This must be August

For one thing, that means we are getting closer to autumn. Yay! Bring on those cool, crisp days.

July and August means a return of two favorite dishes to our table on a regular basis. Tomato pie is here again and it's easy to not feel (too) guilty about eating it because the season for really good tomatoes won't last long. My garden tomatoes have been very slow to ripen this year. Luckily, my friend Teresa has kept me supplied with tomatoes from the farmer's market. The other dish is blackberry cobbler and because we've already frozen about 5 gallons of berries, we'll be enjoying it on through the winter. Honestly, Mike would like cobbler on the table seven days a week, if I would keep making it! I blogged about this super, simple cobbler recipe here, but have made a few minor adjustments and think it is even better now. Recently I started mixing the batter, only to discover that the only milk in the house was buttermilk, so out of necessity, I made the substitution (it requires adding almost 1 1/2 cups buttermilk to give the batter the right consistency) and think it lightens and moderates the sweetness. Since we've had an abundance of blackberries this year, I've been adding more berries, too. Be sure to have some vanilla ice cream on hand!

(this is how I freeze blackberries-on a cookie sheet-when frozen solid, dump them in a freezer bag--no clumping together!)

Yesterday we processed and froze the last 200 ears of corn. We cut the corn off the cob and cooked the kernels for 3-4 minutes with just a bit of butter and water, then froze it in zip-lock bags. I love corn from our garden, but I'm happy to give it a rest for a while now.

If you were the one that sent us some relief from the heat, please know I am truly grateful! Yesterday it was only 86 degrees and low humidity. Fabulous! The forecast is for the bad stuff to return early this week, so I'm doubly thankful for the break.