Apple Cobbler

I'm not a huge fan of apple pie or apple cobbler, however, everyone else in my household is, from McRed the "But I don't like peach cobbler..." to the little "GIVE me that apple, get back here RIGHT now that's for the COBBLER NO NO NO DON"T TAKE A BITE AAHAHH thieving tots, to the batter-licking ten year old (almost ten, close enough right?) they all LOVE apple cobbler. Now, here is what I do love.

I love making apple cobbler.

I love the smells of apple and cinnamon filling the air.

I love standing with my daughter at the counter mixing spices and flour, teaching her how to cut margerine into the dry ingredients and listening to her prattle on about completely irrelevant nonsensical things like how she is going to put a cinnamon stick in her tea and how she loves the smell of cinnamon and apples, too.

I love standing next to this kid who isn't a baby and isn't quite a big girl but is no longer little, with her need for motherly affection still strong.

I love the toddlers running around my legs, sneaking apples and playing on the floor right near where mommy is, occasionally wanting to help, always wanting a bite or twelve. I love my husband sniffing the air and coming to investigate and to see how long before he gets a piece of cobbler.

I love how the scents mix in the air to make the house smell like baking pies, and how it makes everything seem warmer, cozier, happier.

I love how apple cobbler makes my house smell like a real home, how often they will smell apples or cinnamon, and associate it with happiness and a pleasant kitchen with vinyl tile flooring and formica counters where mom made apple cobbler. (Some are lucky, and have pleasant memories of wood, or tile flooring... my children will remember imitation-slate vinyl cheerily, while I'm stuck with a fondness for red-brick linoleum)

My husband is the same way about his beef stew, and I get this way about other things, as well.

Things like my onion soup, bannana loaf bread (when I get around to making it), and pumpkin pie. I don't get it just from boxed brownies or ready-made cookies though. I need the whole process, from flour and sugar to pouring it in the baking pan.

Now, riding the wave of this pleasant evening, I'm going to make a cup of chai tea (vanilla, mmm) plop myself down on my comfy slip-covered couch, and read a comfortable book. Comfortable being, I've already read it five times...