Life Group Lifesaver

Forsook the morning assembly today to be with my dad, who is still battling a nasty viral infection of some sort, along with a little extra angina than usual just for good measure. And since we were traveling last Sunday, I'm not exactly up to date with the local church happenings.

So I had that brief moment of panic about 1:30 this afternoon when I remembered I have a life group meeting tonight after church, and will be expected to provide a dessert for the group, as is my custom.

I ended up choosing the peach cobbler recipe I've already shared, primarily because I had enough time to put it together, but also because I've got a hankerin' for peaches today. But it reminded me of an even simpler - though just as tasty - dessert recipe that takes even less prep time, and you can buy all the ingredients (exactly three of them) ahead of time and keep them in the cupboard without a lot of overhead. It's a "dump" cobbler recipe, and I learned it at a dutch oven cooking class. It's popular with campers because it takes few ingredients, doesn't require refrigeration, and can be mixed entirely in the dutch oven if you want. The heat issue also is somewhat flexible, which is handy when you're cooking with wood coals or charcoal briquettes. But it also does equally well in a cake pan in the oven.

What you need:
2 cans of fruit pie filling, whatever fruit excites you
1 box cake mix
1 can of soda pop

If you're making it in the oven, go ahead and preheat to 350ish, or whatever it says on your cake box.

Spread the pie filling in the bottom of your dutch oven or cake pan. If you're in the woods and have limited utensils on hand, you can then spread the dry cake mix evenly over your fruit, then pour on the soda pop, and mix the cake mix and the pop a little bit with a fork until it's blended. You don't have to get it mixed like you would for cake, and you'd want to be careful not to mix down into your fruit. If you're doing it at home and don't mind messing up a mixing bowl, go ahead and mix the cake mix and pop in a mixing bowl, then spread it over the fruit. But don't mix too much....we're not after cake here, we're after crust. A few clumps of powder left in the mixture won't hurt it, and will probably bake right out anyway.

Bake a good 45 minutes or so, until it's done. The general rule is it's done when it smells done, but I usually wait until the crust starts to crack a little on top. Then I know it's done.

That's all there is to it. The beauty of this simple recipe is that the flavor combinations are pretty much left to your imagination. Cherry pie filling with the darkest, fudgiest cake mix you can find in the store is excellent. Apple pie filling with a spice cake crust is also excellent, especially if you were to serve it with say, some homemade caramel sauce on top. While any old pop you have on hand will do, you can also deliberately choose your beverage. When I'm going cherry/chocolate, I get a can of Cherry Coke. For apple/spice, ginger ale is a nice touch. If you're using a white or light cake mix, a clear soda like Sprite or white cream soda will keep that cake mix white.

You can usually get pie filling for around $2 a can or less, and a cake mix for under a buck. Both keep indefinately in the cupboard, so you can always have the ingredients for this quick fix on hand for short-notice needs.

By the way, I'm reading "Living Stones: Bedrock Truths for Quicksand Times" by Philip Patterson. When I've finished, I'll post a review.

Gotta go check my cobbler now.