Today's the birthday of one of my favorite bloggers: Tami, of Running With Tweezers fame.  Happy birthday Tami!  If I were in Atlanta, this would have been an in-person thing.  But cobbler doesn't travel very well, and my co-workers devoured this one yesterday with impressive speed.  So a cyber birthday treat will have to do.  It's the thought that counts though, right?  I hear you Georgians are fond of your peaches, so this dish is dedicated to you.

I had about 8 locally-grown peaches that needed to be used/eaten this weekend . . . not enough for a cobbler, but enough for a solid contribution to a cobbler.  So I picked up some cherries at the Dupont farmers market, both Rainier and Bing, and threw this thing together.  One of the things I love most about cobbler is its versatility.  Just about any fruit will do.  Base the volume of fruit you're using on the size of the baking dish you're using.  There's no real science going on with the filling, so you don't have to worry about precision.  There is a bit of science going on with the topping, but it need not and indeed should not cover the entire top of the cobbler—so this recipe for topping will likely suffice with any baking dish in the ballpark of 5-6 cups in volume.  I used a 9 inch round Pyrex pie plate, which turned out to be sized almost perfectly.  The fruit bubbled out a bit during baking (notice the gooey coating on the rim of the pie plate in the photo), but I expected this . . . which leads me to one big piece of advice.  No matter what you're baking your cobbler in, consider placing the vessel on a baking sheet while baking, to catch any bubbled-over sticky fruit stuff.  It's a lot easier to clean a baking sheet than an oven.  And, as for pitting cherries, you'll need a gadget like this if you don't already have one.

Now, here are the specifics.

For the filling:

• 5 cups total of mixed fresh peaches (peeled and sliced off the stone) and cherries (pitted)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (a pinch)

For the topping:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/2 cup whole milk mixed with a 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice (this is a substitution for a 1/2 cup of buttermilk, which I didn't have on hand, but you should certainly use if you do)
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted then cooled to room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To put it all together:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a 9 inch round pie plate or similar baking dish.
2. If using the milk/lemon juice substitute for buttermilk as I did, mix the milk and lemon juice, then set it aside.
3. To make the filling, toss the fruit with the sugar, lemon juice, flour, lemon zest and salt until thoroughly mixed.  Pour it into the pie plate and set it aside.
4. To make the topping, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk/lemon juice mixture (buttermilk), melted butter and vanilla until thoroughly blended.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until blended.
5. The final step is to drop spoonfuls of the topping onto the fruit.  (Again, the topping shouldn't cover the entire top of the cobbler.)  Then bake the cobbler until the fruit mixture is bubbling, the topping is browned, and a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean.  This should take about 45 minutes, but start checking for done-ness at 30 or 35.

You can serve this warm or at room temperature.  It goes nicely with ice cream, especially vanilla.  And, remember, this basic recipe will work with just about any fruit.  Summer's here and with it comes all sorts of incredibly delicious local fruits just about everywhere in the U.S.  Visit your local farmers market and pick up whatever's in season . . . then turn it into cobbler.

And, again, happy birthday Tami.  Cheers to another year of stylin' and bloggin'!