wordless wednesday: porter's newborn session {9 days old}

granny-style blackberry dumplin cobbler

Summers here on the farm bring about sporadic rain showers, lemonade on the back porch, the smell of freshly-cut hay bales, and blackberry picking... I LOVE some southern summers! My favorite summertime dessert is blackberry cobbler, hands-down. And I'm not trying to toot my own horn over here but mine is my favorite. So, since it's so scrumptious, I decided to share the recipe with you!

Disclaimer:
This is granny-style y'all. Like put your apron on, and get out your rolling pin (literally). Granny style because I didn't get the recipe from an actual granny, I got the *original* recipe from a Southern Living cookbook. This is my third summer to make it and I have since tweaked it to my liking. But really, this is not one of those throw-it-in-a-dish-and-pour-some-milk-on-top Pinterest things. It's a bit more work, but once you taste it you will NEVER make it any different!

Now get ready to channel your inner granny!

I am a visual learner, so of course I am going to include plenty of pictures for y'all.

Ingredients: This is all you need! Everything is made entirely from scratch.

• 3 cups fresh blackberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 Tbs butter
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 12 Tbs butter, softened at room temp, not in the microwave
• 3/4 cup cold water

1: Put a metal or glass mixing bowl and a pastry cutter in your freezer for the next 10 minutes or so. Then, gather some fresh blackberries, about 3 cups or so. Wash-em up!

2: Put the berries in a medium pot. Add sugar, the 6 tablespoons of butter, and the cup of water. Don't turn on any heat yet.

3: Get your chilled mixing bowl and pastry cutter from the freezer. Put flour in the bowl (I sift mine to make sure there aren't any clumps). Add the 12 tablespoons of butter and cut it into the flour with your pastry cutter. This will take a few minutes but make sure the butter is well blended into the flour. 

4: Gradually pour in the cold water as you knead the dough into a ball with your hands. Form into a dough ball and put it on wax paper. Don't add any more water or your dough will be too sticky. Yes. I learned the hard way... 

Then, add some flour to your rolling pin and roll out the dough. 

Put the dough into the freezer to chill while you work on your blackberries, and go ahead and preheat your oven to 420 degrees.

5: Turn your blackberries on medium heat. Bring to a boil until the juice gets thick and syrupy.

6: Get your chilled dough from the freezer. Use a pizza cutter to cut into long strips. Save about half the strips for the top of the cobbler, and cut the other half of strips into small pieces for dumplings.

7: Drop the dumplin pieces into the boiling blackberries and stir. Let cook for 5-10 minutes or until all the dumplin pieces are cooked. 

8: Pour the blackberry mixture into a greased square (8x8 or 9x9) dish. Top with the dough strips you saved and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 420 for 20-25 minutes or until dough on top is browned. Let cool then serve. Preferably with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

welcome to the world

Rewind to last Thursday... Typical day, another typical doctor appointment that went down like all the other ones: waiting room boredom, pee in a cup, finger prick, wait again, get called to a room, and have my doctor tell me to come back in a week. No progress. I asked about scheduling an induction date and he said we couldn't discuss it until next week. My iron was up at least... woo hoo.

Friday. Typical day. I played with the girls at home, cleaned a little, packed a little more, and we went out to eat that night. When we got home I told Brandon he could use my new tote bag to pack a hospital bag since it was so roomy. I snapped a picture of him packing it because it cracked me up. Such a manly bag.

Let me just say, thank goodness he packed because 2 short hours later I woke up to my water breaking. Still in a half-sleep, surreal state, I just finished up packing for us for the next half hour or so before I woke him up. Nothing like waiting until last minute. That's how we roll. I tried waking Brandon up at first by just nudging him, turning on the lights, calling his name a few times... nothing. But when you're 9 months pregnant, nothing wakes your husband up better than, "You need to get up. My water broke." I'm talking about a feet-to-the-floor-in-2-seconds kind of wake up. He called his brother who came to stay overnight so we didn't have to wake the girls. 

We set off to Birmingham. It was game time. 

When we got to the triage room and they began to monitor the baby's heartbeat, we were excited and anxious. Darcy's delivery was nothing short of a nightmare (worst pain of my life) and I was sure I was about to do that all over again. Brandon took my hands and prayed over me and the baby. I felt so much more calm. We were moved to a birth suite and things couldn't have gone any better. Got my IV, pain meds, a NICE epidural (Thank You Jesus), and actually took a nap. I woke up to the nurse telling me it was "time to have a baby". Wow, never took a nap during active labor before, but I was seriously so comfortable. (Again, Thank You Jesus for epidurals!!) 

Baby Lee was born at 10:30 am Saturday morning, May 30th. 9 days early and still weighing in at 7 pounds and 13 ounces. In an effort not to reveal the gender until our parents could see for themselves, this was his first picture we sent to close friends and family. EPIC.

He is perfect. After a day with no name, we finally decided on Lawrence Porter. We will call him Porter. (Or baby, hunny, sweetie, whatever.) I can totally tell he will be is a momma's boy. ;)

Sisters came to see brother the next day, and they LOVED him. Darcy didn't want anyone holding him except her, but look how proud she is. She actually left the hospital kicking and screaming, "MY BABY!!!" Watch out, future girlfriends, you'll have to pass thorugh these two little mommas first. Bless your heart.

Daddy went and picked out his going-home outfit and a sweet quilt. 

We seriously had the best birth experience. Awesome nurses, awesome family and friends who went out of their way to keep Darcy and Addie happy. And aside from being exhausted, I am feeling totally fine, and already *almost* normal again. Porter is adjusting well to (loud and crazy) life here on the farm and we are over the moon. 

Blessed. 

So blessed.