Sweet Cherry, Black Plum and Yellow Peach Cobbler and visiting AJ’s family in Indiana

There’s something comforting and downhome about cobbler. Soft buttery biscuits floating atop thickened, just barely sweetened, summertime stone fruit like sweet cherries, black plums and super ripe peaches. It’s pretty much a crowd pleaser dessert and it’s what I turned to when AJ volunteered me to make a dessert for his family get together in Indiana. Truthfully, I toyed with making the dessert a bit fancier (in that sort of typical San Franciscan recipe developer way that I have a habit of doing) I resisted. I mean would AJ’s family appreciate a thyme infused biscuit or some slivered leaves of basil in the fruit filling? Probably, but sometimes you gotta keep it real and go with the idea of basic is better. I’m darn happy I did just that with this Sweet Cherry, Black Plum and Yellow Peach Cobbler, as it was a definite winner

AJ and I were back in the Midwest visiting family during the summertime. Personally I was a bit dubious about leaving San Francisco to go back to the heat and humidity, but my doubts were waylaid when I arrived with him. Sure the heat was horrible oppressive a bit uncomfortable, but it had been awhile since I had gone back to the Midwest in the summertime and I had forgotten how much I love it. AJ’s family lives out in the country, about 40 miles west of Indianapolis, on a lake. This meant we got to go waterskiing for a bit, which was awesome, even though I only was able to do it for a bit before I tired out. Man I am out of shape.

AJ’s family is pretty extensive, and though we had plans to see most of them at a get together, we also made it a point to meet up with a few of them on their own. This turned out to be a good thing, as AJ’s brother was still recovering from pneumonia and couldn’t make it out to the country where his parent’s live. Instead, we drove in and got a tour of his backyard garden which he and his wife have created, along with their bees (two hives! I call dibs on a jar of honey when they harvest it.) and chickens! I so want chickens. *sigh*

Dinner with his brother, lunch with his niece, making dinner with friends (pie and pie!) and a mid-afternoon snack with an uncle were all part of the our trip. I even carved out a little bit of time to get lunch with Deb and Rod of Smith Bites, who I utterly adore. Yes, it’s true that nearly all our events in Indiana revolved around food, but not EVERYTHING we did was food related. We actually took a little bit of time to take AJ’s niece and nephew to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. Talk about some beautiful cars.

Of course the main event of the trip was the family gathering that had most of AJ’s immediate family in attendance. It was super fun to see everyone and catch up on what everyone was doing. Pulled pork, potato salad, and corn were served up for everyone and I was pretty happy that I reigned in my initial instinct to get all fancy with the cobbler. Straight up cherry, plum and peach cobbler seemed the perfect match, along with the butterscotch cake and marshmallow fudge brownies that were there for dessert.

Soon the trip was over, faster than I expected and we packed up our stuff and headed out back to St. Louis, where we were going to spend a few more days with my family. I took a look around at AJ’s parent’s house, full of kookiness, quirk and warmth and said goodbye…until next time.