keeping with the lazy days

Summer is the obviously fruit season what with the bounty of berries, peaches and early apples making their way into the world and ripening (or rotting) quickly in the heat. Sure, you could slave away in your kitchen and can and jam all of those beauties but thankfully there is a queen of such things in my family and that is my Grandma Sue. So while she is busting her butt in her 90+ degree kitchen, I can't really complain about slapping together a pie. I definitely shoved about twenty pounds of blueberries into my freezer but I just couldn't resist making a fresh pie or two for a couple near and dear to me.

Truth be told, I really never liked the blue suckers if they weren't tucked into a buttery, sugary muffin. Even then, I probably picked half of them out and tossed them. (Since when should something sinfully sweet have any nutritional value?) However, as much as I can take credit for introducing that dude-I'm-shacking-up-with to a plethora of pungent cheeses, complex jams and jellies (yes, thank Grandma), pinch-your-mouth-sweet desserts and some random fruits and vegetables that require farmer market sleuthing, this is one of the things I can say that he tossed my cheese-loving way. I did not fall for them easily or instantly. In fact, I was literally whining about my distaste for them mid-bite of the little fruit during a picking spree just a few weeks ago when I had to bite my tongue. They were the biggest, most gentle tasting blueberries I had been fortunate enough to eat. The key to that success was picking early and actually knowing when to shut up.

Since the weather was hot but I was determined, I went the lazy-girl route and made a bottomless pie. Pie crust can be daunting for some but really, I didn't want to be elbow deep in butter, sweating through my shirt. Nice picture, huh? The bright side is that this is cute and fun and out of the oven all that much faster for you to dump some vanilla bean ice cream on and shovel in your mouth.

Bottomless Blueberry Pie

Crust idea from here
Yield: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS
crust
1 1/3 C all purpose flour
1/2 C unsalted butter, frozen
3 T ice water

blueberry filling
4 C fresh blueberries, rinsed
1 T flour
1 T unsalted butter
1 T lemon juice
1/4 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
crust
1. Add flour to a medium bowl.
2. Cut in frozen butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Carefully add the ice water, the mixture should begin to clump together into a moist ball.
4. Wrap ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min.

blueberry filling
Grease an 8 or 9-inch pie pan.
1. Pour 2 C of the blueberries into the pie pan.
2. Combine flour, butter, lemon juice and sugar into a medium saucepan. Mix thoroughly. Add the remaining pint of blueberries and bring just to a boil over medium heat. Berries should begin to pop open.
3. Pour cooked berries over fresh berries.

assembly
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
1. Roll out cold dough (easiest between two sheets of wax paper) and cut out desired shapes.
2. Layer on top of pie filling. You might want to leave some open space on a berry pie so that some of the moisture evaporates in the oven. Otherwise, you may want to bake it a little longer.
3. Bake for 12-15 min.
4. Serve with ice cream, delish!

Nutrition: 266cal, 12g fat, 0mg sod, 37g carb, 19.5g sugar, 2g fiber, 2.5g protein

on the lighter side

I am a magazine binge/purger. I will save up various issues of fashion, food and fitness magazines until I realize that they are basically recycling the same material with a fancy new package. Then I will obsessively comb through each one to find that "ultra important" article and keep the ones that I truly cannot do without. It all started with my personal adolescent bible of the beloved seventeen magazine that I began hoarding around age 14. It's odd how you basically outgrow that magazine once you officially hit its namesake age. From there I became obsessed with In Style (thank you Grandma Patty) until I realized I could just find the juicy parts on their website. Thanks to Mommy Dearest and Father Fartknocker I receive Yankee (don't mock, it has provided me with amazing history, hiking and food of the area, I may become a New Englander just yet!). Grandma Sue (aforementioned owner of 30+ years of Gourmet) has provided me with Cook's Illustrated, for the ultimate nerdy culinary lover (it's like the Consumer Reports of kitchen gadgetry and experimentation!). Don't get me started on my love of the hand-illustrated tips and techniques (the parental units forking over a ton for a degree revolving around technical illustrating has a purpose, really). To buffer the food magazines, I get a nice dose of Fitness magazine every month to serve as a hotplate for my baked goods. I had a subscription hiatus after graduating college and moving in with Torren's fam for a couple of years but all was not lost- his mother had oodles of magazines arriving every week from LHJ to Women's Health to Parents. Yes, that last one is a gem. You can thank me later because today's recipe is coming from there, mwahahahaha. I cannot wait to make the ferris-wheel cake I found in the same issue. My mind is like a safe when it comes to crazy crap like this!

Now you're probably wondering "why bother with print when it is online?" Well folks, I obviously come from a long line of people who love tactile print for all it's worth. I love everything from the layout to the ability to rip something out and stick it on a wall or in my recipe file. Several of these subscriptions do not offer the same information online that they do in their magazine and/or there are extensions of things on the internets. I usually ogle both the print and the site and from there find links to other glorious reading. Ultimately, though, there is nothing like snail mail. I am overjoyed to receive these little gifted subscriptions every month and remember who bought them for me originally. I just love mail. We covet stationery as much or perhaps more than we do our hard drives. I won't tell you about the boxes of letters and cards I have stashed in my cramped home. Don't call me crazy, in fact, don't call me. Send me something in the mail and I'll treasure it forever.

The below recipe has been adapted to fit a certain person's {cough}torrenchristiandoherty{cough} palate. I also did some tweaking to make it "healthified" and the recipe came out tasting delish. I love the original nectarine version because they are definitely in my top three favorite fruits. It's easy to play around with the fruit in this so please do experiment!

Bluebarb Buckle

adapted from Bluberry Nectarine Buckle from Parents
Yield: 9 servings

INGREDIENTS
2 C biscuit mix I used Biquick Heart Smart to lighten the recipe
1 C sugar, divided
1 egg, lightly beaten 1/4 C liquid egg works fine here
1/2 C fat free milk
1 t finely shredded lemon peel
1 medium nectarine, pitted and chopped it couldn't hurt to add another nectarine, this is where I used 1 C chopped rhubarb as a sub
1-1/4 C fresh blueberries
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C butter I used the light stick butter here

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use non-stick foil or grease the bottom and 1/2-inch up the sides of a 1-1/2- to 2-quart baking dish (I'm lame and only have a 9 inch x 13 inch and it worked FINE).
1. In a medium bowl, combine biscuit mix, 1/2 cup sugar, the egg, milk, and lemon peel. Stir until moistened.
2. Spoon batter into pan. Top with fruit.
3. Mix flour and remaining sugar in a bowl. Using a fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly; sprinkle over fruit.
4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool for 20-30 min.  Serve warm (probably good with some vanilla bean or blueberry fro-yo, you think?)


Nutrition: (light) 280 cal, 4g fat, 360mg sod, 57g carb,  27g sugar, 2g fiber, 5g protein
(original) 304 cal, 10 g fat, 50 g carb, 2 g fiber, 4 g protein.