Blueberry Pie

I haven't been the biggest fan of pies.  I think its because you really have to make a whole one for it to be worth it, and two people + one pie = too much eating.  But... I was feeling adventurous (and hungry), and we had a TON of blueberries that were about to go bad, so one Sunday afternoon, I made a delicious blueberry pie with an almond crumble topping. 

Can you see it there underneath all that cool whip?  This is (surprise) Patrick's piece - I'm not sure which he likes better - the pie or cool whip.

The hardest thing about pies are getting the crust perfect, but I sort of cheated (ok, I actually cheated) and used Betty Crocker instant pie crust mix. (just add water! - literally.) Since I'm not the biggest fan of so much crust covering my fruit, the almond crumble topping really made it for me, and you'll probably see it in other recipes!

Next time, I would probably use less sugar in the filling.  Since my blueberries were not "wild," but rather "from Harris Teeter," they were much sweeter than the tart wild ones. 

Recipe: 

Wild Blueberry Pie with Almond Crumble Topping

adapted from epicurious.com

Filling

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 7 cups fresh wild or regular blueberries
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Topping

• 2/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 4 ounces marzipan or almond paste, broken into 1/3-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup loosely packed)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 
  

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 400°F.

For Pie Crust:  Follow instructions on package, roll into a 12-in round circle.  Transfer to a 9-in pie dish.  Turn edges under to hide and crimp decoratively (or have a pie place that has crimps on its edges so you don't have to!). Refrigerate while preparing filling. 

For filling:
Whisk 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar and cornstarch in heavy large saucepan to blend. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens, frequently stirring gently, about 13 minutes. Chill filling until cool, about 1 hour. If more sweetness is desired, stir in sugar by tablespoonfuls.

For topping:
Combine first 4 ingredients in processor or bowl; blend until mixture begins to clump together.  Chill 30 minutes. Spread blueberry filling evenly in unbaked crust. Sprinkle topping evenly over. Place pie on rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust and topping are golden and filling bubbles thickly, about 50 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. 

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or cool whip!

Alaskan Vacation Part Two - Fishing!

After heading out of Denali, where we had beautiful weather, we drove 6 hours to Seward and was met with lots of clouds and rain :( However, we made a quick pit stop in Anchorage to pick up my luggage - since I wasn't going to have to wear the same pants every day anymore, I didn't care what the weather was like!

For our first two days in Seward, we went fishing!  The forecast predicted that it was going to be "sunny and calm" for day one.  By noon, it had started to rain and the wind picked up, treating us with rough seas and 5 ft swells.  Because we stupidly listened to the forecast (note - in Seward, I've noticed that it tends to do the opposite of whats forecasted), we had no rain gear, and we were stuck in our cold, wet jeans.  I was FREEZING, but I couldn't go inside the cabin because I would start to get sea-sick from all the waves.  To make matters worse, no one was catching ANY fish.  After a couple hours of misery, we trucked on over to a calmer area and began to catch some really nice fish (shown here on the cleaning table ready to be filleted), which definitely takes the sting out of being wet and cold.

After a nice, hot shower and a big Chinese dinner, I began to entertain the idea of keeping our reservation to go fishing again the next day.  Patrick and I showed up bright and early in full on rain

gear borrowed from the fish processing plant: rubber boots and gloves and bright purple rubber pants and jacket.  After popping a dramamine, we were ready for anything! The whole day, the weather was sunny and calm.  Unfortunately, we only fished a half-day because our captain had to go tow another boat that had broken down at sea, but we still ended up with 7 great looking fish!  I even had a fish follow my bait all the way to the surface of the water before he struck, so I could see him take the bait (which was awesome to watch) AND I didn't have to reel very much to pull him in!!!  I caught the big fella on the right (about 14 pounds!) and we ended up taking home a total of 80 pounds of salmon that somehow managed to fit into my itty bitty freezer!

Besides the really nice salmon that we got (silvers this time around), it is also beautiful to just be out on the water and looking at the majestic landscape!  In the picture below, taken from a mountain across the bay from Seward, we fished most of the day right off of the point in the middle in an area called Porcupine Ridge. 

We also fished right next to a glacier and you could see chunks of ice that had broken off and were floating in the water.  The air coming off of that baby was COLD!

On the water, we were always surrounded by such a variety of wildlife!  There were puffins everywhere, and we even had one that kept diving underneath the boat.  We could see him swimming underwater, and since they can dive so deep, we were afraid that they were aiming for the herring on our hooks.  It would have been interesting to catch one!

 

There were also porpoises (think dolphins that look like baby orcas) that swam right up next to us, and we saw many river and sea otters (that were doing what they otter) and huge sea lions (shown on the left). 

Despite the weather, we had a great time.  And from now on, no matter what the weather forecast, I will definitely be bringing my dramamine and full on rain gear!

Love, B

(and Larry Lingcod, RIP)

Alaskan Vacation Part One

Somehow, whenever we've flown out to Alaska, something has gone wrong.  Last time, Patrick lost his luggage for seven days and received his suitcase the day before we left. This time:

1. Somehow Patrick was put on the standby list for our first flight out of Raleigh.  Luckily, someone didn't show up and he got on the plane. 
   
2. We missed our connection in Houston by 5 minutes.
3. We made it to Seattle just in time to get 3 hours of sleep at Patrick's house, but without luggage. 
4. We fly into Anchorage, and whose luggage doesn't show up??? Mine, of course.
5. We get into a fight with the baggage lady who was wearing a ridiculous shade of lip gloss and start yelling at us when we asked her any question.

With a quick pit stop at REI in Anchorage to buy some replacement clothes and shoes (scored another pair of running shoes!! on sale too!), we were off to Denali National Park.  

The park is HUGE - about 6 million acres (larger than Massachusetts) - and home to tons of caribou, grizzly bears (seen to the left), and moose, among others.  No cars are allowed in the park, so you ride a an old school bus into the park and you can stop anywhere and go hiking - there are hardly any trails but you are allowed to walk anywhere you want. 

The main attraction of the park is Mount McKinley, or Denali, meaning "the high one."  The largest mountain on the North American continent, it rises to 20,320 feet.  We lucked out in that both of our days were perfectly clear and we got BEAUTIFUL views of the mountain. 

 (The guide said that he only gets clear days like this 6 times out of the entire summer). 

For lunch, we hiked up a ridge and ate lunch looking at Denali, and Carl the caribou 

decided to join us!

 

The next day we headed down to Seward, Alaska, but stopped along the way for a hike around Byer's Lake, where you could eat fresh blueberries right off the trail and still see Denali in the background! 

Stay tuned for the second 

installment!

Love, B