Easier than pie: Apple cobbler

A shout out to Erik, my youngest, who will be 23 tomorrow. I remember well our Fourth of July celebration 23 years ago that ended with a middle-of-the-night trip to Community Hospital in Missoula. I remember I had made red, white and blueberry cupcakes and homemade potato salad with fresh dill that we took to a potluck picnic where we watched fireworks with friends in the neighborhood (before our baby's-on-the-way fireworks began.)

Back in those days, we lived in a little house with a tiny kitchen and no dining room, no dishwasher, a workspace I hated for its lack of counters and impossible-to-clean indoor-outdoor carpeting (a decorating trend that died a well-deserved death.) Yet we were always having people over; I would cook ambitious things and make huge messes in the kitchen and then dread cleaning all those dishes by hand.

Today I'm happier with my kitchen-- I have better stuff, and most of the time a better idea what I'm doing when I set out to cook anything. I do miss Erik today, of course. He's not only a great son, he's become an excellent cook, having cooked (including singlehanded mastery of fabulous desserts) at The Depot in Missoula for the last few years. If he were here, he'd no doubt show me how to make something more ambitious than the apple cobbler I'm cooking up today-- especially easy thanks to the food processor I couldn't have afforded 23 years ago, and the garbage disposal we didn't have back then to quickly make an apple-peel mess disappear. (Erik's on a vacation getaway to Portland with his girlfriend this week, so I know he'll have a wonderful Fourth and birthday. )

I've been making this cobbler for years and years. It's adapted from "The Deep River Community Cookbook," which I think my father picked up on a road trip through Iowa decades ago. It's a cinch, and the topping is like crunchy sugar cookie crumbs. Excellent with rhubarb, but I could not find any at the store this morning, so I substituted Granny Smith apples.

Fruit cobbler

Mix in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish: 4 or so cups diced apples, 1/3 cup sugar and a teaspoon cinnamon with 2 tablespoons flour. (If using rhubarb, use 1 cup sugar, no cinnamon) For topping, mix together with pastry cutter 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour and two tablespoons butter. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 egg. Mix 'til it becomes good and crumbly. Spoon over the fruit. Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees.