The last few days have been much cooler here than has been the norm this month – go figure… Hot? In August? No way. But it’s been cool enough the past few days that we’ve been able to shut the A/C off, open up the windows, let the house air out, and maybe do a little bit of baking.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been receiving some of my favorite fruits and veggies in my weekly FFTY box, tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, nectarines – and this week is no exception. We’ve had a lot of the usual suspects for enjoying them… Cobbler, Pasta, Pizza, etc… But the other day I realized that I hadn’t done anything new or special lately with Tomatoes and Zucchini lately, and that just wasn’t going to fly. So I pulled on my apron, got out my thinking cap, and went to work.

Initially, I had intended to make a sort of Gratin style dish, using a nice Double Cream Brie that I’d picked up at the store, and some toasted Panko Bread Crumbs. Unfortunately, when I finished prepping all the veggies and such, I went digging in the pantry and discovered I was out of Panko Bread Crumbs. :-/ So I’ll have to try that another time. Assuming I don’t just make this again of course.

My first thought upon realizing I was out of bread crumbs was to maybe make a savory streusel type topping, but as I started pulling out ingredients to do that – I had an Aha! moment and came up with the inspiration for a savory cobbler. I had kicked the idea around in my head before… kind of a ‘you don’t really see many savory cobblers… I should make one!’ but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. This was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Because I was just kind of winging it, I didn’t do anything too fancy with the cobbler dough. Next time I might try mixing in some shredded cheese and/or fresh herbs. I had made Mr. Man and Miss Thing wait a while for dinner and it was starting to get late, so I didn’t want to take the extra couple of steps this time to include them. If I’d been planning on doing it all along, it would have been easier – since I could have chopped up the herbs while I was doing the other veggies, etc…

As it stood, though – it was incredibly delicious. This dish is definitely going to be making it in to my regular  rotation for veggies dishes. The roasted veggies, the brie, the biscuit topping – all combined to make one of the best veggie dishes I’ve come up with in a while. It also happened to be vegetarian and hearty enough that you could probably serve it as an entree for veggie eaters. Okay, so I served it next to some sausages – but you know, it really outshone the meat by a fair margin. So, seriously – go make this dish! You won’t regret it.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Tomatoes; cut in to 1″ chunks (5 medium)
• 4 cups Summer Squash; cut in to 1″ chunks (I used Zucchini – 2 large)
• 1 cup Sweet Bell Pepper; seeded and cut in to 1/2 ” chunks (2 medium)
• 1 onion; diced (about 1/2 a cup)
• 4 cloves Garlic; minced
• 6 oz Brie Cheese; cut in to 1/2″ chunks
• 2 cups Flour
• 4 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tbs Butter
• 2 tbs Shortening
• 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt, plus extra for salting veggies
• 1 cup Buttermilk

Method:

• Preheat the Oven to 375°
• Butter a 9″x13″ Baking Pan
• In a bowl, stir together the veggies and brie, and a liberal sprinkling of Kosher Salt
• Spread the veggies evenly in to the buttered baking pan and lightly press down in to the pan
• Set aside
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 tsp Kosher Salt
• Cut in the butter and shortening until crumbs form
• Gently stir in the buttermilk until just combined to form a soft dough
• Drop the dough by spoonfuls over the veggies in the baking pan
• Bake in the oven for 45-60 minute, or until veggies are bubbly and crust is golden brown
• Serve immediately