75th Post!!! Celebratory Pie

So I heard on Tuesday that Matt and I can sign a lease on a duplex next Thursday! There aren’t enough words to explain what a relief this is to me. I know what school district my daughter will be going to in the fall. I know how much space I have, how it’s laid out, and how much my rent will be. I know I have landlords who struck me as really nice and fairly dedicated to the property – it’s been in the family for decades.

Best of all, they have a garden out back, and it’s perfectly okay for us to have one, too. Next summer is going to be grand.

I’ve been a pie-baking fool since I landed on Fawn’s doorstep. It’s just happened that I've been there while all kinds of berries and things have come into season, and the biggest method I’m familiar with for using them up is dessert. Personally, I’m very, very partial to pie.

On Monday night of this week I made a mixed-fruit pie that was based on this blueberry pie recipe; I just took out two cups of blueberries and added a half-cup of gooseberries and a cup and a half of pitted sour cherries. Instead of a lattice crust, I put on a streusel-type topping which was left over from making these muffins.

I hadn’t been able to decide whether blueberries or apples were the best base for such a pie, so I’d fully expected to bake an apple-based crumbly pie later in the week. But when I got the news about the duplex, I couldn’t resist baking it up right that minute.

Well, I nearly resisted. There were obstacles. We had to clean the pie plate from the other pie. That doesn't sound like much, but I can be a slacker of the highest order. Fawn said she’d wash it and I pointed out, “You know we shouldn’t be eating this much pie.” She was equal to that. She said, “But now there are only two weeks of pie left!” So we did it.

Bowman Orchards has early apples out – something called “July Reds” that taste similar to a MacIntosh or an Empire. I’d picked them up at the farmer’s market, but between snacking and the fact that one wasn’t good, we only had one apple left. And it was small. We wound up with basically a blueberry-based pie, after all. But it was yummy!

I improvised my attempt on this blueberry pie, this apple pie, and the topping from these muffins. At a later date I think it would be really great to get some granulated maple sugar – you can get it at the co-op – to use for the topping. At the very least, I’d rather use brown sugar in the future.



Celebration Pie

One pie shell
¼ cup gooseberries, stems removed and cut into quarters
½ cup apples, diced
1 ½ cups sour cherries, pitted
2 cups blueberries
¾ cup of white sugar
3 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ cup butter
¼ chopped pecans

Mix fruit, sugar, and flour together; pour into pie shell.

Blend sugar, flour, and cinnamon and cut into butter with a fork or pastry blender; mix in pecans. Sprinkle over top of pie.

Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes; uncover and bake for 25 more minutes, or until crust appears done. Enjoy!

Not local today: pecans, butter, spices, flour, sugar, pie crust (I am a supreme slacker)