Watership Down Kitchen

This has to be the easiest cobbler to make while still delivering on flavor in spades. Somehow the individual and backwards layers of butter, batter and fruit bake to form the most wonderfully warming and delicious desserts. It's a perfect treat to make on a weeknight when you have a craving, or for last minute guests. Enjoy!  Ingredients: 6 tablespoons butter 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 3/4 cup milk 12 ounce can peaches 16 ounce can blueberry pie filling Method: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Melt the butter and pour it into a 9 by 13 inch pan. Meanwhile, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add in the milk and vanilla and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the buttered pan. Open the cans of peaches and blueberry pie filling. Dollop evenly over the top of the batter. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 min

  Is there anything more adaptable than a meatball? Italian style surrounded by tomato sauce, Swedish bathed in gravy, and these delicious bites glazed in teriyaki sauce. And the best pairing for anything teriyaki? Fried rice, of course. Feel free to add whatever vegetable you have on hand and beef up the recipe with an egg if you wish. I think asparagus might be a lovely twist. I like to add a sprinkling of red chili flakes at the end for an extra kick, but this meal is delicious as is. Enjoy! Ingredients: 1/2 cup jasmine rice 1 1/4 cup water 2 large cloves of garlic, minced 1/2 pound of green beans, sliced into thirds 12 ounces ground beef 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs 1 bunch scallions, sliced 1 egg 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce salt, pepper, oil Method: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium saucepan, add the rice, pinch of salt and 1 1/4 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for fifteen minutes or until the rice is tender and all the water is absorbed; set asi

  The weather is turning rainy and cold. I rally don't mind inclement weather; they give me a wonderful excuse to curl up with tea and a book, or hot chocolate and a scary movie, or make a delicious and spicy dinner.  I am still adjusting to spice; I grew up not being able to tolerate much more than black pepper, to be honest. I have since welcomed in jalapeño and cayenne, and developed a love for Indian curry spice blends. Still, despite having a lower heat tolerance than most, I really like spicy foods (just need to be able to control the level). So here is my Louisiana-inspired shrimp and rice starring creole seasoning and cayenne pepper in a tomato sauce with garlic, bell pepper, and scallions. Simple, spicy, delicious. Enjoy! Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice 1 red bell pepper, diced 1 ounce scallions, sliced- reserve the dark green for garnish 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined creole seafood seasoning, 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne to taste 1 8 ounce can tomato s

Today is a day for comfort food and relaxation; today is my first day off in 7 weeks. I have been going pell-mell with a schedule of 7-8 hour teaching days every day, an impromptu outdoor concert, a filmed indoor concert, amassing judges for Musical Theater NATS competition, planning Opera on Tap Maine events, prepping my DMA paper and audition recital, and hosting 2 masterclasses while still keeping up on my own coaching and lessons. Today is a lazy day of sweaters, blankets, reading, hot chocolate and chicken and biscuits. The filling is classic chicken pot pie; creamy, filled with peas, carrots, potatoes and perfectly browned chicken thighs. Instead of pie crust, please find the vastly superior drop biscuits. Buttery, golden-brown on top and dumpling-tactic on the bottom. As it is my vacation day, I am def going back for seconds.  Ingredients: 1 garlic clove, minced 1 russet potato, diced in 1/2 inch pieces 8 ounces of carrots, diced in 1/2 inch pieces 5 ounces of peas 1 pounds of c

  Reposting in honor of my birthday! Here are some updated photos of my grown up Bodhi and new additions, Bigwig and Blackavar:  Strawberry Cake! I dearly love strawberry-flavored treats- strawberry milk, strawberry ice cream, strawberry macaron, strawberry cakes- delicious. The pink color, the strawberry flavor- perfection. A real strawberry cake made from scratch is hard to come by- most from scratch strawberry cakes are really vanilla cake with strawberries dotted within the frosting or diced into the batter. “Real” strawberry cakes use strawberry gelatin to achieve the color ad flavor. What’s a baker to do when she wants to make a real strawberry cake without resorting to strawberry gelatin? Science to the rescue! Freeze-dried strawberries pack an intense strawberry flavor and color and don’t dilute cake batters. Combined with fresh pureed strawberries, I knew I had a solution to my strawberry cake dliemma. However, cake after cake I baked failed. Why? Happily, my online baking gur