Do you ever have one of those days? Today, finally, I planned to hit the road early for a long overdue visit with  “Auntie Helen and Uncle Stan”.  They live about 2 hours away, with no traffic.  I’d definitely leave at 7am…no later.  Then…the kids wanted to come.  One child (one of the twins) had to work.  The other twin wanted to come, but after a “sleep over” she returned home looking like the walking dead.  I waited and waited, then I went up to check on her…she appeared to be studying the back of her eyelids.  That left just the 2 youngest.  Getting them to the car is like trying to herd kittens.  We finally left at 10am…

Then the young son was hungry.  Starving.  We were half way there.  I pulled off the highway, hoping he’d be happy with some nasty drive thru stuff.  Nope.  Not my eater.  “Look mom!!!”  He’d seen a burger place.  Not a drive thru, but a “5 Guys”.  We’ve never ventured inside one of those.  “See that big fat guy?  He’s going in there.  We have to follow him.  That’s a seriously big guy.  He must know where the good food is”.  That would be 12-year-old logic.  So 30 minutes later, his hypothesis was “correct” in his eyes.  For myself, it’s no In-N-Out burger.  They do have a fabulously cool soda machine, but I don’t really care for soda.

We finally made it to their home, on Cape Cod, around 12:30.  So much for early.  Helen and I got a chance to catch up, sort of.  We chatted while the kids fed the dogs their “doggy ice cream” things, and while they fed the Koi in the fishpond.   Then we all went to hunt up some blueberries.  They have an almost secret patch of blueberries growing near their home.  We all went with buckets in hand, expecting to return fully loaded with berries.  Someone else knows about the secret patch.  There were only a few berries left, scattered on about 100 different bushes.   We chatted a bit, swatting mosquitoes, listening for the kids playing “Marco-Polo” in the berry bushes, until we were dripping with sweat and had managed to gather just about enough for a pie.  In all honesty, I had a lovely day and it was great to see everyone.  Sometimes it’s just more fun to whine.

I’d planned to make some “Pop Rock Cupcakes” with the recipe from my Foodie Penpal, but that will have to wait another day as tonight we are making blueberry pie!

I  used a reliable recipe of course kind of made it up as I went along, but if you want to try it, here is the story…

I wanted to make a free form pie this time.  This is a one crust pie, and you just allow the edges of the bottom crust to wrap up and around the filling.  Make a basic fruit pie crust, like the one here…
making only enough for a one crust pie (or you could freeze the other half).

                               Then, mix the berries (I had roughly 5 cups) with about 3/4 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and 3 Tablespoons of flour. Toss lightly in a bowl, then pour the berry mixture into the pie crust, dot the top with butter, wrap the dough up and over.  You will have a large area of uncovered fruit.  You might want to put a pan under the pie to keep extra fruit juice from dripping onto the bottom of your oven (I hate when that happens!).

Now bake at 350f for 45 minutes, then increase to 425f until crust has browned nicely.   Cool thoroughly, and make sure you have some ice cream (or just sweet cream) to put on top!

Foodie Penpal