New adventures in cooking

^{↑First fire on the new back porch pad↑}

The above image is not really related to this post, it was just so cold the image of a fire is comforting.

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Last week we had the coldest temps in almost 2 yrs here, it went down to 12°F at night twice, didn't come above freezing for several days.
That first night, I had my furnace set as I usually do at night (65°F) and me and His Majesty were all cuddled down in the covers of my bed.

I woke up at 4:15 am to find it was 32°F IN MY BEDROOM! I checked the app on my phone, there was an error message that my HVAC Thermostat was offline.
Long and short of that was the tube that is used to pump out condensate from the Furnace under the house was frozen solid all the way up to the pump.

There was no damage, I had water dripping, but it was DAMNED COLD.
I turned on my Elec Fireplace, an elec space heater back here in my room and I went back to bed! (I had called the company to come service this problem)
He replaced the entire tube, and what was outside is now encased in insulating black foam

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So I had purchased the materials to make a dump cake (cake mix, canned fruit, butter etc) but for some reason I had determined to try for more of a COBBLER

Cobbler is a dessert consisting of a fruit (or less commonly savory) filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or dumpling (in the United Kingdom) before being baked. Some cobbler recipes, especially in the American South, resemble a thick-crusted, deep-dish pie with both a top and bottom crust. Cobbler is part of the cuisine of the United Kingdom and United States, and should not be confused with a crumble.

I had bought some pre-made refrigerated pie crust, and I used the liquid from the canned fruit to MIX into the cake to make a batter, but that didn't look right so I went ahead and mixed the fruit into the cake batter.
Pouring that into the glass dish, I was afraid I had TOO MUCH STUFF,

but I forged ahead, cutting the pie crust into strips to decorate the top.

It took nearly twice as long to cook, but it was very good

Yesterday I gave one portion to my neighbor, but other than that I have eaten almost half this concotion so far

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Yesterday I needed to go get kitty litter, His Majesty's Toilet was getting sorta rank.
As always, the first thing I do when visiting this grocery store is head straight back to where they put meat that has been marked down, and I scored these delights

I put that big roast in the fridge for later this week, separated the steaks (keeping one out to cook) and froze three of them.
So last night I had a colorful, and plentiful supper.

Velveeta™ Shells and cheese, which I of course modified, adding bread crumbs and Mozzarella to the top and baking it,

The cooked purple cabbage was leftover from several days ago, so here was my supper last night:

When I finished eating, all I had left was half that steak!
I was about to'SPLODE!
And of course I had some cobbler for dessert.

"New Adventures in Cooking"

^by
Jerry E Smith
©1/23/24
All images are original, taken with my
Samsung S21 Ultra cellphone