cup of sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

2 cups of blackberries (frozen or fresh)

Zest of 2 large lemons

Fresh Thyme – 2 teaspoons chopped

butter+lemon zest

Method:

1. Melt butter in the microwave. Mix the zest of 2 lemons into the butter. Use a tiny bit of this mixture to butter your baking dish.

2. Rinse and pat dry the blackberries. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the flour and the thyme together and sprinkle this over the blackberries. Gently Mix.

3. Pour 1 cup of sugar and remaining flour into a mixing bowl, whisking in milk. Mix well. Then, pour melted butter/lemon zest in and whisk it all together.

see the thyme sprinkled on top?

4. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries over the top of the batter; distributing evenly.

5. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the top.

6. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until golden and bubbly. About 10 minutes before it is done, you can sprinkle a bit more sugar and thyme over the top if you would like. The sugar will give it a bit of a crust & sparkle on top. And, you probably will have a lot of leftover thyme, so you may as well use a bit more.

A shout-out for thyme... In medieval times it was regarded as the plant that provided courage and vigor. The ancient Romans used it as a treatment for depression. It contains antioxidants and essential oils thought to alleviate stress, provide a calming effect and relieve aches and pains in the joints. One teaspoon crushed, added to boiling water, steeped for 10 minutes and then strained, makes a great tea, which will help with sore throats, coughs and mouth irritations. You can add a bit of honey to sweeten.

A big thank you Inspiration Café for allowing me to become a regular contributor! I hope you will stop by and check out my blog at Grace Grits and Gardening. I love comments and followers.

Daybreak

Lemon Thyme Blackberry Cobbler

Breakfast Smoothie

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.