Boards, Oregon, and a dessert to celebrate

This morning, I drove myself to a testing center and sat in front of a computer for an hour and twenty minutes to prove myself capable to practice as a midwife. 175 questions later, I walked out as a Certified Nurse Midwife, thank goodness for instant results! I don't know that I could have handled a longer wait, studying over the last two days especially has been nerve wracking.

Some of my study time was undertaken last week on a plane flight to Oregon to deliver my niece to her new home . While there, my sister our friend and I saw some of the local sites. We went wine tasting, to the coast and on my last full day hit up the local farmer's market. In truth, it's was far more than a farmer's market, there were wares to buy and musicians and even a karate demonstration. However, my sister and I had one goal in mind and that was blueberries. Well blueberries and peaches.

After seeing Smitten Kitchen's Peach Blueberry Cobbler come across my Facebook news feed and seeing all the tremendously yummy berries at the market, I knew what I wanted for dessert that night.

Having shopped the farmer's market here at home and there in Oregon, I am a little jealous. Pretty much any berry you can imagine was up for sale. The blueberries were big and sweet, the raspberries were insane. But, (and there is a but here) no citrus.

My sister and I already decided a trade is in order. I pack up lemons off my tree here and send them to her. She packs up the berries and a few heads of the giant elephant garlic I saw and sends it to me. We live happy.

Let me say, this cobbler was awesome. The farm fresh fruit definitely helped, but the cornmeal biscuit top was excellent. We had a local wine to match, the Early Muscat from Silvan Ridge. It's a sweet, semi-sparkling wine and went so well with the berry sweet goodness of the cobbler. I came home with a bottle of it myself and we already drank it.

I knew I should have brought a case of just that home. I may have to order more for myself to go with more cobbler.

Peach Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler

Borrowed from Smitten Kitchen

So, we like carbs in my family and we doubled the amount of biscuit topping with only maybe a third more fruit filling, which may have been a bit too much. If you'd like more top, try 1 1/2 times the biscuit recipe. Otherwise I did nothing different.

Know your oven well, we didn't need the full 25 minutes because my sister's oven runs hot.

For the fruit

1 1/2 (about 4 cups) pounds peaches, pitted and cut into slices

1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries, rinsed and dried

2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the biscuit topping

3/4 cup (3 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white)

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish.

Make the biscuit dough: Stir together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry mixture with your fingertips, a fork or a pastry blender. Stir in buttermilk with a rubber spatula until a wet, tacky dough comes together.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough over the filling; don’t worry about covering entire surface. Bake until the cobbler’s syrup is bubbly and the biscuit tops are browned, about 20 to 25 minutes.