Day 25: Blueberry Pie

Last night was Sunday, more than a week after we took home the five-pound box of blueberries from the farmers' market. The Husband had been threatening -- arms folded across his chest, foot tapping -- to use them for blueberry muffins if I didn't make good on my word and turn them into a pie. For the love of g-d, man! This is what it's like to live with a person who wants to cook more than you do. You have beat them off with tongs for a decent shot at the provisions! So, I leg-wrestled him and won, and thus the glorious work of edible art you see before you. It wasn't easy. For starters, I had the bright idea of going out for dinner to Katsu, one of my favorite sushi restaurants in Chicago. We came home stuffed and bloated with sodium (chirashi, ramen, tempura, agedashi tofu, gyoza -- we're curing our stomachs from the inside out). Then, after putting the kids to bed, I had only one hour before the start of my favorite guilty pleasure, "Rock of Love," the VH1 trash reality show starring Bret Michaels, the lead singer for one of history's more forgettable hair bands, Poison. He's trying to find true love and the young ladies vying for his heart seem to be either exotic dancers, alcoholics, or hairstylists. I can't turn away! Luckily, Isabella and I had made the crust dough in the morning; all I had to do was roll it out. So, I'm in a race against time, rolling-pin-a-blur, when Isabella comes out of her bedroom. "I don't want to go to school tomorrow," she says, big, fat tears pooling in her eyes. Oh! The Husband and I spend 20 minutes or so talking her down as my partially rolled out pie crust lies wilting under the hot task light in the kitchen.

Well, let's just say that I performed a small miracle and it came out great. Big thanks goes to Gourmet magazine for the fabulous recipe (available here). The recipe is called "Deep-Dish Wild Blueberry Pie," but wild blueberries are not crucial. The recipe is killer for two reasons: the pie filling uses only brown sugar, and the crust employs the frissage method of distributing the fat for extra flakiness. Follow the recipe to the letter and men will start proposing marriage.

Ala mode and YUMMY.