I'm cooking again!

It's nice to put the move behind me for a little while and get back to the things I like doing, like cooking. F is a working mom and sure likes not having to cook when she comes home. (Note: she likes cooking. She doesn't like having to cook when she's already overtired.)

Tonight we had macaroni and cheese (not at all local), peas from my Kilpatrick share, cauliflower that I bought at the market but suspect isn't local, and home-grown salad from my old front yard.

Speaking of things I suspect aren't local, apparently Buhrmaster has a history of being less-than-honest about where the produce they sell comes from. I think that in my case, the salesperson simply didn't know where the fruit was from, and didn't realize how important that might be - but nonetheless, I know that whatever I get there has a risk of not being local. I'm hunting around for another farmstand in case of other missed farmer's markets.

But for this week, I've been able to stock up at the farmer's market as I've become accustomed. It felt strange to've been gone so long - we missed two weeks - and worse, some vendors had been shifted around, adding to the effect. But I got milk from Battenkill!!! Yellow squash from the Sheldons! Almost more peas than I could carry! And Bowman Orchards had cherries out! Good times.

Meanwhile, early summer is in full bloom. The roadsides and fields are full of blue vetch, clover, and daisies; the black-caps are coming out by the ton; and now, J's blueberries are just starting to come in.

It's so hard to wait for them to be ripe. More to the point, as kind of a n00b in the blueberry picking department, it's hard for me to tell when they're ripe before they're actually in my hand - and then it's too late. Sunday's berrying left Matt and I with a bucket of slightly reddish blueberries that were very, very tart. Whoops. They were just enough to make a super-tart pie, which we had for dessert tonight.



Fresh-Picked Under-Ripe Blueberry Pie

3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon, and sprinkle over blueberries.

Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust, and dot with butter. Cut remaining pastry into 1/2 - 3/4 inch wide strips, and make lattice top. Crimp and flute edges.

Bake pie on lower shelf of oven for about 50 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.



I am a slacker, and therefore I didn't bother with a lattice crust. I just slapped a whole crust on top of that bad boy. I also used store-bought crust. I know, I know. I'm juggling a lot of things over here, though; the time for homemade pie crusts has passed. Once I'm settled into a permanent abode or perhaps just feeling more ambitious, I'll make some crusts from scratch. Until then, Pillsbury all the way!

I have some more cooking adventures coming up soon. We have enough black-caps that we could make another pie, or who knows what? We did just eat pie. I bought some gooseberries at the farmer's market, and I think I'm likely to make a crumble out of them. Not enough for a pie, don't feel like pureeing it into a fool.

I also have lots of squash I've bought, and while most everything in our garden has gone the way of the bunny, the tomatoes survived and the flowers are forming fruit on some of the plants. Oh, I hope some of them live!