I’m kind of like Casper the Friendly Ghost. (Except for the friendly part.) Basically, I’m pale. Like if new fallen snow and bleached wool had a child, that would be me. (I guess that makes me cold and itchy????) Any way, today I went to an event at the Alafia River Rendezvous. It’s a super-old-fashion reenactment meets flea market kind of place: lots of clothing and items from early America. We spent about 5 hours walking around outside. In the Florida sun. Translation: I’m no longer Casper. I’m more like the Cool-Aid-Man.
Except for the sun, I was excited. I enjoy flea markets and old stuff. I especially like the foods that are available. Ok, I’ll be honest, I’m mostly excited about the foods.
We spent the morning walking from vendor to vendor as people dressed like George Washington and Betsy Ross were trying to sell us felt hats and $300 coats. Seriously. They were beautiful though.
Finally we got close enough to lunch that we could begin our foody conquest. (And by “we”, I do mean my parents and I.) I purchased a giant bottle of root beer to drink with lunch. It was pretty good. It lacked that initial punch that root beer usually has. The after taste had a pleasant vanilla note. It was nice and soft.
One of the shops we had passed was selling an “elk chili”. (Don’t get me started on chili….) We got a bowl of the elk chili and gave it a try. It was full of beans and elk meat. I was hoping the elk would taste a little more “gamey” or “wild”, but it wasn’t. It did taste a little different, but it wasn’t worth writing home about. (Apparently it was enough to blog about though……..)
Our next food endeavor was for a “roast beef sundae”. Hmmmm. (I neglected to take a picture of it. I’m sure you are beside yourself with grief.) It was two scoops of mashed potatoes, roast beef, gravy, cheese, and a cherry tomato. The potatoes were from a box, sadly, the roast beef and gravy were lacking in flavor altogether, and there wasn’t enough cheese to make up for the short comings of everything else. For shame.
Lastly we went for dessert. You can’t go wrong with a deep fried pie, right?. We tried three flavors: cherry, apple, and blue berry. The dough/crust was really yummy. It was a yeast based crust that was rolled in cinnamon sugar. Happy thoughts. The fruit filling was……straight out of a can. No added spices. No extra sugar. Just fruit from a can. Strike three.
But the crust was good. (ok, strike two and a half)
On the upside, I found a really cool silver tea service that I’m going to use for a play I’m producing at school.
On the down side, I’m burned. I’m red like a lobster. There is literal heat radiating from my body. And not in the good way.
Good news prevails yet again however. I’m making a cake tonight. Happy day!
But wait. I’m burning up from a sun burn. The oven will be a tool of torture. The day just gets better and better.
Long live sunburns and Americana. Something about that chili………….

There Is Enough

You Are Lovable and Capable

Bake it into a pie

Serve it up to all you know

 The World will be a sweeter place!

~

Some of the best Light Words I know.

I had them on a sign in my home for years.

Happy to pass them on to you.

]]> http://saffronstreaks.com/2011/10/18/blueberry-pie-in-autumn/ Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:18:20 +0000 saffronstreaks http://saffronstreaks.com/2011/10/18/blueberry-pie-in-autumn/ http://mirgraphy.com/2011/04/16/blue-berry-pie-and-getting-back-into-nature/ Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:33:31 +0000 YW http://mirgraphy.com/2011/04/16/blue-berry-pie-and-getting-back-into-nature/

So I have started doing a bit of baking again. The cold weather and the presence of someone with a very sweet tooth around means there is human garbage can  I can feed my failed attempts to.

I had my eye on Bill Granger’s recipe for Blue Berry Pie recipe from his “Feed Me Now” book for a while. Through various reasons, I never had enough butter to make the buttery pastry. I finally bought the required 360gm of butter on the weekend and out comes the rolling pin.

Blueberry pie recipe

Pastry
500g plain flour
60g icing sugar
1 pinch of sea salt
360g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed (can and should be reduced to 300g)
130 ml soured cream (I used normal cream)

Filling
500g blueberries
115g caster sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 tbs cornflour
2 medium egg yolks, lightly beaten (I find 1 was more than enough)
2 tbs white or demerara sugar

To serve
pouring custard, cream or vanilla ice cream

Directions
To make the pastry, sift the pastry ingredients into a bowl. Add butter and rub with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add cream and mix until dough comes together into a ball. Divide the dough in half, shape into balls and wrap each one in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using. If you leave it for longer they turn into frozen butter balls.

Preheat the oven to 200 degree. Unwrap one pastry ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 4mm thick round. Use to line a 23cm pie tin, lightly pressing the pastry into the corners, then trim the edge. Roll out the other pastry ball to a similar round and place on a board. Place the pie tin in the freezer for at least 15 minutes to set. Cover the other pastry sheet with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

For the filling, toss the blueberries with the caster sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and cornflour. Scatter evenly in the pastry case. Brush the rum of the pastry case with egg yolk, then lay the pastry round on top to cover the pie and press the pastry edges firmly together to seal, then crimp the rim with a fork dipped in flour.

Brush the top with egg yolk, sprinkle with sugar and make 5 small incisions in the pie lid. Stand the pie tin on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 170 degrees and bake for a further 35 minutes or until golden.

Allow the pie to cool before serving with ice cream.

The end result was an incredibly buttery , almost too buttery for my liking. It took me a lot longer to bake the pie in my old electric oven and there was a point when I thought the blue berry filling would explode. Thankfully that didn’t happen and the end result was quite satisfying. Gooey and warm in the inside, crustily flaky on the outside.

I haven’t added gardening to my repertoire, but I just realised how much I missed taking my camera out and start taking photos of the most beautiful mundane objects. There is a little garden growing on a balcony sprouting baby vegetables that I have been watching for a bit. The gardener is not having much look so far and only the tiniest of vegetables are growing. Right now I have miniature carrots in my bridge, and not quite sure what to do with them…

]]> http://myfriendsatroxyann.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/salem-sj-article-blueberry-pie-roxyann-late-harvest-viognier/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:14:33 +0000 myfriendsatroxyann http://myfriendsatroxyann.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/salem-sj-article-blueberry-pie-roxyann-late-harvest-viognier/ The Salem Statesman Journal just gave us a nice review in pairing our Late Harvest Viognier with blueberry pie on June 17th.

Pairing: Blueberry Pie

— Annette Solomon

June 17, 2009
The perfect accompaniment to a pie is a delicate, un-oaked,
late-harvest, white wine that isn’t too sweet. RoxyAnn Winery,
in Southern Oregon, produces a prime example of such a
late-harvest viognier. The wine’s flavors of nutmeg and
cinnamon echo the warm spices in the dessert, while the fruit
flavors do not overpower the berries.