Nelson and I went berrypicking again today at Butler’s Orchard in Maryland.
Beautiful sunny day–warm, but there was a breeze so it wasn’t too bad out there. It was the end of the blueberry season, but we still managed to pick six pounds or so. We ate some of them on buckwheat pancakes with sliced banana for dinner.
Don’t have any pictures of the blackberries, but we got a decent number of those too–four pounds, I think. Half of them I think we ate while picking, though. :p
I didn’t used to think I liked blackberries all that much. The ones you get in the store tend to be tart with a lot of pithy stuff. There’s a reason for that. Blackberries that are truly ripe are IMPOSSIBLE to transport. There’s no way you could reliably put them in grocery stores. Even just taking them off the plant and putting them in the bucket tends to make them fall apart. So Nelson and I ended up selectively eating most of the ripest berries. And–my God–there is nothing more delicious than a truly ripe sun-warmed blackberry. They are amazing. Nelson likes the not-quite-as-ripe ones that we brought home too, but for me the whole point of pick-your-own blackberries is so you can eat them right there, right off the vine.
On Friday the Scripps Store managers had a dinner potluck where we each did one of the courses. I was responsible for the entree. Inspired by this beautiful herb bread that was featured on BoingBoing, I decided to make something tasty that could have decorative herbs on top. Logically, I made a couple of pot pies.
Stuff:
- 1 15oz can mixed veggies, drained (if I were making it again, I’d do it fresh with a bunch of peas, carrots, and spinach, but I was doing a double recipe and dumping in cans was easy)
- 1 10.75 oz can cream of potato soup
- about 1 cup skim milk
- about 6oz low-fat meatless meat (whichever, I used fake ground beef, fake chicken would probably be tasty too)
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 T parsley, minced (herbs should be fresh if possible)
- 1 t thyme
- 1/2 t sage
- 1 t rosemary
- 1/2 t salt (I was using a purloined salt shaker so this is hardly exact)
- 1 t? black pepper (also a shaker, heck if I know)
- 2 9-in frozen pie crusts, at least partially thawed (one should be the roll-out kind, I gave myself a hell of a paper cut trying to get cut one out of the tin and onto the pie)
- 1 egg
- Fresh herbs for decoration
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (Conveniently enough, the same temperature needed for the chocolate pecan pie we had for dessert!)
2. In a medium bowl, combine potato soup, mixed vegetables, meatless meat, milk, garlic, herbs, salt, and black pepper.
3. Dump filling into bottom pie crust. Cover with top crust; squish edges together to seal.
4. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have a bowl of ice water nearby.
5. Put decorative herbs into the boiling water for a few seconds, then put them into the ice water. Pat dry with towels. Try to get them unwrinkled.
6. Beat the egg. Slit top crust, brush on beaten egg, arrange herbs, and brush more egg on.
7. Bake for 40 minutes and.or until crusty and golden brown. Remove from oven without burning yourself, cool, and dig in!
