For the last couple of days, I've done nothing but rant. So today I thought I'd switch gears and give you something you can really sink your teeth into. I'm gonna share a recipe. After all, momma used to say: "If you can't say something nice, say something nice to eat."

Or something like that.

Today's recipe is for lazy peach cobbler. It's lazy because you don't have to make pastry for it. But it's yummy regardless. I'll give you the recipe straight like I learned it first, then give you some ideas for adapting it.

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients:
1 29 oz can of sliced peaches, drained well
5 slices of white bread
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 T flour
1 egg, beaten
1 stick butter or margarine, melted

Layer the drained peaches on the bottom of one of those 8- or 9-inch square baking dishes. Remove crust from the bread slices, and cut each slice into four equal strips. Layer the bread strips over the fruit until the fruit is completely covered. Mix the other stuff together, and spread over the bread, coating the bread completely. Bake 35-45 minutes or until brown.

Dave's suggestions:
Multiply the recipe as needed. I always use the longer, oblong baking dish, so I use two cans of peaches. Doesn't really matter how much fruit you use, except that there are few things sadder in life than fruit cobbler that doesn't have enough fruit. So be generous. If you use a bigger dish, you'll need more bread. You can be even lazier I suppose and buy the bread that already has the crust removed, but I'm neither too busy or too proud to buy the cheap bread and cut the crust off myself. For the remaining four ingredients, just increase the amounts in equal proportions. For an oblong dish, I double it.

I've found that regardless of how well you drain the peaches, the fruit under the crust gets pretty watery. If it's gonna take you awhile to eat the cobbler, do this: mix a tablespoon or two of cornstarch with twice as much sugar, and sprinkle that mixture over the fruit before you put the bread on. The cornstarch will help the liquid thicken as it cooks, but you need the sugar to keep the starch from clumping.

Yes, you can adapt the recipe to use other fruits. I've used frozen raspberries, fresh blackberries....both did well. Haven't tried fresh apples yet, but I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work, so long as they're sliced thin enough to cook all the way through. But if you're using a juicy fruit, add the cornstarch. It'll turn out better for ya.

Now, if you're gonna go to the trouble of making cobbler, have the decency to serve it with some fresh whipped cream. That's easy too. Just get you a pint of whipping cream and whip it -- with an electric mixer, on high speed, until it's thick like whipped cream. Then add some sugar, 1/4 cup or so, and a dab of vanilla. Use the mixer to blend. Much better than Cool Whip.