We've found a lovely home to rent in just the right spot, smack dab between both sets of grandparents. It's worked out that some friends of ours will be renting our current house in Suburbia, a win-win for them and us. And after nearly six years of persistent effort in the cracks of a hectic work and family schedule, CrazyRunningHubby will finish up his MBA the day before we load up the truck to move.
This phase of a move is always bittersweet - the intersection of excitement about what's to come and sadness about saying goodbye. As the towers of boxes in our living room grow higher and higher, I've definitely had a few "What the heck are we doing?!" moments. Some of the sweetest years of our lives have happened in this house, with the people that surround us here. Change is always hard. Yet we couldn't ask for better circumstances, moving back to a place and people that are very familiar.The other day, I was chatting with our 4-year-old daughter over apple slices at the kitchen table. I asked her if she had any questions about the upcoming move. She said, "Mom, who will we be friends with when we move?" Good question. So I pulled out the iPad, and we browsed Facebook, looking at friends and family in our new locale. She got excited to see the kids (especially little girls) her age that we'll be able to hang out with. Afterward I realized that little exercise was not just good for her, but it was really reassuring for me, too. Lots of life has happened since we moved away from this small town. We've changed, people there have changed, but still... There's nothing quite like the people you knew when you were growing up. I'm so excited to reconnect with people that I haven't gotten to see much in the past fifteenyears - the type of friends that after about ten minutes, it feels like you've never been apart, and you stay up laughing all night.
This week, we're filling up boxes and trying to empty out our freezer. I had frozen a lot of berries at the peak of yummy berry season last summer, and we had a few Ziploc bags left. So I threw them together with some flour, sugar & butter and hoped for the best. What came bubbling out of the oven was an ooey-gooey Triple Berry Cobbler that was the perfect compliment for some needed-to-be-used-up vanilla bean ice cream. If you want to try it out yourself, see the recipe below!
"MOVING WEEK" TRIPLE BERRY COBBLER
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
Serves 6
Ingredients
4 T butter
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 T cinnamon
0.5 tsp salt
1 c milk
3 c berries (I used frozen raspberries, blueberries & strawberries)
3 T sugar
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2) Place butter in a 2-qt casserole dish and place in oven. Allow butter to melt while you mix remaining ingredients
3) Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) in a medium-size bowl.
4) Whisk the milk into the dry ingredients until smooth
5) Remove the dish with melted butter from the oven. Pour the batter into the pan on top of the butter, then scatter the fruit on top. Sprinkle with the remaining 3T of sugar.
6) Bake about one hour, until the entire top is browned (no jiggly batter spots in the middle), and the berries are bubbling. It's wonderful served warm with vanilla ice cream!
