The Kitchen Christening

It takes awhile in a new house to fall into a rhythm with your kitchen.  It also takes a few trips to the grocery store before you fully restock your shelves.  In Milwaukee it made perfect sense to pitch the last bit of vanilla but now I could really use the last drop.  

My kitchen in this apartment is about the same size as my last kitchen with one noticeable and tragic oversight.  There is no pantry.  When my Grandma Scott designed their house after retirement she omitted a bathroom and put in an enormous pantry instead. As a 12-year old I questioned the logic but now I get it!  I was aghast as box after enormous box screaming "KITCHEN"in my own hand piled up.  

We've cobbled together a system that will work for the year we plan on living here. Nick bought and assembled a serviceable wire shelving system from Home Depot. It was cheap and fits the narrow space perfectly.  That and simply not unpacking 8 boxes of beer glasses, china and silverware has helped to bring the space up to working order.

I've pumped out quite a few acceptable meals in here over the last 2 weeks and we've grilled out a number of times, but my fingers were itching to mix up a baking project, so yesterday I flipped through Grandma's cookbook for inspiration.

These beauties have been staring me down for a few days willing me to not let them go past their peak.

My Grandma's recipe for peach cobbler has aways been a summer favorite of mine AND the concept of cobbling something together in a hurry seemed reminiscent of my recent kitchen set up--so Peach Cobbler it is! Here's Grandma's ingredient list:

Since I had nowhere near 6 cups of peaches, I threw in a cup of blueberries and halved the recipe.  I also didn't have any cornstarch but in the spirit of "cobble up" I used flour to thicken and it turned out quite nice.  

I mixed the fruit together on the stove and added the topping.  It went together really quickly and was a great way to use up the fruit on my counter.

Here's the rest of the recipe:

I should have heeded her warning about the the sugar, mine was a little overly sweet.  But still delicious.

I had to run out in the blazing heat to pick up ice cream from Target because it was the right thing to do.  We enjoyed a nice homemade dessert that was yummy and more importantly reminded me of summer surrounded by family and the beach.