Blueberry Pie

I start this post the same way that I have started so many others, I went grocery shopping with my son last weekend. As soon as we walked in the door there were the produce specials I saw 1 pint of Blueberries for $3.77 and right next to them 2 pounds of Blueberries for $3.55. I grabbed the larger package on impulse and put them into the cart, as we were doing the rest of the shopping for the week I was thinking about what I could make with 2 pounds of blueberries.

I have to stop for a second to say I am not much of a dessert person, after a good dinner when the kids have asked me "whats for dessert" my thought is, "well more dinner." It isn't that I don't appreciate a well made Creme Brulee or a perfectly done Mousse, I just don't think about them until after I have eaten the real food and then it is kind of too late to start.

As we were going through the store I was thinking of savory applications for these blueberries, I have made blueberry vinaigrette to toss with a flank steak salad or I could make a honey blueberry glaze for some duck... as I went on I couldn't think of anything that really did it for me. So I started to put the blueberries back, which got the enthusiastic response that I thought it would, "NO! Daddy! I need those!" Which was fine except I had to figure put how to get him to eat these things.

When I got home I was saying to Kris that I bought 2 pounds of blueberries and had no idea what to do with them, she suggested Blueberry Pie. Which makes sense but I was a little wary because I hadn't baked a pie in probably 15 years and as I remember that wasn't one of my most successful culinary adventures. I started to poke around for different pie recipes that might work for me, a relative novice. Most of what I found didn't involve fresh ingredients, after a little bit study I came up with this this:

1 1/2 Cups Blueberries (Fresh)

3/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Flour

Grated Zest of 1 Lemon about 1 1/2 tsp

Juice from same lemon

tsp Vanilla extract

Put all of these ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well, be a little rough on them as you want some of the berries to smash a little so you have some liquid. Set the bowl aside and let it stand while you deal with the crust. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 400.

I want to say that I made my crust from scratch, but I didn't, I really was going to but when I was at the store to get the ingredients my son was a wild thing. I just knew it wasn't going to happen. I looked for the pie crust disks, but couldn't even find those. Go figure that I can find Empanada dough at my local grocery store, but not Pie Crusts, I stopped at another store on my way home and picked up the Pillsbury 2 pack. One crust I balled up on the counter then rolled flat, the other I filled with the tempered blueberry mixture. I cut the crust that I rolled out on the counter into strips and wove them on top of my pie. Once it was all together I painted it with a mixture of eggs and milk and baked it for about an hour and twenty minutes. After about 45 minutes I wrapped the outer crust with a double layer of foil to protect it from burning.

There are different thoughts on my house as to whether this was a successful adventure... I liked it, it wasn't too tart or sweet, the flavor had a surprising depth for so few ingredients, there was almost a nutmeg flavor to it that surprised me. Kris thought it wasn't sweet enough and that nutmeg flavor was odd, but the crust was good (I probably should have let her think I made it but I fessed up). My 7 year old said YUK! made a spitting noise and left the room. Take the comments for what they are.